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Catcher in the Rye Holden and His Phony Family The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, interacts with many people throughout J. D. Salinger s novel The Catcher in the Rye, but probably none have as much impact on him as certain members of his immediate family. The ways Holden acts around or reacts to the various members of his family give the reader a direct view of Holden s philosophy surrounding each member. How do Holden s different opinions of his family compare and do his views constitute enough merit to be deemed truth?
Holden makes reference to the word phony forty-four separate times throughout the novel (Corbett 68 - 73). Each time he 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 (Corbett 71). Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden describes and interacts with various members of his family. The way he talks about or to each gives you some idea of whether he thinks they are phony or normal. A few of his accounts make it more obvious than others to discover how he classifies each family member. From the very first page of the novel, Holden begins to refer to his parents as distant and generalizes both his father and mother frequently throughout his chronicle.
One example is: my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them. They re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They re nice and all I m not saying that but they re also touchy as hell (Salinger 1). Holden s father is a lawyer and therefore he considers him phony because he views his father s occupation unswervingly as a parallel of his father s 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 father s occupation... Lawyers are all right, I guess but it doesn t appeal to me, I said. I mean they re all right if they go around saving innocent guys lives all the time, and like that, but you don t do that kind of stuff if you re 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 weren t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn t (Salinger 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:
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