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Grow Up with Phony Characteristic The appeal of The Catcher in the Rye lies in the main character, Holden Caulfield. In this story, Holden views the world as an evil and corrupt place where there is no peace. He makes reference to the word phony several separate times throughout the novel. The ways Holden acts around or reacts to people in the story give the reader a direct view of Holden's idea of whether he thinks they are phony or normal. Each time he uses the phony word, it seems to be referring to the subject of this metaphor as someone who discriminates against others, is a hypocrite about something, or has manifestations of conformity. One example is his father is a lawyer and therefore he considers him phony because he views his fathers occupation unswervingly as a parallel of his fathers personality.
For example, when Holden is talking to Phoebe about what he wants to be when he grows up, he cannot answer her question and proceeds to give her his opinion about their fathers occupation. Lawyers are all right, I guess but it doesnt appeal to me, I said. I mean theyre all right if they go around saving innocent guys lives all the time, and like that, but you dont do that kind of stuff if youre a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot.
How would you know you werent being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldnt (172). When Holden describes his mom, he always seems to do so with a sense of compassion yet also with a jeering tone. Holden makes his mom sound predictable and insincere. These phony qualities are shown in two different examples when Holden is hiding in the closet of D. B.
s room as his mom walks in to tuck in Phoebe: Hello! I heard old Phoebe say. I couldnt sleep. Did you have a good time? Marvelous, my mother said, but you could tell she didnt mean it.
She doesnt enjoy herself much when she goes out. Good night. Go to sleep now. I have a splitting headache, my mother said.
She gets headaches quite frequently. She really does (177 - 178). The ways he talks about his parents are two excellent illustrations of how Holden classifies people as phonies. However, when it comes to Holden's older brother, D. B. , more analysis is needed to derive Holden's true feelings about his brother.
Holden seems to respect his older brother somewhat but cannot tolerate the imposed false image brought on by D. B. s career choice as a screenplay writer does. For example, this sense of respect is shown when D. B. takes Holden and Phoebe to see Hamlet: He treated us to lunch first, and then he took us.
Hed already seen it, and the way he talked about it at lunch, I was anxious as hell to see it, too (117). Holden feels that all movies and shows are false, absurdly exaggerated portrayals of reality and subsequently because his brother takes part in these perversions of realism, therefore he is a phony. Holden is quite skilled at citing exactly what is wrong with other people. However he never acknowledges his own faults or sees himself is an inveterate liar, he frequently masquerades as someone he is not; For example, he lied to Mrs. Morrow, and pretending he was Rudolf Schmidt instead of himself. He even told her about the faking operation story on his brain.
The other time he tried to be a nephew of the Dicksteins so that the elevator boy would let him in his apartment. Holden's use of lying demonstrates not only the depth of his emotion, but signals the reader to the fact that he is caught in the stage where childhood and approaching maturity collide. He fails to notice that his lying loses much of his intended rebellious. Rather than successfully rebelling against school or his parents, Holden appears sometimes tortured and pathetic, and sometimes just plain silly. Being the reason that he felt, people were always ruining things for you (87).
Only, Holden can not understand that everything he hates in other people was really inside of himself. He is a hypocrite and unable to self-reflect. As he continues to build up his hatred for the people around him, he fails to notice the seclusion he is forcing upon himself. This might be one of J. D. Salingers points when he created this Holden character.
He shows us that people are always blaming on other facts for their own mistakes. He also gives the reader some ideas of how an adolescent boy, facing the common experiences and troubles of daily life. Through Holden's expressions of his thoughts and feelings, the reader sees a youth, sensitive to his surroundings, who chooses to deal with life in unique ways. Like most adolescents, feelings about people and relationships are often on his mind. Unfortunately, in Holden's case, he seems to expect the worst, believing that the result of getting close to people is pain. Pain when others reject you or pain when they leave you, such as when a friend walks off or a beloved brother dies.
It would not have been possible to feel Holden's feelings or understand his thoughts nearly as well had the book been written in third person. 32 b
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