Holden Caulfield Phony

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Society finds it easier to hide behind lies than to proudly display the truth. In The Catcher in the Rye, through the eyes of the troubled teenager Holden Caulfield, J.D Salinger explores the shallowness behind the “phonies,” who pretend to be someone different with others, creating an image that protects them from the discomforts of shame and guilt. The phonies that Holden obsesses over reflect society’s need to create a false appearance to please and charm, a “mask” that disguises the phonies’ true feelings. From Holden’s perspective, his world of prep schools and upper class New Yorkers is full of fakes who feign interest, pressured to act in a socially-acceptable way, pretending to be the best possible person they can think of despite …show more content…

After Holden leaves Pencey, he strikes a conversation with a mother of a Pencey student and pretends to be a friend of her son: “Then I really started chucking the old crap around. ‘Did he tell you the elections?’” (57). With his manipulative lies, Holden charms a mother in hopes to get drinks with her and pretends that her son is a humble boy who was unwilling to run for class elections regardless of his friend’s insistence. Despite what Holden says about phonies, his behavior with the naive mother is just as phony as the people he criticizes. With complete disregard to the truth, Holden throws away his ideals and beliefs that he believed set him apart from the “phonies”, unaware that he is potentially damaging a family with his lies. Taken by his sexual desires, Holden acts as a shallow man trying to seek cheap thrills, putting on a mask that replaces his genuine feelings of disgust towards exploitative fakes. By manipulating this woman, Holden reveals his standpoint on phonies is hypocritical and reflects that society’s pressure to be someone different affects him just as much as anyone else. At Ernie’s, Holden meets his brother’s old girlfriend Lillian and leaves because he lies to her that he had to meet someone else: “After I’d told her I had to meet somebody, I didn’t have any goddamn choice except to leave” (87). Despite not wanting to leave Holden leaves Ernie’s because of the fake face he wears in order to escape any unplesantries Lillian, avoiding her “phony” conversation that would lead back to his brother. Instead of telling Lillian that he does not want to talk to her, Holden awkwardly tells her a lie that shows how unwilling he is to tell someone the truth. His strong stance against phonies strongly differs from his

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