Examples Of Phony In Catcher In The Rye

Whether it’s through psychology, neurology, or philosophy, human beings have wondered for generations what it is to be genuine. There is no definite answer, but what most of us do agree upon is what it is not to be genuine or to be phony. According to Dictionary.com phony is defined as “false or deceiving; not truthful; insincere or deceitful; affected or pretentious”. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, we learn through Holden Caulfield’s experiences how vast the number of phonies the human population is made up of. As Holden points them out left, right, and center one begins to wonder if phoniness is just a part of our human nature and that everyone has somewhat of an aspect of it to them, even Holden himself. Holden is so engulfed

That is when man is in danger for his or his family’s lives. In the novel Holden lies constantly without any real necessity. One of the first lies he tells in the story is to his teacher Mr. Spencer, “Boy, I couldn't've sat there another ten minutes to save my life. ‘The thing is, though, I have to get going now. I have quite a bit of equipment at the gym I have to get to take home with me. I really do.’” (Salinger 15). Holden doesn’t really have any equipment at the gym, he just lies so he can get away from his teachers ramblings and entertain himself elsewhere. He admits his lie and even seems proud of it as he praises himself, “I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life” (16). Holden also lies to hide his true intentions. While leaving Pencey he meets one of his schoolmates mother and he makes up a very awful lie of why he’s leaving earlier than usual. “It's me. I have to have this operation… It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” (58). This choice of a lie was probably because Holden also wanted her to feel some sort of pity for him so that she may join him for a drink which would help Holden in attempting to get intimate with her. He was after all sexually inclined to her. “…but she was very good looking” (54). “She had a lot of charm. She had quite a lot of sex appeal, too” (56). This wasn’t the only time he lied for his carnal desire. On one occasion where

A hypocrite pretends to be what he is not. Holden displays hypocrisy in many situations. He states over and over again how much he hates the movies, “If there's one thing I hate, it's the movies. Don't even mention them to me” (2), yet he still goes to the theatre almost regularly, “She knows the whole goddam movie by heart, because I've taken her to see it about ten times” (67). How can someone hate something so much but still keep going to it? Holden is just pretending to hate the movies. He thinks somehow that liking the movies is detrimental to his character so he decides to constantly affirm his hatred towards it to persuade people otherwise of his enjoyment of them. Another moment Holden shows hypocrisy was right after he fought with Stradlater. Holden is always complaining about Ackley coming into his room uninvited, touching things without permission and invading personal privacy, “He always picked up your personal stuff and looked at it… He always put it back in the wrong place, too, when he was finished” (20). Yet when Holden enters Ackley’s and Ely’s dorm room he does a number of things that he criticized Ackley of doing. The worst of which was to transgress someone’s personal space. Holden without permission lies down on Ely’s bed, “…and then I went over and laid down on Ely’s bed” (48). In both these examples Holden proves to disregard anything he himself says in order for him to satisfy