<sod>The novel takes place over three days in December 1949. <eod>
<sod>The novel takes place over three days in December 1949. Holden Caulfield is a 16 year old boy from New York City. He recently flunked out of prestigious boarding schools because he doesn't apply himself. Holden tells the story from a [[tuberculosis]] rest home. Many readers today tend to assume that Holden attends to a psychiatric facility, but that's not actually true. Holden tells us in the end of the first chapter that he "practically got TB" and "had to come here for all these check-ups". Certainly, he does speak with a psychoanalyst in this facility who encourages him to write this story. However, he gets sick because he spends three days, just before Christmas, roaming around New York City, sleeping very little, smoking and drinking a lot, with no winter coat and in a state of intense emotional distress. So it is true that his emotional problems partly lead to the breakdown of his health. <eod>