Holden's Encounter With The Phony In Catcher In The Rye

Prior to Holden’s encounter with the mummy he happens to pass by several graffiti that spells out “fuck you,” he signifies the graffiti as signs of chaos and an act that is unforgivable. His greatest fear is having the children at Phoebe’s school see the signs and become horrified of its meaning and what it stands for, in the previous chapters we understand that Holden’s dream if to become a catcher in the rye that saves children from falling off a cliff. This allows us to finally understand the meaning of the title of the book, and we also understand that even though Holden address very mature topics throughout the novel; his dream is to save the innocence of children. This idea of saving innocence also connects to the idea of Holden’s hatred for people he calls “phonies,” “phonies” are supposedly people who are not genuine, for example when people ask “how are you” but they really don’t care on the inside. He loves children and especially Phoebe because they do as they feel and children never mean harm. This is why Holden wishes to see Phoebe more than anyone else in the book, he loves Phoebe because she’s genuine and she exemplifies qualities that Holden doesn’t, for example she’s …show more content…
After being revealed to the fact that the “fuck you” graffiti represents chaos and a representation of something unforgivable, we see that a similar graffiti is written under the tomb of the mummy. Except this time it was written in red crayon, crayons are generally connected to children, and the symbolic meaning of the “fuck you” written in red crayon signifies the breaking of innocence. Through this insight we understand that even though the mummy has been dead for hundreds of years, yet it is still in the presence of something so terrible, this is a direct connection to the idea of the fact that there is no peace after