Catcher In The Rye Life's Labyrinth

The irony of Holden detesting phoniness and adulthood is that he acts so much like an adult with his curiosity and experience with alcohol and sex that he misses his own opposition. Holden hates the responsibility, morality, and accountability of being an adult and embraces childhood. This contradicts everything that he desires and to want to take part in. This causes his own corruption and enables a failure to relate to himself.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity. Holden also has a negative perspective of life that makes things seem worse than they really are. In addition to Holden’s problems he is unable to accept the death of his brother at a young age. Holden’s immaturity, negative mentality, and inability to face reality hold him back from moving into adulthood.

Holden defines phony as hypocrites, condescending people, liars, and conceited people. He left Elkton Hills because he didn’t like being surrounded by a bunch of phonies. Holden mentions Mr. Haas, the headmaster at Elkton Hills, as “the phonies bastard I ever met in my life,” (Salinger 13). Holden explained that Mr. Haas would go around shaking parents hands on Sundays, but when he sees a very strange person, he would shake their hands and leave to talk to other people. Holden calls Mr. Haas phony because he judges people on how they look. Although he calls others a phony, Holden’s a phony himself because he lies about himself and others. If Holden doesn’t like phonies, then he doesn’t accept himself. He wants to change, so he has to lie in order to not tell the

In The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, Holden lies a lot for many reasons. Holden will lie to anyone in order to hide his past from others and create a ‘new him’, gain pitty, and entertainment. He lies to complete strangers, friends, family members, and even the person who is closest to, his sister, Phoebe. Holden hopes to create a new version of himself when he lies. He uses lying to feel good about himself and to cover up that he is depressed and sad about his brothers death. Holden considers himself a professional lier and finds himself constantly lying.

JD. Salinger’s 1951 book, The Catcher in the Rye, shows us how society treated their confused and changing teenagers during their transition into adulthood. The book’s main character Holden Caulfield is being pressured into growing up even though he doesn’t feel ready, to lead an adult life. He is still struggling socially and mourning for his deceased brother whose death turned Holden upside down and into a negative, hopeless person from a young age, which causes him to be distracted, indifferent and to flunk every school he goes to.

How would you know you weren 't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn 't." This is displayed when he is talking to Phoebe and she is talking about a boy in her class who probably likes her but she doesn 't want him to, she tells Holden that she put ink on his jacket and Holden responds to that by saying, "That isn 't nice. What are you-a child, for God 's sake?" Holden likes getting reactions from people to reassure himself of his actions. This is a parallel to what all teenagers must go through at one point in their life, the line between should I do this to please my parents, or should I do what I want to do? Holden represents every teenagers struggle for independence.

During the novel Holden lies to cover up his real feelings or as an excuse to not tell the truth. In Chapter 3 Holden says, “I’m the most terrific liar…” he continues by saying how frequently he lies to get himself out of trouble (Salinger, 2010:17). After Holden is expelled he decides to leave Pency and life it up for three days in New York because he cannot stay longer. Holden cannot go home sooner because he’s not feel like telling the truth to his parents (Salinger, 2010: 54). Holden choses to do the wrong thing because it is easier than to stay at Pency till Wednesday or to face his parents. Holden is contradictory he says, “I’m quite illiterate but I read a lot.” (Salinger, 2010:19). One cannot be illiterate if you read a lot. Holden is even more contradictory when he speaks of Allie in heaven but admitted that he is an atheist (Salinger, 2010:107). It is clear that Holden’s words and actions are contradictory when he says that the movies are phony but attends the movies a few times during the three days (Salinger, 2010:30).Holden’s character is riddled with dishonesty, wrong choices, and contradictions and true to an

Holden himself is guilty of being phony because he is hypocritical at times throughout the book. Holden is angered by the words written on the school walls because kids will see the word and later think about them.Since he believes in child innocence, he wanted the writings on the walls to be covered. Although, Holden Believes in child innocence he goes around smoking, drinking, and having close experiences with sexual activities. In the novel, he claims to hate people who repeat themselves, yet he repeats the same words over and over again throughout the book. He claims to be illiterate, yet he reads a lot. He says something, and his actions don’t relate with his words, therefore making Holden a

Holden is a phony because he lies all the time, to everyone. If he was not a phony he would be more honest and always tell the truth. Holden even admits to lying “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful” (Pg 16) Holden is self-aware of him lying, he should know he is a phony.

Holden doesn't always lie for a reason sometimes he just is bored and alone so he says stuff to people to make them pay more attention to him“They kept asking me if I was sure I could afford it and all. I told them I had quite a bit of money with me.”{Fitzgerald 59} Holden really didn't have a reason to lie to the nuns , he was trying to be nice to give and help them because they were the only people who actually listened but he still ended up lying to them. Holden even says himself he doesnt really have reasons to lie he just lies to do it “Im the most teffric liar you ever saw , in your life”{Fitzgerald 16}. He cant stop lying he just does it because he's bored.

He recognizes that children are not phonies, they say what they want, do what they want, and do not care what others think. However, he sees that adults are the exact opposite. Their world, the phony world, is something he has no interest in being part of. As a result, Holden distances himself from maturing, consequently preventing any meaningful interaction from occurring for the duration of the novel. Holden uses phoniness to define himself subconsciously. When he labels everyone around him as phony he gives himself an excuse to alienate himself from others.

The word phony is used to conformist or otherwise against his ideals. As Holden's personality is further detailed, his childish nature surfaces also. Holden's inability to adhere to the same standards with which he judges other people is a clear indication of the characters confusion. Holden is much more than a troubled teenager going through "a phase" (30). When Holden leaves Pencey, he loudly screams "sleep tight, ya morons!"

They are also likely to lie because of the bias viewpoint of the world they see. The author first mentions it when he says, “all my life, I’ve been praised for my intelligence, my powers of language, of insight” (Gluck 6-8). The author’s extensive intelligence can help him lie about what he says without making it sound fake. He would do this because just like Holden, he wants to make his story about the preservation of innocence and will lie to make it emphasize his point better. Holden is also praised for his knowledge in English by his former teacher and mentor Mr. Antolini. He is often explaining how he lies to people all throughout the story. One example occurs when he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow and made up a whole story about her son. After a few minutes of constant lying he says, “I had her in a trance...I really did’ (Salinger 73). Holden is so good at lying he can make someone hang onto every word he says. The entire story Holden could be lying to us to try and put an image of preserving innocence in our head that only he would know the true story. The intelligence that Holden and the author possess allows them to twist a story so it fits the image they want it

In J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, a young man named Holden Caulfield is on the edge of adulthood. He is a bright kid but struggles with many mental diseases mainly because of the passing of his brother Allie. This has caused him to not focus on school and has got him kicked out of many schools. He did not have many friends and he did not like many people. He thought of everyone as phony. Holden does not want to confront adulthood in fear of losing his childhood because of the fear of change, conformity to the phony world and the passing of his younger brother Allie.

Holden is a profoundly negative person, he is constantly judging other people, calling them ‘phonies’ and criticising them. For instance when he says “I was surrounded by phonies.” of his time at Elkton Hills. (CITR, 14) Throughout the novel, Holden repeatedly behaves immature and makes irresponsible and destructive decisions, even if he knows it is the wrong thing to