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Examples Of Phony In Catcher In The Rye

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K. V. Nies Mr. Bret Shambaugh E10H P2 01 March 2023 The Phoniness of Adults in The Catcher in the Rye Through Holden’s story in The Catcher in the Rye, author J.D. Salinger draws many parallels to the real world. In describing his life encounters, Holden revisits one word in particular throughout his narrative: phony. Seeing as Holden is parading around New York under the guise of adulthood during the majority of the novel, it can be inferred that Holden calls much of the adult world phony due to his own fraudulent maturity. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden reduces adult mannerisms, verbiage, and adults themselves to simply being apparitions of phoniness. The novel follows Holden as he begins his descent into the adult world. With …show more content…

Throughout the course of chapter two, Holden recalls his experiences with the headmaster of Elkton Hills. He notes the unpleasant habit of his former headmaster, Mr. Haas, who was known for being partial towards good-looking parents. While Mr. Haas is noted as being courteous to “corny-looking parents,” he did not treat them with the respect he gave to more attractive parents. In Holden’s eyes, Mr. Haas’ bias towards people who appear to be put-together people makes him a phony. Holden later decides that all people who operate under this fallacy are phony. Furthermore, in chapter fifteen, Holden and Sally are planning to go out on a date. Since dating is perceived as being an adult activity, Holden feels inclined to hold himself to higher standards of maturity. As their date progresses, Sally and Holden’s dialogue eventually concludes with Sally saying “Grand,” which is a word that Holden claims to hate because it sounds pretentious and phony. Although he never explains his bizarre repulsion to the word, Holden insinuates that people use it to feign interest, and, as previously stated, Holden believes dishonesty is a hallmark of phony people. Finally, Holden refers to multiple adults he encounters in the “real world” as phonies. In

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747 Words | 3 Pages

1.In the previous past chapters and Holden acts more like child than an adult. Holden seems to call adults phonies and doesn’t really call children phonies. It 's immaterial to me," she said. "Hey—how old are you, anyhow?"That annoyed me, for some reason. "

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455 Words | 2 Pages

He gives it a very pessimistic and cynical attitude. Since Holden sees everything in such a negative manner, he refers to almost everyone except for his sister, Phoebe, as a phony. He instantly gives everyone he meets the title of a phony. As he is on the topic of an all boys school, he refers to it as “full of phonies” (page 131). Salinger has given Holden such a negative outlook that almost everything that comes out of Holden’s mouth is negative.

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910 Words | 4 Pages

The “Phony” In Holden Caulfield In The Catcher In The Rye by J.D Salinger, the character Holden Caulfield shows his dislike towards other characters in the novel by characterizing them as “phonies”. People who are dishonest when self representing themselves for their own self interest are usually judged by Holden. Holden has high standards for other people especially adults and often characterizes other characters who do not meet his standards as “phonies” but he often behaves similarly to them.

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656 Words | 3 Pages

The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was about the journey of a adolescent boy finding his way to adulthood. In the book Holden Caulfield was unsuccessful in finding his way to adulthood. Holden’s attitude in the novel throughout his journey was very immature. He also can't accept the fact that innocence can’t be forever protected. Lastly, Holden calls everyone a phony when in reality he is the real phony.

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1664 Words | 7 Pages

1. Holden Caulfield is a seventeen-year-old boy from a wealthy family, who doesn’t care about many things and enjoys lying to other people. Holden makes a point throughout the first half of the book to show how skilled he is at lying to other people; however, he also hates when other people are phony. Therefore, Holden is a hypocrite, he holds other people to higher standards and considers them phonies, when Holden in fact is a phony considering his tendency to be dishonest and spin tales about himself. Even Holden doesn’t always seem to enjoy or be in control of his lying, for example, he states “Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket.

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629 Words | 3 Pages

Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye spends most of his time and energy being cynical towards the phoniness of the world around him. Author J.D. Salinger uses the word “phony” numerous times throughout the novel to highlight Holden’s resentment against liars and individuals who share different values or beliefs than him. Additionally, the author uses the word phony to express Holden’s resentment against the pressures and stereotypes placed on teenagers by society. In the novel, Holden is easily enraged by many aspects of life including his school, Pencey, which focuses on “molding boys into splendid and clear-thinking young men.”

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714 Words | 3 Pages

While reading this book, one may notice that the main character Holden calls almost every character that we meet phonies. Never once in the book did Holden call himself a phony. The word phony was used 48 times throughout this entire novel making it one of the top 5 words used in this book. The Catcher in the Rye is a novel written by J.D. Salinger. This book is narrated by the main character Holden Caulfield.

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790 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield sways between maturity and immaturity. While Holden is extremely observant and often has thoughtful views on the world around him, he continues to act rashly and immaturely at times, letting his emotions get the best of him. As critic James Bryan puts it, Holden “is poised between two worlds, one he cannot return to and one he fears to enter.” Holden Caulfield embodies the limbo between the worlds of childhood and adulthood by play-acting at both adulthood and childhood, never fully embracing either.

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736 Words | 3 Pages

Holden would even pretend to be one to avoid appearing like a child even though he is only 16 years old. The author would make Holden appear to prefer innocent people, such as Phoebe, whom Holden described as a child who was mature for her age. It seems that he wishes she remained that way. Certain characters, like Stradlater, might be characterized as phony since they are superficial and do not consider the feelings of the women he takes out on

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1107 Words | 5 Pages

The effects of Holden constantly isolating himself can be seen especially through his improper speech and how he speaks to others. For example in chapter two Holden says “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies (pg 14).” In this Holden is exhibiting his poor vocabulary and shows how he does not put thought into the things he says. When he uses the word phonies to describe the boys at Elkton Hills in reality he means he thinks they are boys whom he is not friends with and does not like. In many other cases Holden appears to immediately result to the word phony when describing something or someone he does not like.

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

Shouldn’t someone who acts tough and often brags know that they will never become a phony? The answer would be yes if Holden wasn’t so insecure. Holden’s childish ways cause him to never mature and figure out who he is as a person. We see many signs of Holden insecurities throughout the book, like the fact that he contradicts himself. An example of this would be when Sally and Holden are in the taxi and he tells her he loves her, he then counties to say, “It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it” (Salinger 139).

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496 Words | 2 Pages

Sixteen-year-old, Holden Caulfield, describes majority of people in the novel, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, phony. During my High School years, although I was tremendously social, I decided to join in on home studies to keep distance from the students. Although I didn’t consider literally everyone phonies, I consider majority and it’s similar to as Holden states, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’ all” (Pg. 19).

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

It is the “phoniness” he wants to blame. Salinger used “phony” this word many times in the book and is one of the most famous word from “The Catcher in the Rye” and it accurately describes the human nature of most adults’. During Holden’s three-day-trip in New York, he has met and encountered with many characters who are pretentious and fake, from Mr. Spencer to Luce and Sally. In society people have to lie or be “phony” just to socialize, or impress someone. Holden is a judgemental person who keeps observing other people’s phoniness but never notices them in himself.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Holden knew Ackley was lying about his summer, so, he called Ackley a phony. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, Holden Caulfield 's perspective on people give the reader a different and unique point of view. What is phoniness? According to the Merriam Webster dictionary a phony is a person who is not honest or sincere who says things that are meant to deceive. Therefore, phoniness is someone who doesn 't act as themselves, they deceive people by acting like someone they aren’t, even themselves.

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837 Words | 4 Pages

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden demonstrates the struggle of transitioning between childhood and adulthood by revealing his hassle to grow up. Maturity comes through being an adult and growing up is all about becoming more mature. Throughout the book, Holden goes through numerous conflicts and problems. In the beginning of the book, Holden is gives information about himself.

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