Examples Of Phony In Catcher In The Rye

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Trying to Save the Future Generation

You see at least one adult everyday in your life. The thing is, do you know if they are phony? Well in Holden’s perspective, almost every teenager and adult he has ever met is “phony”. “How would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn't” states Holden. In the Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger includes many different times when Holden is trying his best protecting the innocence of kids. Holden’s view on everybody as phony urges him to save the innocence of children because they have the qualities that most adults don’t have.

In the novel, Holden loves children. This is shown when he sees them on the street. For

For example, Holden loves the museum but there is one thing he loves the most, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. …Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that exactly. You'd just be different, that's all” (135). Holden likes the Natural History museum because, it always stayed the same, even though he was changing. This represent how he does not like change, which includes the change of childhood to

It sounded like a real kid. You'd think a prostitute and all would say ‘Like hell you are’ or ‘Cut the crap’ instead of ‘Like fun you are’ (105-106). Holden sees that Sunny is still to innocent because she does not do things that prostitutes normally will. Holden decides not do anything with her because he views her as a teenage girl, which is considered a kid, and does not want to take the little innocence she has away from her. Also, when Holden goes to Phoebe’s school to try to get a note to her, Holden discovers something, “But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody'd written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them – all cockeyed, naturally – what it meant...I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn't come off.” (221-222). Holden believes that when kids are exposed to all of this dirtiness, they will get tainted. Holden tries really hard to wipe out the ‘“Fuck you”s because he does not want the kids to lose their innocence at an early