Examples Of Phony In Catcher In The Rye

In the book the Catcher in the Rye we follow the character Holden Caulfield who finds himself struggling with the realities of the adult world. He’s 17 years old and he’s lost his brother, someone he had a lot of respect for. Ever since, he has had trouble applying himself to his school work and social life. He believes that anyone who is not a child has lost their innocence and succumbs to the phon+iness of the world. Since Holden does not like the perceived phoniness of the world, he establishes a wall of lying and deception in order to distance himself from what he refuses to become, which makes Holden the biggest phony of them all. Throughout the book we see Holden criticizing people who he believes to be phony. In J.D. Salinger’s novel the Catcher in the Rye Holden states, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all” (19). He left a school simply because he thought everyone was fake. Holden obsesses about other people’s phoniness to the point where it makes him sick. “It was the phoniest conversation you ever heard in your life. They both kept thinking of places as fast as they could. I was set to

“In the first place, I hate actors. They never act like people” (Salinger 152). In Holden’s attempt to disconnect himself from other people he puts on an act. He’s immature and pretends he is someone he’s not. Even though he hates the idea of actors, he continues to act like one. In order to avoid becoming a phony he displays acts that he himself would call phony. Holden breaks every mental rule that he sets for other people. He lies and doesn’t apply himself to school even though he has to mental capacity to do so. “I thought I do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I would have to have any stupid useless conversations with anybody” (Salinger 257). The only alternative Holden sees to phoniness is to put up a front that’s