Examples Of Unhappiness In Catcher In The Rye

Unhappiness in One’s Life Can Lead to Finding Phoniness in Everything Else; The Catcher in the Rye

There used to be a tall, mean bully in Pre-K that I went to school with. Everyone was scared of her because she was bigger than everyone else and she always made fun of her classmates. She would make mean comments about the clothes we would wear and the things we would do. One day, she made fun of my pink velcro shoes and claimed that they were for babies. I went home that day very upset and my mom questioned me. I told my mom about the bully and she told me that the bully was only making fun of me because she was jealous of me. My mom used to tell me that if anyone was mean to me to ignore it because they were only saying mean things because they were self conscious and unhappy with themselves. Holden, in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, is a teenage boy who finds the faults in everything and everyone. He is unhappy with his life, but instead of trying to fix it he picks out the bad things in everyone, especially their phoniness. By showing

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is unhappy with himself throughout the book, and instead of trying to fix his life, he finds the phoniness in the people around him. Throughout the book Holden is seen observing anyone he sees, including friends, family, and even strangers. Because he is unhappy with his life, he makes sure that other people have faults in their life just like him. For example, Holden goes outside and sees himself standing next to a “dopey movie actor.., having a cigarette” (140). Holden observes that the actor is trying to act modest and like no one is staring at him, even though people are clearly watching him. Holden finds this phony because this actor is trying to act like a good modest person, but Holden knows that he is cocky. This phoniness intrigues Holden because he is able to forget about the disappointments in his life and focus on the impurities of someone else’s