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