Examples Of Phony In Catcher In The Rye

The novel unearths the falsity of society, showing how phony it truly is, by using the principal of Pencey Prep, Mr. Haas. He is a perfect embodiment of Salinger’s idea of what it means to be insincere because Salinger displays society’s willingness to go against common morals to fit into societal norms. Just as Holden calls everyone a phony, in reality he sees society as phony. Holden says, “One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life” (Insert Page). Salinger specifies that the headmaster would target the “fat and ugly” parents, greet them in a very bogus and superficial manner, and

then continue to greet the parents, who in his opinion are attractive, and have hour-long conversations with them. Additionally, we can infer that by Holden describing Mr. Haas with the phrases “goddamn” and “bastard”, this emphatically suggests Salinger’s negative view of society being untrue to itself. Furthermore, Salinger exemplifies society’s phoniness through Holden’s interactions with adults, in this case Mr. Haas.
At the same time, Salinger is building on the unfortunate matter of society’s corruptness through Holden’s interactions with Sunny, the prostitute.

Holden’s understanding of sexual interactions corrupts his mind and innocence, depicting society’s corruptness and effect on people. By Holden hiring and then rejecting Sunny because of his fear of potentially corrupting his innocence, Salinger shows the pressure society unintentionally places on people through sexual experiences. Holden says, “It was a funny thing to say. It sounded like a real kid. You'd think a prostitute and all would say "Like hell you are" or "Cut the crap" instead of "Like fun you are"(Insert Page). Holden’s realization of this illustrates his ability to find the innocence in anyone, even a corrupting prostitute like Sunny. Holden assumes that Sunny also uses vigorous language as he does. Therefore, Holden’s inability to comprehend Sunny and by making assumptions about what her vocabulary would be based on her profession, shows how sexual involvement can corrupt people, leading them to make false accusations. Overall, corruption is powerful and can be manipulative and harmful, as it was in Holden’s interaction with

Sunny.

In addition, Salinger unveils the sad fact of how time and time again, society edges people to insanity through Holden’s relationship with Sally Hayes. Holden’s interactions with Sally progressively propels him to insanity, even though it is a situation with mutual loving. Holden thought in response to what Sally said, "Stop screaming at me, please," she said. Which was crap, because I wasn't even screaming at her"(Insert Page). Salinger’s use of ‘crap’ portrays Holden’s craziness to the best possible extent because through his use of vulgar language, he illustrates how Sally’s normality is causing hysteria in his own life. By Sally fitting into societal norms provokes Holden into having a fit when all that Sally has is a simple request. Through this writing Salinger displays society’s expectations and how people who do not think they fit the expectations are often on the brink of insanity. Therefore, Sally’s reaction to Holden’s ‘screaming’ makes him feel like he does not belong in society and is an outsider. All in all, through Holden’s relationship with Sally it is exemplified that no matter the conditions, society’s will to make all people want to conform to society, often accomplishes nothing but insanity.