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The catcher in the rye novel
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Catcher of the rye
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"Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke everytime I hear it". Then all of a sudden old Spencer looked like he had something very good,something sharp as a tack, to say to me.He sat up more in his chair and sort of moved around." It was not real though, he simply took the Atlantic Monthly and tried to throw it on the bed next to me. He missed. " It was only about two inches away, but he missed anyway. I got up and picked it up and put it down on the bed. All of a sudden then, I wanted to get the hell out of the room. I could feel a terrific lecture coming on. I didn't mind the idea so much." Throughout "The Catcher in the Rye", Holden Caulfield always points out the people that are phony. This usually means that the person isn't true to themselves or tends to lie a lot. He uses the word frequently to describe people and assumes that most people are phony. He uses it to describe people he has never even met before. The people that are interested in how they look or appear more than how they really are. The people that don't say a lot of honest...
Nick Carraway is a special character in Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. The fictional story is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway who is deemed to be unbiased, impartial, and non-judgmental in his narratives. At the top layer, he appears to be a genuine and great friend, who seems to be the only true friend and admirer of Great Gatsby. As the story unfolds, readers get glimpses of internal issues that Nick Carraway has that show him as more of a flawed character than previous thought of. The first issue that readers see and challenge in the novel is Nick’s attempt at being an unbiased narrator.
“The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard – it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden…My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires…”
“Oh God,” Garraty gasped. “Oh Jesus Christ they’re killing me. I… I can’t…” He broke into loose, trickling laughter once more. His knees buckled. McVries ripped him to his feet once more. Garraty’s collar tore. They were both warned. That’s my last warning, Garraty thought dimly. I’m on my way to see that fabled farm. Sorry, Jan, I…
J. D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is a very well known piece of the twentieth century. It’s a story about a seventeen-year-old boy, Holden Caufield, who experiences some interesting things and people upon his being expelled from Pencey Prep. School. From having breakfast with a couple of nuns on a bus, to spending an evening with a far from seraphic prostitute, Holden handles each situation the best way he can. However, most of the people Holden encounters, he deems innately phony; Holden thinks almost everyone is a phony.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby, the central character, Jay Gatsby, is a paradox. In one sense, his rise to material success is a remarkable accomplishment. Viewed through another lense, however, he is not great at all, but a massive failure. His goal of winning Daisy is never attained and he has amassed his fortune through very questionable means. Yet the term “great” is open for interpretation. Gatsby is certainly great in his ability to conjure up stories and an image of himself. His masterful ability to present himself to the world in a new light is similar to that of the one and only Great Houdini, and other performers of the past and present. But Gatsby’s greatness, like a stage performance, is only surface deep, and hides a deeper sense of failure.
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
To Holden, everyone is either corny of phony. He uses these terms to describe what a person is if they do not act naturally and follow other people?s manners and grace. Holden dislikes phonies and thinks of them as people who try to be something they are not. He loathes people who showed off because it seems unnatural every time they do not act like themselves. Holden does not allow himself to have friendship because of his dull attitude. In the beginning of the book, the reader knows that Holden is lonely when he separates himself from the rest of the Pencey students by watching the football game from Thomsen Hill and not the grand stands. Holden is not a very sociable person partly because he finds himself better than many others. He dislikes his roommate because of his generic leather luggage. His next door roommate Ackley does not seem to want a friendship with him either. Holden finds Ackely?s zit crusted face ridiculous and doesn?t want him in his room at first. This shows the reader that Holden is a lonely person because he chooses to be lonely and does not want anything to do with people who do not fit into his perception of normal.
J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye revolves around Holden's encounters with other people. He divides all people into two different categories, the "phonies" and the authentics. Holden refers to a "phony" as someone who discriminates against others, is a hypocrite, or has manifestations of conformity. A person's age, gender, and occupation, play a key role in how Holden interacts with them.
Throughout the novel, Holden uses very specific vocabulary words, and this couldn't be more apparent than his personal favorite word to use, phony. From the beginning to the end of the book, Holdens calls something (or someone phony) no less than 33 times. But why? The answer is that Holden uses this word, along with moron, stupid, or Ivy league whenever he feels alone, rejected by society, or rejected by someone
Holden constantly referring to others, throughout the book, as being phony. In The Catcher in the
" Two truths are told.but what is not" (line 137-152, Pg 27-29). We see him arguing with himself and feeling disgusted that he even thought that. That was interesting because we get the feeling that something out of the ordinary is coming up and our anticipation gets into the story straightaway.
It is a worldwide known concept that communication among different people is a necessity of one's life if it is to be a happy one. Human companionship is something everyone will do anything for. Yet, some people have difficulties in communicating with others especially when they see problems among the people they try to communicate with. In this novel, "The Catcher in the Rye," the author, J.D. Salinger, illustrates the protagonist's difficulty in communicating with other people, especially with the women he encounters throughout the novel. The reader can see Holden Caulfield's failed attempts to communicate with people. In the conversations Holden has with people, he usually makes up lies or ends up embarassing them or himself. In others, he usually ends up being hostile towards them. Yet, it seems obvious that the reason for his failed attempts of communication is because he won't allow people to express themselves as they are. He automatically assumes that they are "phony" because of their first impression towards him. He won't give them a chance to express themselves unless he decides that their first impression towards them makes them "likeable".
Many of the times that Holden criticizes people, it is something he does himself. (Pg 13) “. one of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies.” Holden himself is many times what he refers to as a “phony”. He knows that he lies and pretends to like people that he would rather not be with.
Throughout The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield uses the word “phony” prolifically, using it to describe anything that hits the wrong side of his fancy. Despite Caulfield’s insistence that he hates phoniness, he himself often puts up a false front in various situations. As we will see, Caulfield’s view that most people are liars and fakes expresses disgust not with individual people but with himself and with life as a whole as well as a slightly nostalgic idealization of his memories.
When walking around in a random city, people often judge strangers without necessarily getting to know them very well. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caulfield marks many people as phonies without getting to completely know them. During his trip through New York City, Holden Caulfield meets many people, and most of the people he judges right away. Holden Caulfield shows that he is very judgmental even if he does not know the person, by noticing only kids as innocent, marking most adults as phonies and trying to save kids from growing old and becoming corrupt.