How Is Holden Caulfield A Phony

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.

He talks about how all his schools are"'It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques'" Chapter 17, pg. 131. This quote shows that Holden values peoples sincerity. He want people to be themselves and believes that anyone who doesn’t ask like themselves or as he he thinks just like that they are phonies. In many places he can judgmental when deciding whether someone is a phony or not.

Holden Caulfield loves to call people phonies. In fact, he uses the word phony 35 times throughout the book, The Catcher in the Rye. A phony, by definition, means not genuine, or fraudulent, however, Holden’s version of it is much different. Holden uses the word phony so much in order to help himself understand the world and people around him. He has to put everyone into a category of personalities, and phony is one of those categories.

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

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

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.

Holden Caulfield despises phonies, because he finds them hypocritical, and uses the insult phony as a way to brush off the rejection he feels from most people. Almost all of the people Holden has called phony have disappointed or rejected his in some way, so Holden tries to make himself feel better by dismissing the people as fake. Holden considers phonies as ingenuine people, however he is a phony himself because he demonstrates the same characteristics he despises. For example, Holden “hate[s] movies like a poison” because they are phony, meaning they deceive their audience, hide behind masks, and fake emotions (33). Ironically, Holden is also a phony by his own definition, because he is constantly deceiving people for no good reason. In fact he admits that he is “the most terrific liar you ever say in your life”(19). The most obvious evidence of Holden’s phoniness is that he lies to himself throughout the entire book. He

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

Holden is bashing others for being phony when Holden is a person with no remorse towards others and says what he wants because he always thinks he’s right. Many readers will think about these phonies that Holden encounters, but may not think about Holden being the bigger phony. Although it may seem that The Catcher in the Rye has a bunch of phonies due to Holden’s perception of people, the problem is that Holden is the actual phony and can’t accept the fact he’s grown up. Holden’s phoniness shows throughout the novel when he lies just for the fun of it and he even explains what a terrific liar he is, he does this due to being in denial about the fact that he’s growing up.

In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden refers to almost everyone as “phony”. He uses the word “phony” to describe anything fake or non-authentic in his life. Holden’s hates anything or anybody who he considers “phony” and he uses this hatred as an excuse to alienate himself from

     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 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

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,