Examples Of Phony In Catcher In The Rye

J.D Salinger gives his personal vision of the world successfully through his character Holden Caulfield in, “the Catcher in the Rye”. Caulfield struggles with his thoughts and feelings of New York to portray Salinger’s theme, you must live the world as it is, not as you would like it to be. Holden Caulfield uses the word “phony” many times throughout this book. Holden is judgmental to every person he meets or encounters. Even though Holden claims that others are being phony he is hypocritical because he is phony as well. The ‘catcher in the Rye’ is a good example of a troubled kid trying to find his own character in the world. Salinger’s view of the world is lived out through Holden’s character. The novel is Holden’s steam of conscience as he introduces his feelings on people being “phonies”. At the start of the novel in chapter two Holden says, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies” (Salinger pg. 17). This is an important part for the theme because this is the first time in the book

Though he is very concerned with people being phony, he realizes there is no way around their phoniness. In the text it states, “You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose” (Salinger pg. 225). At this part in the story Holden is accepting his struggle of people in the world being phony. It’s the world that he lives in and instead of fighting it all the time he wants to help make it better for others. Holden’s focus seems to shift at this point to a concern over how to keep the world of children innocent. This indicates a character change in Holden that has resulted from his experiences. He now sees that there's less to be gained in criticizing phonies than there is to be in saving and developing