Why do you think the author wrote this story? What is his most important message?

I think the author wrote this story because he wanted to bring attention to things that were troubling him in  adolescence and during the time the novel was wrote. J.D Salinger does this as a form of therapy because no one has helped him with his problems and now he needs a outlet to try to save himself. The novel talks about running away to Vermont, this is a idea that Holden has and asks Sally to go with him. This is something that Salinger does himself. The novel is written about himself because he needed a way to tell people about his problems. During the time of the novel there was very little information about mental health and Salinger knew that he has something wrong but he did not know what.

He wrote the novel to show that pain can also be on the inside, in your mind, not just on the outside. His most important message is that mental health is a real thing. Like I said earlier there was little to no mental health awareness, so not many people knew that mental health was even a thing. He may not have known exactly what it was or what he had, but he knew something was wrong and wanted to share his problems to add more awareness to the issue of mental health.