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J. D. Salinger essay
Holden Caulfield Catcher in the Rye character analysis
Holden Caulfield Catcher in the Rye character analysis
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Although Holden’s age is a large contributing factor as to why he feels the way he does, he is still a phony because his thoughts and feelings do not justify his dishonesty and hypocrisy. In The Catcher in the Rye, the author JD Salinger uses words such as “phony” and “bastard” to project Holden’s stern feelings onto the reader. By using colloquial language, readers are often intrigued by the uniqueness injected into the main character’s voice. However, the use of the word “phony” goes much deeper than that. In order to truly understand Salinger’s choice of language, it is important to nail down the most accurate definition of the words he uses. All throughout the book, Holden meets many people who he claims them to be “phony”. For example, when Holden is on his way back to New York, he meets his classmates mother on the train. …show more content…
It states, “Her son was doubtless the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole crumby history of the school.
He was always going down the corridor, after he’d had a shower, snapping his soggy old wet towel at people’s asses. That’s exactly the kind of guy he was...He’s a very sensitive boy. He’s really never been a terribly good mixer with other boys… Sensitive. That killed me. Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddamn toilet seat.” (Salinger, 54). By using words such as “crumby” and “bastard”, readers get an insight as to how Holden feels about his classmate, Ernest Morrow. It is evident Holden finds him to be a phony person because he is implying that Ernest Morrow is “fake” or unauthentic and even obnoxious. However, he later goes on to brag about Ernest Morrow, contradicting how he actually feels about his classmate. It states, “And the reason he was elected, the simple and obvious reason, was because Ernie wouldn’t let us nominate him. Because he’s so darn shy and modest and all...Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like
it. No kidding, hours.” (Salinger, 57-58). His actual feelings towards Morrow contradict everything he tells his mother. Holden has no complete reason to lie, but he does so, “for the hell of it.” Holden’s dishonesty showcases a phony trait because he is being hypocritical. He enjoys pointing out the flaws in other “phony” people but does not recognize his own fault. For example, Holden feels Ernest Morrow is obnoxious and unauthentic. However, what he fails to realize is that he, too, is equally as unauthentic as Morrow. Instead of telling Morrow’s mother the truth about her son and even the truth about himself, he makes up false stories out of boredom. To understand why Holden is so hypocritical, we must analyze his character all throughout the book. By giving Holden a voice so profound, Salinger is able to build a relationship with his readers. What makes Holden so significant, however, is that his character changes depending on where he is and who he is with. Salinger wants the readers to trust, yet distrust Holden allowing them to have a better understanding of him at the end. By making Holden a hypocritical and dishonest character, Salinger artifices his readers and makes Holden the greatest phony of them all,
Holden constantly referring to others, throughout the book, as being phony. In The Catcher in the
Page 38 is a typical example of how Holden values the qualities of purity and innocence. He attempts to throw a snowball against a car and fire hydrant, but quickly refrains from doing so, “the fact that he does not throw the snowball is “an attempt to preserve innocence (graham 2007:39). I strongly agree with this statement, as Holden’s fear of change is highlighted throughout the novel, which in turn paints a clear picture to the reader of Holden’s deepest desire, which is to preserve the innocence of childhood that gets hopelessly lost in the“phony” world of adulthood. Holden’s constant referral to adults as being “phony” is rather ironic as he says that one “wouldn’t” know If one was “being phony” this clearly means that he himself does not realize weather or not he himself is phony.
Holden, unlike the usual fictional teenager, doesn’t express normal rebellion. He distrusts his teachers and parents not because he wants to separate himself from them, but because he can’t understand them. In fact there is little in the world that he does understand. The only people he trusts and respects are Allie, his deceased brother, and Phoebe, his younger sister. Everyone else is a phony of some sort. Holden uses the word phony to identify everything in the world which he rejects. He rejects his roommate Stradlater because Stradlater doesn’t value the memories so dear to Holden (Allie’s baseball glove and Jane’s kings in the back row). Even Ernie, the piano player, is phony because he’s too skillful. Holden automatically associates skill with arrogance (from past experiences no doubt) and thus can’t separate the two. Even Holden’s most trusted teacher, Mr. Antolini, proves to be a phony when he attempts to fondle Holden. Thus the poor boy is left with a cluster of memories, some good but most bad.
Fake Holden in The Catcher in the Rye In The Catcher in the Rye, a boy named Holden Caulfield is faced with the obstacles of both society and life as he struggles to find direction as well as his relationship with the world. From page one, the reader can both understand and relate to what Holden has to say about the society in which we live and the way in which people in that society govern themselves. The more we read, the more we identify with Holden Caulfield. It seems like the typical, adolescent dilemma:
Holden often talked about how phony people in his life were, however, he was also a phony, which made him a hypocrite. Holden would often mention things he hated that someone did, but sooner or later Holden was guilty of doing the exact same thing. In chapter one Holden is hypocritical towards his older brother, D.B. He says “Now he’s out in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute.”(Salinger
J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye provides a provocative inquiry into the crude life of a depressed adolescent, Holden Caulfield. Without intensive analysis and study, Holden appears to be a clearly heterosexual, vulgar yet virtuous, typical youth who chastises phoniness and decries adult evils. However, this is a fallacy. The finest manner to judge and analyze Holden is by his statements and actions, which can be irrefutably presented. Holden Caulfield condemns adult corruption and phoniness but consistently misrepresents himself and is a phony as well as a hypocrite.
It's awful’” (9). Holden is a phony but does not realize it, even though he realizes very more subtle problems with himself. He should be able to see his own duplicity. Holden is guilty of being a phony is therefore a hypocrite because he is guilty of the insult he throws around. When Holden calls someone a phony he means that person is bogus or fake. Holden is a deceiver and offers no substitute. He tends to call most people he doesn’t like phonies and just tosses the word around. J.D. Salinger wants the reader to be able to spot hypocrisy when judging other people. Holden makes like he seemingly hates everybody but at the end of the book he lets the readers know that he misses everyone. Even though Holden is a phony it’s what makes him such a deep and intriguing
Holden makes reference to the word "phony" forty-four separate times throughout the novel (Corbett 68-73). Each time he seems to be referring to the subject of this metaphor as -- someone who discriminates against others, is a hypocrite about something, or has manifestations of conformity (Corbett 71). Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden describes and interacts with various members of his family. The way he talks about or to each gives you some idea of whether he thinks they are "phony" or normal. A few of his accounts make it more obvious than others to discover how he classifies each family member.
J. D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is a very well known piece of the twentieth century. It’s a story about a seventeen-year-old boy, Holden Caufield, who experiences some interesting things and people upon his being expelled from Pencey Prep. School. From having breakfast with a couple of nuns on a bus, to spending an evening with a far from seraphic prostitute, Holden handles each situation the best way he can. However, most of the people Holden encounters, he deems innately phony; Holden thinks almost everyone is a phony.
In life there comes a time when everyone thinks that they are surrounded by phoniness. This often happens during the teen years when the person is trying to find a sense of direction. Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old teen-ager is trying to find his sense of direction in J.D. Salinger's, "The Catcher In The Rye." Holden has recently been expelled from Pency Prep for failing four out of his five classes. He decides to start his Christmas recess early and head out to New York. While in New York Holden faces new experiences, tough times and a world of "phony." Holden is surrounded by phoniness because that is the word he uses to identify everything in the world that he rejects.
J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye revolves around Holden's encounters with other people. He divides all people into two different categories, the "phonies" and the authentics. Holden refers to a "phony" as someone who discriminates against others, is a hypocrite, or has manifestations of conformity. A person's age, gender, and occupation, play a key role in how Holden interacts with them.
Many of the times that Holden criticizes people, it is something he does himself. (Pg 13) “. one of the reasons I left Elkton was that I was surrounded by phonies.” Holden himself is many times what he refers to as a “phony”. He knows that he lies and pretends to like people that he would rather not be with.
J.D. Salinger presents Holden Caulfield as a confused and distressed adolescent. Holden is a normal teenager who needs to find a sense of belonging. All though Holden’s obsession with “phonies” overpowers him. Dan Wakefield comments, “The things that Holden finds so deeply repulsive are things he calls “phony”- and the “phoniness” in every instance is the absence of love, and , often the substitution of pretense for love.” Holden was expelled from Pencey Prep School not because he is stupid, but because he just is not interested. His attitude toward Pencey is everyone there is a phony. Pencey makes Holden feel lonely and isolated because he had very few friends. Holden’s feeling of alienation is seen when he doesn’t attend the biggest football game of the year. His comments on the game: “It was the last game of the year and you were supposed to commit suicide or something if old Pencey didn’t win” (2, Ch. 1). This also hints to Holden’s obsession with death. Holden can’t find a since of belonging in the school because of all the so-called phonies. Holden speaks of Pencey’s headmaster as being a phony. Holden says that on visitation day the headmaster will pay no attention to the corny-looking parents. Holden portrays his not being interested by saying, “all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to buy a goddam Cadillac someday, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses”(131, Ch. 17). Holden does not care for school or money. He just wants everyone to be sincere and honest.
From the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the youthful protagonist Holden Caufield, employs the word “phony” to describe the behavior of a number of characters including Mr. Spencer and Ossenburger, however it is not them who are“phony”, it is the young main character. First, Mr. Spencer, Holden’s ex- history teacher, is not described as phony, but according to the adolescent, his choice of words are. Secondly, according to our main character, Ossenburger is not the generous philanthropist he portrays himself to be, but rather a greedy undertaker. Lastly, the protagonist could quite possibly be the authentic phony. All in all, the main character’s use to describe many other characters in the book is with the single word phony, when in fact the word phony would be the most probable word to describe the lead character.
For example; Stradlater (Holden’s former roommate), Mr. Antolini (Holden’s former teacher), Sunny (the prostitute), and even his other brother DB Caulfield. DB represented the phoniness the Holden hates because he was a writer in Hollywood. He writes for movies, lives in a fake city filled with fake people, and Holden sees him as a sell-out, nothing compared to their young brother Allie. The only way you were not a phony is if you were a kid. Holden loved kids because of their innocence: genuine, caring, and naturally kindhearted. This is why when he talks with Phoebe about one thing that he likes a lot, he reveals that he wants to be the “Catcher in the Rye.” He pictures a lot of children playing in a big field of rye around the edge of a cliff. Holden imagines that he would catch them if they started to go over the cliff and save “thousands of little kids.” Him imagining himself stopping kids from going over the edge is his way of stopping kids from falling into “adulthood” and losing their childhood