The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caulfield is a phony. Throughout the novel, “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D Salinger, the author portrays Holden as someone who thinks very highly of himself and he calls out all of the deceitful people, like his friends, family, teachers, and even strangers. The idea that Holden is a good person is hard to believe, as there is a lingering idea that Holden himself is a contribuer to the wickedness and phoniness in the world due to the fact that he is hypocritical, ingenuine, and he avoids confrontation. The Catcher in the Rye is told from the perspective of a boy, Holden Caulfield, who failed out of his boarding school, and has a very negative outlook on life, his negativity impacts his social life and academics. Throughout the novel there is frequent foreshadowing, represented by his mindset, eventually leading to a tragic event.
Holden Caulfield is a very hypocritical 16 year old boy, he says one thing but does another. He partakes in activities he criticizes, and criticizes things to make him feel better about himself. Holden says, “In one of those musicals. I hate the movies like poison” (Salinger 33.) He expresses his hatred for movies and even compares movies to poison, but in chapter 17, he contradicts his idea about movies. He says he is taking his date to the theatre to watch a movie, he implied he went to the movies on page 139, “The show starts at two-forty. ” (Salinger 149), and “We horsed around a little bit in the cab on our way over to the theatre,” (Salinger 139.) He states that he does not like the movies but continues to go to the movies anyways. Holden does not seem to be aligning his ideas and opinions with his actions, which makes him a hypocrite and a liar.
Holden lies to everyone, he even admitted to lying, "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful," (Salinger 19), he says this with pride. He lies about his own self, pretending to be someone he is not, hence him being “not real”, another way of saying phony. He pretends to be someone he is not on the train ride home, he sat next to a nice lady, who he lied to about his identity...
