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Catcher In The Rye Society Analysis

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Society as a whole is something you make of it. If one wants to denounce the society they live in because it is “phony” that is because they’ve made the world around them phony. The character of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye is a prime example of someone being stuck in the idea that society is unchanging. Society is just how a person perceives the world in front of them. The eye of the beholder is the one that creates the society of their choice. Therefore, in the end of Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield is the problem, not society, but this is not a surprise because Holden is the most overly narcissistic and selfish characters to ever have the unwarranted and unnecessary fortune of having an entire book written about him. Holden’s perceptions of the world around him say more about him being the problem than society being the problem. Society is what people make of it, if a person surrounds themselves with counterfeit people than their society will appear to be counterfeit to them. Holden constantly complains about society and the world around him, it’s always too much for him, it’s always forgery. “I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff,...” (Salinger 51). Holden’s observation is discussing that people often lie when leaving a conversation or when saying hello to people, Holden claims that he hates when people say they are glad to see you because they do not mean it.
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