Holden Caulfield, in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, struggled to withstand the "phony" characters and personalities of the people in the New York society where which he lived.

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Fernando Moura                                                  Due October 17, 2002        

Ms. Williams                                                                          C band        

                              Catcher In The Rye Essay

        

        Holden Caulfield, in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, struggled to withstand the “phony” characters and personalities of the people in the New York society where which he lived. He criticized their fake personalities and insincere actions to the only person that he could confide in, his little sister, Phoebe. He believed she, besides himself, was one of the only people that wasn’t “phony”. His second younger brother, Allie, who died of leukemia, was one of the only people that Holden really valued as well. “Phony” is the best word to describe what Holden felt about many people. He was constantly using the word to describe colleagues, teachers, and acquaintances. While Holden was constantly criticizing people’s phoniness, he wasn’t acting too differently himself. Phony, to Holden, meant hiding the truth, not saying what you really felt, and being hypocritical, just to receive acceptance in society. There were many times, though, when Holden’s actions contradicted his values and beliefs, thus making him like everyone else that he judged. Holden tried to make himself superior over society by criticizing their fake ways because this was the only way that he could feel different from all of the phonies.

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        One of Holden’s hypocritical actions was to lie just for the fun of it. One example of this was when Holden was on his way to New York from Pencey Prep, the prep school which he attended.  He found the mother of Ernest Morrow, a colleague of his from Pencey, on the train, and apparently, Holden was not too fond of this kid.  He told her his name was Rudolph Schmidt, because he felt that by giving her his real name, he would be telling her his “whole family story.” He created the most scandalous lie about Ernest, saying that ...

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