How Does Holden Lie

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The Catcher in the Rye Essay Lies. Once they begin, they continue beginning and cease to end. The story of The Catcher in the Rye follows Holden Caulfield and his continuous troubles throughout the story. J.D. Salinger puts the book in Holden’s point of view and displays his poor behavior and mischievous actions. One of which is the repetitive lying throughout the story. Holden lies throughout the novel in order to benefit himself, revealing his own self-deception; his lies and poor diction lead to mental and physical conflicts throughout the story. Lying leads Holden down a dark path, as it would with anyone. Diction is one of many factors which contributes to his persistent lies. Holden’s word choice truly shows his attitude and character …show more content…

Conflicts are almost always present in the story. Around every corner, Holden runs into another problem. One might say Holden himself is the cause of most of the problems that occur. The reasoning behind this is because of the constant lying and deceiving that Holden generates throughout the story. Holden gets into many fights, big and small, which he has trouble ending. One of the conflicts Holden encounters is a fight with Stradlater. He says this if only he’d had another swing at him. “I’d’ve’ killed him” (Salinger, 43). Holden gets upset because the complication ends with Stradlater on top. Little does Holden know, the fight was started only because he urged Stradlater to tell him about what happened to Jane. Holden’s self-deception is revealed when he blames Stradlater for starting the conflict. Holden encounters other conflicts in which he unknowingly started. One of the largest conflicts is further in the novel, during his date with Sally. Holden loses his temper and says something he will later regret. “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth” (Salinger

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