Holden faces challenges with growing up, adulthood, loneliness, alienation, death and mortality. He struggles with his relationships and feels that most people are "phony." He constructs different realities to cope, such as pretending to be shot and bleeding out, wanting to be "The Catcher in the Rye" to save children, planning to run away with Sally, pretending to be deaf, and imagining confrontations with people who have upset him. These constructions allow him to feel in control and deal with his depression, anxiety and sense of disconnect from the world around him.