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Examples Of Falsity In Catcher In The Rye

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J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is the story of Holden Caulfield, a teen struggling in life. Stuck between depression, falsities and social pressures, Holden finds himself in a world of insanity. Holden Caulfield’s “search for truth in a world dominated by falsity” is never really completed. The falsity in his world is all of the “phonies.” He calls almost everyone he meets a phony, such as when he speaks of the headmaster at Elkton Hills, his old school. “Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life” (17). Phony is the word he uses to describe anyone who says things people want to hear instead of saying how they really feel. In Holden’s world of phonies, he is their leader. He says what he wants to say in his head,

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