The inciting incident of the book Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caufield flunking out of his prep school for the fourth time. From the beginning, it is obvious that Holden's poor performance in school is deliberate; despite the excuses that he gives to his teachers, he often reads educational books, and is also very good at writing, at odds to his poor performance in History. Despite writing a terrible essay for Mr. Spencer (which is part of the reason he is being kicked out of Pencey), he is able to come up with a thoughtful composition for Stradlater (which he wouldn't receive any credit on). He does poorly in school because he only wants to learn things for the sake of learning-- he doesn't want to learn it for 'phony' reasons like recognition from teachers or having good grades. Holden only displays his knowledge when it won't bring him any sort of recognition or praise so that he can make sure that he is staying true to his ideals. Holden sees doing work t