In J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, from where does the story's protagonist, Holden Caufield, originate?

During the course of J.D. Salinger’s classic novel of youthful alienation and subtle rebellion, The Catcher in the Rye, the reader is given a number of clues as to the protagonist and narrator’s home. What the reader discovers is that Holden Caufield is telling his story from the confines of a residence in or around Los Angeles, California, but that he is originally from New York City, and attended preparatory schools in New England and, most recently, in Pennsylvania. The California residence is, we can surmise, some kind of hospital or mental facility, as Holden notes the following with regard to his current status and his location:

“I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. He's in Hollywood. That isn't too far from this crumby place, and he comes over and visits me practically every week end. He's going to drive me home when I go home next month maybe.”

So, we know from the outset that Holden is relating his story from someplace to which he was sent to “take it easy,” and that this place is geographically close to Hollywood, where his brother resides and from where his brother is able to easily visit. With regard to the location from which Holden has fled, following yet another lackluster experience at a presumably pricy preparatory school, we can focus on the setting for much of Salinger’s story, Pencey Prep, the “school that's in Agerstown, Pennsylvania.” Agerstown is a fictional stand-in for the myriad northeastern rural locations where such prep schools are often located. Salinger, in fact, had attended Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, a rather bucolic area of Delaware County in the eastern-most part of the state. Pencey Prep, therefore, represents the kind of schools attended by the novel’s author.

With respect to Holden’s home, this part is simple. In the novel’s opening chapter, the young narrator states the following:

“I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go.”

Obviously, we can conclude from the above quote that Holden’s family resides in Manhattan, in the middle of which sits Central Park, apparently walking distance to the Caulfield residence. We also know, from later in the novel, that Holden’s parents routinely drive into nearby Connecticut, as his sister, Phoebe, informs him at one point: "They (Holden’s parents) won't be home till very late . . . They went to a party in Norwalk, Connecticut.”

In conclusion, then, we know that Holden is narrating his story from a facility in or around Los Angeles, that he attended preparatory school in Pennsylvania, and that his home is in Manhattan, New York City, New York State.