Phony Phoniness Have you ever noticed that things are not always true in life? Besides all the truth, there exists phoniness. You may hear at least a lie everyday without even noticing it. Someone knows much of it, though. J.D. Salinger, the author of the Catcher in The Rye, introduces the theme of phoniness in the book by using the perspective of Holden to claim that people around him are phony and even Holden himself is a phony person and also by providing a contrast to emphasize the existence of phoniness. First of all, Salinger wrote that Holden considered almost everyone around him is phony in some way. At the beginning of the book, Holden hated the environment he studied in —-Pency High, which contained plenty of hypocrites according
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Not only the students are phony, the teachers are phony, too. Before Holden left Pency, he went to visit Mr. Spencer, who was his previous history teacher. When they talked about the essay Holden wrote, Mr. Spencer asked “Would you care to hear what you had to say?”. Then, Holden responded clearly that “No, sir, not very much.”. Mr. Spencer did not even care about what Holden said. What he did was keeping reading the essay out loud anyway. Alhough he asked politely if Holden would like to hear it, he didn’t care about the response — the consequence was the same — he read it and ignored Holden’s feeling. In this book, Salinger made almost everyone phony, including Holden. Holden admitted that “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.”. He felt awful to keep being phone, but he just lied naturally. According to himself, “If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera.”. He lied to others all the time and it had became a permanent hobby. On the other hand, he spent …show more content…
The nuns he met on the train were the countable people that Holden didn’t hate in this book. They talked delightedly all the time and they even discussed the book of Romeo and Juliet. The nuns stand as a clear contrast of the prostitute, sunny. Right before Holden met the two nuns, he lost 10 dollars because of the prostitute. After he met the two nuns, he donated 10 dollars to the nuns. This can be explained that the whore was the symbol of the phoniness. Instead, the nuns, which were faithful and truthful to the god, was considered the symbol of the goodness in life. Also, Jane may be the purest person in this book in Holden’s opinion. Holden never got a chance to visit her in the book, but he mentioned Jane many times. All his memories and thoughts about Jane was relaxing and joyful. Jane symbolized Holden’s hope in a way. She was the thing he sought for and she was the inspiration when he was down. These people ended up being on the opposite side of the phoniness. That really helped emphasize the
Not only the students are phony, the teachers are phony, too. Before Holden left Pency, he went to visit Mr. Spencer, who was his previous history teacher. When they talked about the essay Holden wrote, Mr. Spencer asked “Would you care to hear what you had to say?”. Then, Holden responded clearly that “No, sir, not very much.”. Mr. Spencer did not even care about what Holden said. What he did was keeping reading the essay out loud anyway. Alhough he asked politely if Holden would like to hear it, he didn’t care about the response — the consequence was the same — he read it and ignored Holden’s feeling. In this book, Salinger made almost everyone phony, including Holden. Holden admitted that “I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life.”. He felt awful to keep being phone, but he just lied naturally. According to himself, “If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera.”. He lied to others all the time and it had became a permanent hobby. On the other hand, he spent …show more content…
The nuns he met on the train were the countable people that Holden didn’t hate in this book. They talked delightedly all the time and they even discussed the book of Romeo and Juliet. The nuns stand as a clear contrast of the prostitute, sunny. Right before Holden met the two nuns, he lost 10 dollars because of the prostitute. After he met the two nuns, he donated 10 dollars to the nuns. This can be explained that the whore was the symbol of the phoniness. Instead, the nuns, which were faithful and truthful to the god, was considered the symbol of the goodness in life. Also, Jane may be the purest person in this book in Holden’s opinion. Holden never got a chance to visit her in the book, but he mentioned Jane many times. All his memories and thoughts about Jane was relaxing and joyful. Jane symbolized Holden’s hope in a way. She was the thing he sought for and she was the inspiration when he was down. These people ended up being on the opposite side of the phoniness. That really helped emphasize the