How Does Caulfield A Phony

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Holden, the senteen years old protagonist of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, hates phonies. A phony is someone who is lacking honesty or genuineness. A phony is someone who does not express his real motives. The phony says things to deceive people and thereby manipulate them into meeting his hidden but real desires. The opposite of phoniness is sincerity that he was trying to find in people in his life story. As his teacher Mr. Antolini expresses it, Holden is troubled and “but I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause” (188) Holden is troubled and a moral and spiritual degree. This paper will discuss Caulfield's understanding of the phony and show how this understanding relates to Caulfield's sexual behavior. One important aspect of Holden's perspective on sincerity is that it is intrinsically linked to intimacy and sexuality. For Caulfield, phoniness is a barrier and hindrance to human intimacy and in particular, sexual intimacy. Intimacy approaches the sacred, and, therefore, sincerity, its threshold guardian, is to be highly valued. The paper demonstrates these positions using Caulfield's behavior and words regarding sexuality.

In the book, the general phony is epitomized by Ernie the piano player. The attention expected by and given to Ernie is outrageously disproportionate to his talent and value. The people in the night club crowd in and strain to get a look at Ernie, who has a spotlight shining on him and a huge mirror placed so that everyone could see his face – but not his fingers – as he played. As Caulfield described it, “It was supposed to be something holy, for God's sake, when he sat down at the piano. Nobody's that good” (84). Holden was say...

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...o he was afraid of entering in adult world because in his opinion if he had a sex with somebody he will never go back to childhood. He is afraid to force a woman he thinks that both people have to have the same opinion before doing it. He wants there to be clearly sincere motives from both parties, with no ambiguity. When a woman tells him to stop, he stops. As Holden points out, “Most guys don't” (92)
Most guys do not stop because they are not concerned with the true desires of the woman. They are only concerned with their own selfish desires. Overriding another's desires and needs to have one's own desires met is spiritual and emotional rape; a violation of sincerity and intimacy; it is the essence of phoniness – not caring how other people feel as long as one's own ego is stroked. True intimacy depends on sincerity and respect for the other's desires.

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