Holton Calder, the 16-year-old high school student, is one of the earliest anti-hero images in contemporary American literature. He was born in a wealthy middle class family in New York. Teachers and parents force him to study hard in school so as to be rich enough to buy a Cadillac in future. But he doesn't like it and what he does in school is talking about girls, wine and sex, for which, he is often punished. When he is expelled from school the fourth time, he is too scared to go home. Thus he wanders alone in New York, the most bustling city in the United States for one day and two nights. He lives in a small inn, goes to nightclubs, makes girlfriends, kills time watching movies in cinema, calls a prostitute muddledly, kisses and hugs his vainglorious girlfriends. But at the same time, he is agonizing inward and attempts to run away from the world of adults. His extreme and unreconcilable mental contradictions make him break down and eventually he lies in the mental hospital.