Examples Of Phony In Catcher In The Rye

Imagine a person constantly lying to get through the world, lying to themselves just to keep themselves in a relatively good state of mind. But they don’t always realize it. Throughout the novel Catcher in the Rye, Holden, the narrator if the story, is one of those people. Holden will often believe that what he says is honest, but as the story progresses, readers can tell that not all that he mentions is all true. In J.D.Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s lies are to protect himself and others and keep himself out the wrong because he is worried about his own survival.

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

Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to find the true from of himself as he struggles with the social interactions around him. Due to the struggle and confusion that arouses from it,

So these memories have clustered in his mind. Now, Holden wants to even try and erase his mind of the thoughts of the people he cannot trust. To Holden, especially, to trust someone means to understand someone. The only people Holden can, or used to trust are Allie, Phoebe and his brother D.B. So the way J.D. Salinger has illustrated his book of how Holden thinks is that Holden rejects everyone who is phony or fake. So the definition of phony, to Holden is some one that he distrusts. Holden thinks Mr. Antolini is a phony because he just cannot seem to understand him. Also he thinks that the Show-off piano player was phony because he can't understand what exactly he was playing so Holden cannot trust him, therefore the piano player is a phony.

I like how Salinger shows the phoniness of the adult world. “Phony” is probably the most used word in this novel. It means fake. Holden always uses this word to describe adulthood. In Chapter 22, he criticizes people around him as phony. “It was one of the worst schools I ever went to. It was full of phonies. And mean guys.” (Salinger, 167). Although Holden is phony himself and doesn’t self-reflect, in a sense, his judgement

This directly correlates with Holden’s dubbing of many people, practices, or labeling things as “phony.” He refers to the school and each of the students individually as “phony,” and calling out, “Sleep tight, ya morons!”(59) when he leaves Pencey for the last time. This demonstrates Holden’s use of “phoniness” to describe anything that doesn’t meet his

For example, in chapter 10, when Holden is staying at a New York City hotel, he goes to the Lavender Room and encounters three girls, Bernice, whom he is attracted to, Marty, and Laverne. A rare moment in the story as Holden steps up to interact with the opposite gender, asking them for a dance and a good time. To Holden’s misfortune, the girls don’t seem interested in him as they find his actions amusing. Phoniness is also present when Marty says she saw Gary Cooper, a movie star, in efforts to lie and impress others based off something that never happened. Holden thinks that the girls are coarse and rude, as they are looking out for celebrities instead of engaging in conversation. Holden is offended by their ‘phoniness’ and finds them pathetic. Although Holden has such a low opinion of these girls, he continues to seek for their company, in the end, dancing with the three of them. This example shows the extent to which others excluding Holden can truly be phony and not usually just exaggerated by Holden. But Holden, himself, also shows phony traits, that gives the reader a hypocritical, but true form of himself. Holden is able to

The first reason why Holden lies a lot is in order to cover up his past and create a new him, he is angry and depressed about his brothers death. He is too scared to face reality so he chooses to lie in order to create a new version of himself. In The story Holden meets the mother of Ernest Morrow during his journey to New York She asks “May I ask your name, dear?” Holden replies “Rudolf Schmidt” Holden told her the name of the janitor of his dorm because he “didn’t feel like covering up his whole life story”(8.9-13). The interesting part about this quote is that there was no reason for Holden to lie, He really has not done anything bad enough to not tell the truth. It was his fault he got expelled from pencey but he does not want Mrs Morrow to know that. Instead Holden decides to make his lie even worse by telling her that he has a brain tumor, and that is why he is heading home early from Pencey. He

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.

This theme is a major literary catalyst in the novel and in the life of Holden. The term “Phony” is used 44 times and through Holden’s perspective, the word is used to describe everything he dislikes about people. This, however, is a huge contradiction because he fails to recognize that he is a phony himself. He is hypocritical and doesn’t realize his own ‘phoniness.’ Holden says in chapter 3 he is “the most terrific liar he has ever met.” This is a central contradiction since he spends a great amount of time in the story stating how much he loathes “phonies.” Holden hates it when anyone is insincere and less than truthful with him, but he tells lies throughout the book to almost everyone he encounters. Even though his deceptions aren’t true and often times are unkind and fiendish, he is nothing less than a phony himself. Holden is convinced that everyone is phony mainly because he believes the world is simple and that everyone should be as innocent and honest as children are. “I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera.” (Chapter 3, sentence one). Holden is an example that the world isn’t as simple as he would like it to be. The fact that he is a liar himself, makes the world he conceptualizes to be

He even mentioned himself as “the most terrific liar” (ch3, pg19). It makes reader feel like not only he didn't felt bad for lying, but he also thinks that it's fun to lie. Moreover, there are several times that Holden ‘judges’ every person that he saw; whether it's his roommate, his date, or any person that he walks by. He called everyone ‘phony’ and he think that he wanted to get away from all the ‘phonies’ around him. However, Holden himself is actually a ‘phony’ because he always lied and fake in front of other, but he seems like he never notice that at all. Like when he met Ms. Morrow on the train, he lied about his name by telling her that his name is “Rudolf Schmidt” instead of Holden (pg 61). He did also tell Ms. Morrow that her son is doing very well in school, getting along so well with others, and is “one of the most popular boys at Pencey” (pg 63); however in his thought he known that reality isn’t like that. In his mind when Ms. Morrow said that her son, Ernest, is “a very sensitive boy” (pg 62); Holden thought was describing Ernest that he is “as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat.”(pg 62). At the scene when Holden went to a date with Sally, Holden also showed his negative judgement by describing girls that were around there that some of them had “terrific legs...lousy legs”(pg 137). Also he pre-judged that “most of them would probably marry dopey guys…. Guys that are very boring” (pg 137); however he didn’t seems to realize that he can’t even be that charming, nice, and wonderful date for

The relationship between Holden and the "phonies" shows how Holden despise the society at first. Whenever he meets people he thinks they are "phony" he would criticize them. For instance during the intermission of the play, the conversation between Sally and George

Most of the people Holden considers phony are adults. He see’s most adults as phony because the things they do. Holden will always see adults as phony because he

And so, Holden left school planning to spend some time on his own in New York City, where he lives. On the train to New York, Holden meets a mother of his fellow Pencey student. Though he thinks that this student is a complete “bastard”, he tells a woman made-up stories about her son. He lied to the woman. But lying to others is also a kind of phoniness, right? A type of deception that indicates insensitivity or even cruelty. Holden proves that he is just guilty of phoniness as the people he criticizes.

Holden's phony addiction gets him into trouble at school. Holden looks for the flaws in everyone and tries to eliminate that person he sees as a threat, such as when Holden decides to face off against the phony Stradlater after Stradlater's date with Jane. Holden also thinks every teacher is a phony who pretends to be helpful to students. If Holden has trouble in school he does not seek help from his peers because he believes that they are phonies. Hence this point is tied into one of the reasons he is kicked out of Pencey, failing four out of five courses. Holden's avoidance of things phony is very strong and he has a one-track mind. It is either his way or the highway, this is another example of how Holden's phony problem hinders his chance at full maturity. Holden is so scared