Holden Caulfield Phony

The Twentieth Century was turning point towards the modern culture that teens have today. In the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield struggles to come to terms with losing his innocence and growing up. He often holds onto the memory of his younger brother Allie, that died as a child. Holden often refers to his childhood friends as innocence that needs to be protected. Holden is living just before the time that teenage culture became invented. As a sixteen year old he is troubled between doing adult things such as smoking, having sex, and living an easier more simple life as a kid with limited responsibilities and less life experience. Holden often associates adults and the way they conform to society as phony. In

order to prevent himself from growing up and losing his innocence, Holden tries to stop time by living the memory of Allie and avoiding “phony” people.
At his private school Holden is often exposed to social drinking, sex and alcohol, even though he fabricates how much he takes part in his social events, this aspect of his life effectively takes away some childhood innocence. Holden’s roommate Stradlater, at Pencey Prep is the average superficial but attractive jock. Stradlater is one of the few guys that Holden is acquainted with that is sexually active.“Most guys at Pencey just talked about having sexual intercourse with girls all the time – like Ackley, for instance – but old Stradlater really did it. I was personally acquainted with at least two girls he gave the time to. That’s the truth,” (55). Holden was not bothered by Stradlater's little respect for women until he took Jane on a date. Jane was a girl that Holden had known since he was a child. He immediately recalls a memory of spending the summer with her and playing checkers. Holden thinks of Jane as an innocent person especially since she was part of his past. He is extremely bothered by Stradlater's date with her because he believes that she will lose some of her innocence. Holden often connects sex and sexual appeal to adulthood. As he is waiting for Sally at the theater he analyzes the different type of women around him. During this time he speculates on how the girls have changed as they grew up.“In a way it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell happened to all of them. When then they got out of school and college I mean,” (137). Any time that Holden sees something that reminds him of growing up he immediately gets sad. It seems that he is suffering tremendously from his brothers death and he is searching for a way to save himself from losing the innocent times from when he was with Allie. As he analyzes the aspects of his life he slips farther and farther away from finding his safe haven of innocence.
Holden idolizes his younger siblings, all of the positive thoughts or stories that Holden tells have something to do with either Allie, Phoebe, or Jane.

Jane is an important person to Holden, he often says that he ought to call Jane or go visit her but he never actually does. Holden fears that Jane may see the phoniness in Holden that he hates so much. Holden believes that in order to stop from becoming phony he has to protect his innocence and the innocence of others. “I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” (191) Subconsciously Holden knows that he needs help or someone to save him. He feels like it is his responsibility to save other innocent people from ending up like him. As the catcher in the rye he would be there to protect the children if they need but he wouldn’t interfere any other way. Holden talks about protecting the innocent again when he watches his sister on the carousel. “All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddamn horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if they do anything.”(232) Holden almost sounds like he is giving up. Even though it is a minor

matter he wants to help his sister and he worries about her safety but he does not know how to help any more.He is so close to losing hope in saving himself and the innocence around him. Holden reaches his all time low as he reveals that he has narrated this story from a mental institution. In Holden's mind the adult world is a dark and lonely place.
For two days Holden ventures out and experiences the adult world of New York City all alone.

He often finds that common social activities are phony and full of phony people. Holden often replaces the word adults with phonies, because he believes that the adult world is filled with lies and deceit.“If you sat around there long enough and heard all the phonies applauding and all, you got to hate everybody in the world, I swear you did.” (158) Holden claims that he does not want to be an adult because his whole life would be boring dedicated to making money at a desk job. Holden is kind of a hypocrite because he often says that phoniness starts with money even though he often takes advantage of his wealth. Holden encounters two nuns on a bus and one of the first things he notices is that they both have cheap suitcases. “It isn't important, I know, but I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases. It sounds terrible to say it, but I can even get to hate somebody, just looking at them, if they have cheap suitcases with them,” (120) Its repulsive for Holden to look down on these two nuns just because of their suitcases. He seems to think that he is not phony and he is honorable for wanting to protect the innocence but Holden can be just as cruel and judgemental as any ‘phony’ adult. When he isn’t spending his money Holden blames part of the deceit and unhappiness of the adult world on money.“I was sorry anyway, though. Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.”

(126) He thinks that money leads to depression even though he has a lot of it himself. Holden does not see phoniness in himself. He is constantly judging other people for things that he is guilty of too. There is often no rationality to his thinking and he is not aware how dangerous his thoughts can be.
Holden grew up with fond childhood memories filled with innocent fun, as he moves into the adult world he realizes just how scary conformity can be and how the loss of someone close changes you. When Allie died Holden suffered extremely from the trauma and it was never taken care of. He felt like he lost part of his childhood and his innocence. As he is shipped off from school to school he stops believing in the simple things and blames others for being phony and blending in with society. Holden begins to lose hope as he slowly discovers that he lost himself. He pushes away people that care about him because he does not want them to be shamed, but he wants human contact so he befriends strangers. In the Holden is left in a safe place where he can start to rebuild his life and find new meaning for it. Holden is the first of many teens that struggle to transition to the adult world.