Hypocritical Narrator In Catcher In The Rye

One of the most depressing and misleading characters to appear in American literature is Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. Throughout the entire book, Holden goes on a journey trying to escape adulthood and protect innocence. He tells himself that there are phonies in the grown up world. These people who Holden despises hide behind a mask and wear fake smiles. It is that idea that keeps Holden stuck in between two worlds, adult’s cold, hard reality and a children’s fantasy. However, it is his actions, his language, and his habits of mind that causes him to provide a perfect example of the very phony he hates. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, illustrates a hypocritical narrator who embodies everything

One piece of evidence would be when he lies to Ms. Morrow about why he is coming home early from school. He lies to her by saying he has a serious medical condition, “I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” (Salinger 58). Ms. Marrow is a nice and polite person who becomes genuinely worried after hearing about his fake tumor. Not only has he finished telling her a bunch of fabricated stories that turn her jerk of a son into a popular student, but now he misrepresents himself and deceives her by becoming something to pity. In the same fashion, Holden lies to the elevator operator in order for him to sneak into his parent’s apartment, “They’re at a party on the fourteenth floor. . . I’m supposed to wait for them. I’m their nephew.” (Salinger 157). It is easy for Holden to make up tall tales in order to obtain what he wants. Lying comes naturally to him and he never stops to think that he has the same thought process that runs through the minds of the people he declares phony. Most importantly, Holden lies to himself. He generates fantasies in his mind that allow him to use his imagination and escape reality, “I’d be somewhere out in the old West where it was very pretty and sunny and where nobody’d know me and I’d get a job.” (Salinger 198). Holden creates these ‘What if . . .’ stories in his mind to run away from the real world

Holden is biased toward certain words that he sees as phony, but he still uses words that have the same connotation. In addition, he criticizes people who are perverted, yet he holds the same sexual desires even though he has never experienced it before. Finally, Holden tells lies to boost his self esteem however, he hates it when the same type of deceit is performed by other people. Holden goes through life meeting others and setting expectations for them. Unfortunately, those adults never seem to meet his expectations. Likewise, Holden himself can never manage to live up to his own ideals either establishing a character who is never fully honest and