Phoniness is Holden’s way of describing all of the superficiality, dissimulation, and pretension that he encounters in the world around him. Holden believes that inevitably, adults are phonies who can never see their own phoniness and his observations aren’t entirely inaccurate. He is so aware of the behavior of those surrounding him and throughout the novel he does encounter multiple characters who seem to meet Holden’s prediction of inevitable phoniness like Sally Hayes, Carl Luce and Maurice and Sunny. Phoniness for Holden stands as a symbol for everything that is wrong in his world and gives him an excuse to withdraw himself from it.