Soulliere
A Liar is a Liar is a Liar
In Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) and The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexander Dumas), the main characters both use deception to achieve their goals. Both main characters have different motives behind their actions and convey their lies in different ways. Regardless of the difference in characters, their primary reason for deception is that they despise society. While reading the two novels, it can be seen that Holden lies to himself to achieve his goals while Dantès lies to others to achieve his goals.
The favourite, catch-all phrase of Holden, the main character of Catcher in the Rye, is phoniness. He uses this to describe the superficiality, hypocrisy, pretension, and shallowness that he encounters in the world around him. He holds a greater amount of hatred towards people who believe themselves to be better than others. Phoniness, for Holden, stands as a symbol of everything that is wrong in the world around him and provides an excuse for him to withdraw in cynical isolation. His concept of phoniness largely relies on self-deception.
Self-deception allows Holden to blame the rest of the world for all of his problems. There are many examples in the novel that show how frequently he convinces himself of the shortcomings of others in order to defend himself. One is that he resents the fame and fortune of the acting career and therefore says that actors are all phonies. This resentment results in Holden’s hatred of movies. Holden comments that the actors don’t act like real people and that he can’t imagine why anyone would actually watch a movie for entertainment alone. “Besides, I’d been to the movies with Brossard and Ackley before. They both laughed like hyenas at stuff that wasn’t even funny. I didn’t even enjoy sitting next to them in the movies.” (Salinger 37) Additionally, Holden resents that he was kicked out of school, and responds by falsely concluding that the people attending the school and the school itself are phony. “Pencey was full of crooks. Quite a few guys came from these very wealthy families, but it was full of crooks anyway. The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has…” (Salinger 4) As well, Ernie, the piano player at a nearby nightclub, plays exceptionally well. However, Holden convinces himself that there is something phony about the way he plays because he believes that Ernie must have too much arrogance to be admired. “He’s a terrific snob and he won’t hardly even talk to you unless you’re a big shot or a celebrity or something, but he can really play the piano. He’s so good he’s almost corny, in fact. I don’t know what I mean by that, but I mean it.” (Salinger 80) Another example is that, Even though he believes in God, Holden has problems with organized religion. He explains that he can’t stand ministers because they sound so phony when they talk. “If you want to know the truth, I can’t even stand ministers. The ones they’ve had at every school I’ve gone to, they all have these Holy Joe voices when they start giving their sermons. God, I hate that… They sound so phony when they talk.” (Salinger 100) He uses all of these explanations to fool himself into thinking that he has no flaws. He makes himself think that the phoniness everybody exhibits is the cause of all his hardships. This can be seen because all along, he complains about the phoniness of others, while he is acting similarly to those who he has voiced his hatred for throughout the novel.
