Holden Caulfield Satire

The Catcher in the Rye is often times recognised as a classic novel in the English language, however, the main themes and social messages of the book have always been disputed amongst critics. However, one theme throughout the novel tends to stand out more than the others: J.D. Salinger’s protest of our phony and fake world, and his message that fake personas are incredibly irrational, impractical, and just plain hypocritical.

We come across a few excellent examples of Salinger’s distaste for the irrational and phony world a little more than halfway through the book. Holden Caulfield is reminiscing on a movie he once saw, and gives a detailed (but also irrelevant) description of the plot. However, he seems to fixate on the woman sitting next

Salinger utilizes the rhetorical element of irony throughout the majority of the book, his usage of symbolism is scattered, but very apparent. Throughout Holden’s many rants about fake personas, we can see one object he seems to fixate on- his old boarding school, Pencey Prep. He continuously speaks about how the school is practically lying through its advertisements. Even the school’s slogan, "since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men", is considered a piece of fiction to the protagonist. He stresses that the school didn’t mold their students more than any other school (Salinger 1). To Holden, Pencey Prep symbolizes everything he despises: the fake, the deceitful and the phony. J.D. Salinger is once again expressing himself through Holden, showing his own contempt for fake persons and the phony nature of humans. As the chapter progresses, the reader starts to understand Holden’s lifestyle- his life at home, his perception of school, and most importantly, about his family. He describes his brother as an incredibly rich screenwriter, but instead of flat-out telling the reader, he proceeds to call his brother a “prostitute” (Salinger 1). Holden is meaning that his brother is a sellout and is completing his work for money instead of fulfillment; he represents, in Holden’s eyes, acceptance of society’s norms and the phoniness of society. His disappointment in his brother’s insincerity shows the message of how we should be

Holden always addresses problems in an incredibly pessimistic way, and often times groups all people together in hasty generalizations. For instance, whenever he is travelling to New York and converses with Ernest Morrow’s mother. He blatantly lies to the woman, giving her a fake name and fake descriptions of her son. He also calls her son “as sensitive as a toilet seat” and continues to criticize her and her son throughout the encounter (Salinger 30). This portrays the cynical and pessimistic tone of the book, as he is criticizing someone when he barely knows them, and telling a gigantic falsehood about something incredibly trivial. Any reader can acknowledge that lying about something, or otherwise putting on a fake persona, is incredibly illogical, especially in this situation. This is J.D. Salinger once again trying to get the audience to think about the irrationality and impracticality of human’s fake natures, and expresses his central message of a contempt for facades and our everyday deceit. However, Holden Caulfield’s pessimism and negativity doesn’t stop there. He shows a great deal of judgement against people over even the smallest of things, like their toothbrushes or the hairs within their razors. He shows especially harsh judgement on his schoolmate Bob Ackley. He describes him as having mossy teeth, a pimply face, and a