Holden Caulfield The Real Phony In Catcher In The Rye

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In Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caufield makes it very clear that he does not like fake or phony people. Throughout the story Holden at times makes the reader feel like he or she should feel bad for him because of the hardships he's been through and how he has to deal with the "phonies" when he is actually one himself. As the story goes on Holden proves himself to be the real phony of the book because he never goes through with what he intends to do, he is overly concerned about sex but thinks its overrated, and he's very critical about other peoples lives. Holden Caulfield is the true phony and even more so a huge hypocrite throughout the novel. To start, All he wants to do is connect with someone but the boy has high standards. As many times as Holden says he’s “lonesome” and “depressed” he never does anything to change it, he often can’t even get to the point of reaching out at all. The very first thing the does when he gets off the train in New York is go to a phone booth but then he leaves twenty minutes later without having even picked up the phone. Holden admits to this when he says, “…as soon as I was inside, I couldn't think of anybody to call up. My brother D.B. was in Hollywood. My kid sister Phoebe goes…show more content…
This is obvious throughout the story because of his lack of connection with people, the stories he tells, and all the negative things he has to say about people. His negative personality definitely comes from his traumatizing experiences as a child, whatever they may be. Holden is an extremely mysterious person and its very clear because no one knows what is the truth and what is a lie when it comes out of his mouth. In the end, feeling bad for Holden is all thats left. It’s sad that he has lived his life so miserably but things might have been different if he acted more like the real Holden, was more truthful, and wasn’t so deceitful to everyone around
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