Causes, gains, and losses - The Catcher in the Rye

I had to spend a little time over this question, because finding the conflict in The Catcher in the Rye was not easy and I still really do not know if there was a major conflict.  The conflict that jumps out at me was Holden's struggle to do well in school.  This could be the the conflict because it leads to the rest of the story.  If he does well in school, there is no book.  So if this indeed is the conflict, the major cause is Holden does not do very well in classes.  He only passes one out of his five classes (Salinger, 6).  That could be a huge cause for him not liking school.  If I were doing that bad in school, it would be very easy for me to just flunk out and stop going to school, and that is what Holden did.  Another thing that could maybe relate to his struggle, was that the phonies in his school drove him crazy.  He hated to see people pretending to be someone they are not, and this may have related somehow and someway to his struggle in school. Like in a job, if you do not like the people you work with, it is going to show in your performance.  Unfortunately, we have to find ways to get through these obstacles.
The gains out of the conflict are few and far between.  What did he really gain out of doing poorly in school?  He got to leave early and spend time with his sister.  That could be one, I guess.  Another gain that could possibly come out of this problem, was that he got to learn about what the world was like when he spent three days by himself.  He got to see how people operated on a daily life, and it showed him that life is tough in the real world.  This was a very tough question to answer, and I kind of winged it, but after looking over what I wrote, I am okay with how I answered it.

Bibliography

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print.