How Is Holden Caulfield A Phony

Even if Holden calls others phonies, Holden is also a phony. For example, he is constantly saying how phony other people are. But he himself does not really act a whole lot different. He says other people are phony, but he still tries to be friends with them. He hates Stradlater but will do his paper for him. He thinks the women from Seattle are pathetic but he wants to dance with them. He says the Lunts are phony but he'll go and watch them. So he's criticizing society all over the place, but he does not withdraw from it. In fact, he seems to be trying to be involved even as he is saying how phony it

His former principal Haas’s differential treatment of people’s parents is phony (17), and at the same time Mr. Spencer’s use of the word “grand” (12) is phony. It is a bit confusing. To sum up the possible meanings, a phony can have any of the following traits: insincerity, maturity, conceitedness, poshness, dishonesty, and masquerading. It is interesting that many of these meanings apply to Holden himself. For example, Holden likes to masquerade and lie. When Holden talks to the mother of a Pencey classmate he hates, Ernest Morrow, Holden claims to be named Rudolf Schmidt, and proceeds to have a lot of fun lying extensively about how great of a guy Ernest is. He admits about his lying, “Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours” (61-65). Earlier in the story, he claimed to be “The most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (19). Holden is a compulsive liar, a very “phony” behavior. This is one of the most obvious hypocrisies in Holden’s

Holden’s immaturity causes him many problems throughout the story. Although he is physically mature, he acts more like a child. “All of a sudden I

In The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden tries to find the truth of himself by being surrounded with lies he tells. He feels the need to lie rather than tell the truth because Holden wants to change. Holden believes lying is better than telling the truth because people won’t know who he really is. Along with telling lies, Holden also calls people, especially adults, phonies. Holden hides true self by living in a corrupted life of lies.

Throughout the novel, Holden attempts to find the true from of himself as he struggles with the social interactions around him. Due to the struggle and confusion that arouses from it,

A concept Holden had observed from the start of the novel was the materialism and egotism of people around him. There are numerous situations where this is displayed and he detests these ideas. For instance, Holden exclaims that almost everyone he encounters

He hides under a visage of a cool ‘bad boy’ trope, seeing the world through a heavy filter- to him, anyone who's anyone is a phony, a liar, or just plain bad, despite him judging many things he later goes on to do himself. Over the course of the book we come to see Holden has built an opinion of the world that shields him from the pains and complexities of life. The author displays Holden’s traits quite prominently, especially through his use of language; he writes as Holden speaks- vulgar, rambling, and easily derailed, jumping from idea to idea infinitely

How would you know you weren 't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn 't." This is displayed when he is talking to Phoebe and she is talking about a boy in her class who probably likes her but she doesn 't want him to, she tells Holden that she put ink on his jacket and Holden responds to that by saying, "That isn 't nice. What are you-a child, for God 's sake?" Holden likes getting reactions from people to reassure himself of his actions. This is a parallel to what all teenagers must go through at one point in their life, the line between should I do this to please my parents, or should I do what I want to do? Holden represents every teenagers struggle for independence.

A large part of Holden’s depression stems from his hatred of the adult world that Holden believes is full of “phonies.” To Holden, phony people are not limited to purely “fake” people, but also people who act in a stereotypical way. For example, if a Catholic preached to him and asked him if he was a Catholic, they would be “phony” in his eyes, because they behaved in a way that is generally expected of them. However, this view that Holden holds is hypocritical of him, because he is constantly making generalizations and lying at impulse to almost everyone he meets just because he “feels like it” (Salinger 58). Holden cannot control his compulsive lying which shows that his control over his primal instincts is restricted which is likely a

He even mentioned himself as “the most terrific liar” (ch3, pg19). It makes reader feel like not only he didn't felt bad for lying, but he also thinks that it's fun to lie. Moreover, there are several times that Holden ‘judges’ every person that he saw; whether it's his roommate, his date, or any person that he walks by. He called everyone ‘phony’ and he think that he wanted to get away from all the ‘phonies’ around him. However, Holden himself is actually a ‘phony’ because he always lied and fake in front of other, but he seems like he never notice that at all. Like when he met Ms. Morrow on the train, he lied about his name by telling her that his name is “Rudolf Schmidt” instead of Holden (pg 61). He did also tell Ms. Morrow that her son is doing very well in school, getting along so well with others, and is “one of the most popular boys at Pencey” (pg 63); however in his thought he known that reality isn’t like that. In his mind when Ms. Morrow said that her son, Ernest, is “a very sensitive boy” (pg 62); Holden thought was describing Ernest that he is “as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat.”(pg 62). At the scene when Holden went to a date with Sally, Holden also showed his negative judgement by describing girls that were around there that some of them had “terrific legs...lousy legs”(pg 137). Also he pre-judged that “most of them would probably marry dopey guys…. Guys that are very boring” (pg 137); however he didn’t seems to realize that he can’t even be that charming, nice, and wonderful date for

            Holden is quite skilled at citing exactly what is wrong with other people.  However he never acknowledges his own faults.  He was sure the entire world was out of step with him.  As Alan Stewart explains, ?Holden seemed to divide the world into two groups.  He was in one group, along with a few other people such as his little sister, Phoebe, 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

     Although Holden is extremely cynical and struggles with relationships, he is not all bad. Inside he is moral and generous. He was very charitable when he gave a considerable donation of twenty dollars to the nuns. Holden has a strange way of loving people.

As strongly as society wants to deny it, Holden was right; everyone is a phony in one way or another. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye Holden uses the word phony to describe the society around him and as a mechanism for his own isolation, but he fails to realize that he is the biggest phony of them all. Holden clearly perceives the insincerity of everyone around him and is nauseated by it; but despite his revulsion he still ends up being a phony himself. He reveals to the reader that even if someone does not want to be a fraud, and has attempted not to be, they cannot help it; everyone is a phony in the end.

Holden is a profoundly negative person, he is constantly judging other people, calling them ‘phonies’ and criticising them. For instance when he says “I was surrounded by phonies.” of his time at Elkton Hills. (CITR, 14) Throughout the novel, Holden repeatedly behaves immature and makes irresponsible and destructive decisions, even if he knows it is the wrong thing to