'The Catcher in the Rye' and childhood influences on writing

Since reading 'The Catcher in the Rye' as a teenager, then later as an adult and remembering reading it to my own teenage children, I have been fascinated by the protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

A little of my own childhood was spent 'living-in' in a school for emotionally disturbed boys where my father taught and, where as a small girl I was schooled, by the boys, to swear in rhyme.

These childhood influences, I am sure, come to bear when you write your own novel.  Hence, my  protagonist 'Tony Goodbody' in the novel 'Maz and Me' was created, a complex character aged thirty, with affinities to Holden Caulfield.  He begins his journey battling his sarcastic impulses and lack of direction. His observations are humorous and graphic, but with the guidance of an older woman (to whom he is attracted), he reaches some maturation. 

Holden Caulfield wanted to be a 'catcher in the rye', to protect children from the less than good side of adults and, in the book, he explains this idea to his little sister Phoebe.  It intrigues me, and I wonder how Holden Caulfield would have matured and what kind of adult he would have become.........