What Is Holden's Phony In The Great Gatsby

In the books, The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald these authors write about two characters who have deep phoniness tendencies throughout their lives in the real world. The character in The Catcher In the Rye While Gatsby unquestionably is a big phony, Holden is the biggest phony because he lies just to isolate himself from other people, for no reason at all, and so adults would take him seriously. Although Holden is a big phony, Gatsby fabricates a story a bout his life piecing together facets of information that sound intriguing and somewhat believable. When Gatsby is lying, he lies to cover up his upbringing to make him seem like a different and interesting person. When Gatsby is speaking to Nick about his life prior to being in San Francisco, he tells him, “I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West — all dead now” (Fitzgerald 51). Gatsby did not want to admit the fact that he’s from a very poor family and his father, who appears at the end of the book, is not even close to being dead which proves some of his phoniness. Another occurrence of phoniness happened again during the …show more content…
After being on his own for a couple days,Holden visits goes back home to visit Phoebe. During their conversation at home, Holden tells Phoebe, ”I told you. They let us out early. They let the whole--" (Salinger 88). Holden obviously has no reason for lying to Phoebe since he supposed to be at school around the time he comes home and Phoebe is smart enough to see through his lie. While Holden is on a train, he runs into a classmate of his mom, Mrs.Morrow. Holden tells Mrs.Morrow, "It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain." (Salinger 32). Holden could’ve just been honest with Mrs.Morrow but he decides to lie just to lie. Holde really shows signs of being a compulsive liar which means he’s very comfortable with many lies for no apparent