Phoniness in The Catcher in the Rye In our society, we all hide our true nature and act in ways to please others or to appear differently. One example of this is when many are with friends, as seen in the song “The Art of Peer Pressure” by Kendrick Lamar, a track in the album good kid, m.A.A.d city. In it, the song describes a youth who is misled by his friends, and despite not truly enjoying what he does, partakes in drug and alcohol abuse with his friends, and eventually, partake in gang violence. As the youth, K.Dot, stays more with his friends, he performs actions that he declares he had never done before, and only does it because of peer pressure. This kind of showing an outward surface is a theme discussed thoroughly throughout The Catcher …show more content…
This self-destructive behavior is a result of not only his pride in viewing others as phonies, but his overall hypocrisy. One example can be seen in his actions in Chapter 10. While Holden had previously talked about the importance of youth and innocence, and is a character that is proud of that aspect, Holden disregards his own philosophy in Chapter 10 as he tries to appear older in order to order a drink at the bar. As he describes his gray hair and aspects that make him look mature, Holden’s hypocrisy can be seen strongly, as he would be acting in a “phony” way. Another prime example of this can be seen in Chapters 11 and 12. While Holden condemns the people in the bar as “perverts”, he himself later seeks out a woman to have sex with, and eventually has to settle for a prostitute. This, once again, shows that Holden does not adhere to his own philosophy of “phoniness”, which causes self-destructive hypocrisy in his actions. Holden’s lust for love creates another example of just this in Chapter 15. While he had previously criticized characters like Stradlater for being a phony who cares too much about dating, he himself goes to great heights to have Sally go on a date with him. This last act of hypocrisy shows that Holden himself is a phony, and that his worldview is flawed. Holden Caulfield does not adhere to his own philosophy of what “phoniness” is, as he makes exceptions for himself. This …show more content…
This self-destructive behavior is another one of the many created by his worldview of others as “phonies”. One example can be seen in page 75, where Holden states that life itself “makes [him] so depressed.” This shows us how his worldview that focuses on the negative aspects of everyone could be problematic, as it leads Holden on to develop depression. Another example can be seen in Chapter 7, where Holden states “I just didn't want to hang around any more. It made me too sad and lonesome.” (page 29) His motivation to leave Pencey Prep is shown to be one of having developed depression after seeing everyone there as phonies. Once again, this displays a prime example of how Holden’s idea of phonies can lead to self-destructive actions such as developing depression. A third example of this can be found towards the end of the book, where Holden straight up states that he “really felt like, committing suicide.” (104) By this point, we see the final phase of his depression created by his “phony” worldview, presenting an extremely self-destructive behavior and mindset in depression. Holden develops depression through his worldview of others as “phonies”, which shows how problematic his worldview truly
The irony of Holden detesting phoniness and adulthood is that he acts so much like an adult with his curiosity and experience with alcohol and sex that he misses his own opposition. Holden hates the responsibility, morality, and accountability of being an adult and embraces childhood. This contradicts everything that he desires and to want to take part in. This causes his own corruption and enables a failure to relate to himself.
Holden is unable to accept realities of life because of his negative personality. He claims that many people are phony and that they try to do things to make them look better than they are. Holden also thinks of many things as depressing. “It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them” (p. 123). Holden always finds a down side to a situation. He fails to recognize the good sides of life, and this prevents him from seeing advantages in adulthood that are not present in his life.
Holden is the biggest hater of phonies, and at the same time, he is the biggest phony in the novel. In this novel, being phony is somewhat equivalent to being an adult. Holden wants to be seen like an adult. For this reason, he smokes and drinks heavily, and goes as far as being involved with prostitution. For people like Stradlater and adults, these are rather normal from their perspective. However, for Holden, they become paradoxes, as he absolutely loathes phoniness. Nearly all aspects of society, including movies, matinees, people’s behaviors, and even simple social interactions like conversations, are criticized by Holden for being phony. For example, during his date with Sally, Sally’s conversation with a guy they met at the matinee “killed [Holden]…it was the phoniest conversation you ever heard in your life” (Salinger 127). In a hope to make Sally understand his views on phonies, Holden says, “‘Take cars,’… ‘I don’t even like old cars. I mean they don’t even interest me. I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake’” (Salinger 130). Then again, Holden becomes the phoniest person shortly after. He asks Carl Luce,
In the novel The Catcher In The Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield views his surroundings with hypocrisy and contempt in an attempt to avoid the corruption of adulthood. Holden places himself above the crowd because he believes everyone acts phony. In the process, Caulfield reveals his true problem: his refusal to change.
This shows just how shallow Holden can be. Moreover, on pages 168- 171, Holden refers to Sally as being “goddam stupid” and a “phony” because she physically/mentally was absurd and didn’t agree with Holden when he suggested they leave to go somewhere far away. This shows that if you didn’t agree with Holden or match his standards, you would be seen as lesser of a person in his eyes. By using repetition of the words “phony”, “goddamn”, and “moron” the meaning of the word is lost. He refers to almost everyone including teachers, parents, friends, and siblings (except Allie) as a “phony” or “moron”.
For example, in chapter 10, when Holden is staying at a New York City hotel, he goes to the Lavender Room and encounters three girls, Bernice, whom he is attracted to, Marty, and Laverne. A rare moment in the story as Holden steps up to interact with the opposite gender, asking them for a dance and a good time. To Holden’s misfortune, the girls don’t seem interested in him as they find his actions amusing. Phoniness is also present when Marty says she saw Gary Cooper, a movie star, in efforts to lie and impress others based off something that never happened. Holden thinks that the girls are coarse and rude, as they are looking out for celebrities instead of engaging in conversation. Holden is offended by their ‘phoniness’ and finds them pathetic. Although Holden has such a low opinion of these girls, he continues to seek for their company, in the end, dancing with the three of them. This example shows the extent to which others excluding Holden can truly be phony and not usually just exaggerated by Holden. But Holden, himself, also shows phony traits, that gives the reader a hypocritical, but true form of himself. Holden is able to
Holden seems to struggle with depression. In many places throughout the novel, Holden describes to us his deep sadness. A lot of times his depression is unpredictable and triggered by tense situations. In one situation while he was explaining his feelings about the Elkton Hills headmaster’s phony and rather boring conversations with well-built and
The relationship between Holden and the "phonies" shows how Holden despise the society at first. Whenever he meets people he thinks they are "phony" he would criticize them. For instance during the intermission of the play, the conversation between Sally and George
And so, Holden left school planning to spend some time on his own in New York City, where he lives. On the train to New York, Holden meets a mother of his fellow Pencey student. Though he thinks that this student is a complete “bastard”, he tells a woman made-up stories about her son. He lied to the woman. But lying to others is also a kind of phoniness, right? A type of deception that indicates insensitivity or even cruelty. Holden proves that he is just guilty of phoniness as the people he criticizes.
This quote says much about Holden as a character and his efforts to be somewhat of a “bad boy” who has little apprehension regarding his future (removal from school, failing academically, and even admitting this to his parents.) 2. (p.9) “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.” This quote contradicts all of Holden's comments, regarding phony people because he himself is even not trustworthy.
In life there comes a time when everyone thinks that they are surrounded by phoniness. This often happens during the teen years when the person is trying to find a sense of direction. Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction in J.D. Salinger's, "The Catcher In The Rye." Holden has recently been expelled from Pency Prep for failing four out of his five classes. He decides to start his Christmas recess early and head out to New York. While in New York Holden faces new experiences, tough times and a world of "phony." Holden is surrounded by phoniness because that is the word he uses to identify everything in the world that
In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, phonies are one of the main things Holden Caulfield despises. The definition of the word phony is “A person who is not what he pretends to be”. There are many examples of phonies in the novel, however the biggest one being Holden. Holden is a phony. Holden, lies, is a hypocrite and changes his image constantly.
Holden is deathly afraid of conforming, growing up, and having to assimilate into the phony adult world. As a result he comes off as hypocritical as he is the most prominent phony in the novel. He constantly lies, refuses to connect with others and overlooks his own pain, letting it deeply impact his life. Holden is a compulsive liar; he does not have one honest conversation with anyone except his sister and Jane for the duration of the novel. When he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow, for instance, he claims his name is Rudolf Schmidt and preaches about what an amazing guy her son is, even though he is “the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.” (61) This shows that Holden falls victim to the same social conventions as everyone else. He says exactly what Mrs. Morrow wants to hear, despite the fact that he
There are times where he thinks he will die just from simply crossing the street and other times where he loses his cool and goes psycho. Phoebe, on the other hand, is not like this she is a happy little girl who is extremely smart. Another difference between Phoebe and Holden is that Holden has been kicked out of three different prep schools and doesn’t do very well with any sort of academics. There are some things that he is smart as he just doesn’t put any effort in. Phoebe though is a star student who gets great grades. Holden also hates people he describes as phonies and sells outs. He describes his brother D.B. as a sellout because of what he is doing with his life out west. As for phonies, Holden thinks many people are phonies or people that don’t act true to themselves. For instance, he says that the headmaster of Pencey and the Pencey school as a whole is phony because every Saturday night the school feeds the boys steak. This is so that on Sunday when the moms their sons at school and ask them what they had for dinner last night they say that they had
Holden recognizes and perceives to be alienated from the adult world thus causing himself to believe he is depressed. Holden believes he is depressed from viewing the adult world and thinking that it is phony. He believes that the world is phony, superficial, hypocritical, and shallow. He views this world everyday and realizes that one day he will have to step into it, but every time he thinks about the world surrounding him it causes him to become depressed. Holden becomes depressed because he desires to remain a child were innocence is preserved and not drastically taken away. In Holden?s scenario, he feels that his innocence was taken away by witnessing the suicide of his close friend and the death of dear brother. Holden sees the world that he has to become a part of and desires more to not be a part of it. This hatred of stepping into the adult world causes Holden believe he is depressed and