The book The Catcher in the Rye is a story of internal conflicts and the shallowness of adulthood. The main character, Holden, is struggling to maintain his strong voice of innocence in a fight only involving himself. One of the many reasons for Holden’s emotional devastation is the death of his younger brother Allie. Allie passed away three years earlier from leukemia and this of course highly affected Holden’s mental state at the time even if he didn’t know it. Salinger’s tone held the most importance of this book. He gives it a very pessimistic and cynical attitude. Since Holden sees everything in such a negative manner, he refers to almost everyone except for his sister, Phoebe, as a phony. He instantly gives everyone he meets the title of a phony. As he is on the topic of an all boys school, he refers to it as “full of phonies” (page 131). Salinger has given Holden such a negative outlook that almost everything that comes out of Holden’s mouth is negative. He also referably doesn’t have a filter. Having no filter is just Holden not thinking about what he is about to say or not holding back any of his feelings. …show more content…
The fact that Holden calls everyone a phony, when he is the biggest phony himself. He starts off chapter 3 by stating “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” (page 16). He spends some time in the novel talking about how good of a liar he is. This refers back to him holding onto his childhood innocence. Children, especially lie all the time but usually about the smallest things, whether it be about candy or a toy. Holden carries on this trait by being a compulsive liar at age 16. After bragging about how much of a liar he is, he then tells the readers to “trust him”. Holden vented about how much he hated Sally but then continued to ask her on a date; which would be an example of situational
Another person can decide whether or not they want to be around a person when taking into consideration what they have said or done in the past. In the novel, The Catcher in The Rye, the main theme is every action you make contributes to developing who you are as a person. Lying is an action that helps shape Holden into a deceitful and comedic person. There are many situations in the novel where he lies to entertain himself, such as meeting the mother of one of his classmates from Pencey, Ernie Morrow.
He often lies and makes up excuses to get out of situations. He states, “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” (16). Holden lies to escape reality and cover up his real self. It is easier for him to lie than tell the truth because then he can control the situation.
Although everything is understandable, much of Holden's slang and wording feels dated and old. Holden uses the term “Phoniness” and “phony” along the book to depict the adult world as superficial and hypocritical. This word feels dated for the modern teenager and would probably be adapted to a more contemporary and relatable word: poser. The word phony has lost its place in modern teenager vocabulary. Along the book, it is also possible to spot obsolete slang words commonly used.
Holden lies as a result of his depression, in order to hide the fact that he’s lonely and bored with his life, to divert any questions which he believes are too personal, and to create his own reality. In this way, Salinger illustrates how, during difficult times, people resort to lying as a coping mechanism. In the beginning of the story, Holden lied to divert questions in order to protect his personal information.
Whenever Holden comments on other people, he calls them “phony” in order to distance himself emotionally and isolate his feelings. Even when talking about his sister Phoebe, with whom he holds the strongest emotional bond, he simply says she would “feel pretty bad if [Holden died]. She likes [Holden] a lot.” (173). In the instances Holden finds himself unable to insult a particular relationship to discourage himself from becoming attached,
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield tells us his story of his life. Holden is an interesting person, who has many emotions throughout his story. Throughout most of the novel, Holden is very depressed and at times suicidal. Holden tends to reflect a lot on his brother, Allie’s death. Holden is very ungrateful and seems to complain about every incident he goes through.
Catcher in the Rye In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes. Holden learns multiple life changing lessons; one of them is you must grow up. In the beginning of the novel, Holden starts out as “that kid”; the one with the parents who expect him to get into an ivy league school, and end up with a kid with no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of the book it is very apparent that Holden lacks motivation; he also has hit rock bottom.
He takes the reader on a journey over a few days from him leaving the school to roaming the streets of New York. The question is Holden a Phony often pops into the minds of the reader. Holden is a phony because he is a hypocrite who does things that he criticize others for. He is a phony because he pretends to be someone that he is not,
The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger in 1951, is the story of an angst-ridden sixteen year old Holden Caulfield as he learns to deal with growing up. The story follows Holden through his three day experience through New York as he learns about the truth about innocence, sex, and mortality, making The Catcher in the Rye one of America’s most notable coming-of-age stories. One of the largest influences on Holden’s life was his younger brother Allie who died from leukemia at age eleven when Holden was thirteen. The death of Holden’s brother had a profound effect on Holden emotional state, which eventually caused his complete mental breakdown by the end of the novel.
Holden observes that the actor is trying to act modest and like no one is staring at him, even though people are clearly watching him. Holden finds this phony because this actor is trying to act like a good modest person, but Holden knows that he is cocky. This phoniness intrigues Holden because he is able to forget about the disappointments in his life and focus on the impurities of someone else’s
Sobrado, 1 Alexandra Sobrado 1B August 30, 2016 Who Runs the World...? Phoniness Holden Caulfield has a unique way of thinking, when he sees people he instantly begins to think they are phony. Throughout the whole book Holden calls everybody a phony, he thinks that everybody is fake. One example is Ackley. He begins to tell everybody about his summer and how he almost hooked up with a girl.
His definition of phony comes across either as someone who is fake in their actions and follows the status quo so to speak. Holden has jumped from boarding school to boarding school throughout his life and his hatred for this fakeness is part of that. “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window.”
It 's awful” (19). Again, Holden says that he’s a “terrific” liar although he’s an “awful” liar. Holden doesn’t make the observation here because he’s denying the truth. Holden isn’t reliable because his observations is inaccurate and the readers has to interpret what he
It is the “phoniness” he wants to blame. Salinger used “phony” this word many times in the book and is one of the most famous word from “The Catcher in the Rye” and it accurately describes the human nature of most adults’. During Holden’s three-day-trip in New York, he has met and encountered with many characters who are pretentious and fake, from Mr. Spencer to Luce and Sally. In society people have to lie or be “phony” just to socialize, or impress someone. Holden is a judgemental person who keeps observing other people’s phoniness but never notices them in himself.
In the beginning of the novel Salinger portrays Holden as a antisocial person who is often seen alone and describes the world as a “ world full of phonies” one example of this is at the beginning of the book wherein the