Holden Caulfield is a very interesting character in The Catcher in the Rye. I found him to be quite intellectual at times despite him being rather closed minded and naïve. We see his use of the word “phony” relatively often in the novel.
I associate the word “phony” with a more urban word which is “fake”. If used in a sentence such as “that guy is such a fake”, it is used as an insult. Calling someone “fake” is essentially saying someone is not true to themselves or how they present themselves to other people. For example, they could be a person who seems very nice to everyone, but then talks poorly of them behind their back. This association with the two words first occurred to me in chapter three when Holden is talking about Ossenburger. The way Holden describes Ossenburger shows that the man is full of hypocrisy. Holden says that Ossenburger runs a discount funeral parlor that takes advantage of the grieving families but on the other hand, he tells all the students that they should have integrity and pray devoutly. “He started off with about fifty corny jokes, just to show us what a regular guy he was. Very big deal. Then he started telling us how he was never ashamed, when he was in some kind of trouble or something, to get right down his knees and pray to God. He told us we should always pray to God–talk to Him and all–wherever we were. He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time. Even when he was driving his car. That killed me. I just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs.” This here tells me the exact definition of Holden’s word “phony”. It is simply a word he uses to describe people or something that isn’t true to their words or true to themselves. Holden uses this word many times in the course of the novel in regard to not just people but to things as well.
Holden might use the word phony himself quite frequently to describe other people, but how phony is Holden? I see Holden going against his own beliefs and being fake or phony multiple times throughout novel. I don’t think he fully realizes it when he does it though. This shows that even though he is so against the phoniness in the world, he still partakes in it without even realizing that he’s doing it.
Holden has a very known hatred towards movies. He mentions it countless times throughout the novel about how phony movies are. He sometimes describes the actors as acting “too real” indicating to me that he feels that movies are fake and should be acted as such. He brings up many times how he doesn’t enjoy movies at all and finds them extremely phony and how people who enjoy movies are unintelligent people and are extremely phony themselves. Yet Holden still goes to see movies, despite his hatred towards them. He can talk all day about his enormous hatred towards movies but when it comes down to it, if a female friend of his wants to see a movie, he’ll go see it. He feels that just because he sees movies doesn’t mean he actually enjoys them or stops his hatred towards them. If he was a true movie hater and stuck to his word, he wouldn’t step a foot in a movie theater. In a way, he is like Ossenburger by going against his original words. His hatred towards the phoniness of movies and the phony people that surround movies can be easily overruled by a girl wanting to see a movie with him. This to me, is very phony. “I started imitating one of those guys in the movies. In one of those musicals. I hate the movies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them.”
Holden’s use of the word phony can be interpreted in many ways. I see him mainly using the word to describe things in the world that aren’t true to their form. Another word to describe phony would be insincere.
Holden Caulfield is an extremely hypercritical boy, who is trying his very hardest to avoid transitioning into the phoniness of adulthood. Holden feels that the majority of adults and most teens his own age are “phony.” From Holden’s point of view, anyone who is the slightest bit insincere or “fake” is a phony. An example would be a very seemingly genuine individual like Mr. Spencer as he is quite sympathetic adult. Holden thinks that Mr. Spencer is a phony for laughing at the headmaster’s lame jokes.
Holden’s holds this great unspoken fear of entering the adulthood which explains his constant criticism towards others and his need for everyone to be sincere. When Holden labels people as phony, it is just his own way of describing people who are dishonest, selfish, insincere, “fake”, has ulterior motives (like Mr. Antolini) or is primarily concerned with improving their reputation and advancing their social status. “Mr. Antolini was very nice. He said I could come right over if I wanted to.” “I felt something on my head, some guy’s hand. Boy, it really scared hell out of me. What it was, it was Mr. Antolini’s hand. What he was doing was, he was sitting on the floor right next to the couch, in the dark and all, and he was sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head. Boy, I’ll bet I jumped about a thousand feet.”
Salinger just wants people, especially teens, to realize and be aware of the phoniness in the world. He wants people to see the dishonesty and selfishness in people before they fall into a trap that holds ulterior motives. From reading the book, I had a feeling that Salinger wrote the book from his own perspective as a teenager and the way he thought of the world and people back then. A perfect example is the situation with Mr. Antolini. This seemingly kind and genuine adult showed to supportive and helping to Holden. Yet when Holden was sleeping, Mr. Antolini was inappropriate in rubbing Holden’s head and seemingly had no reason on why he was doing it. This completely showed to Holden what Mr. Antolini’s real intentions were with him. In a way, he was just grooming Holden by giving him hospitality and kindness, when in the end he had complete ulterior motives.
In conclusion, the word phony can be interpreted in many ways. It can be used to describe people and things in regard to being insincere or fake. Holden himself uses phony to help him keep true to himself and maintain the little innocence he can in life. Holden himself can be phony at times, but in his defense, he does it without realizing that he’s doing it or that he’s being phony at all. Salinger wrote the book to keep the readers aware of the phoniness in the world and how fake people can truly be. Holden’s use of the word “phony” is to help him cope as he is slowly put into the adult world and to describe people, places or things that are not true to their form.
As stated in the beginning of this essay, Holden Claufield is an extremely interesting character in The Catcher in the Rye. We see his use of the word “phony” multiple times throughout the novel. Holden uses this word as a coping mechanism to help him in his slow but sure transition into the adult world, which he does not want to be a part of. I think that Salinger wrote this book to show any teens like Holden that they are not alone in the world in feeling the way that Holden does. Salinger’s purpose of writing this book stands out to me as I think the book can seriously help many teens that have overwhelming feelings of phoniness; just like Holden.
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