Analysis of Holden Caulfield

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In the novel, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, set in the 1950s America, the antihero Holden Caulfield is an adolescent who is in a state of angst, due to his difficulty in creating stable relationships. He tends to create false relationships by lying. At one point he lies to the a mother of one of his aquaintances, stating that her son, Ernie, was "One of the most popular boys at Pencey." This leads to a series of a fascinating series of lies, causing Holden to falsely portray himself as a bizarre character to the mother. This, in turn, causes him to regret lying. In this portion of the novel, the author uses many colloquial words and phrases that are characteristics of the 1950s, such as the usage of the word, "wolf," meaning to consume greedily, and the usage of the phrase, "and all" which is equivalent to "and something," and the addition of "Old" in front of nouns to portray his aquaintance to something. He fails to create relationships with adults because of their "phoniness." When his history teacher Spencer, used the word grand, Holden states that, "Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony." He displays his disgust through hyperboles, stating that he would "puke" at phony things. In this portion of the novel, he uses metaphores, stating that Spencer seemed as sharp as a "tack." His attitude of revulsion causes him to alienate himself from the adult world. Hence it can be seen that Holden Caulfield is a lonely
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