Holden Caulfield is a Liar Catcher In The Rye Character
Uploaded by surfchick on Feb 20, 2005
Catcher In The Rye
In the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger, phonies play a grand role as one of the major themes of the novel. Webster's Dictionary defines a phony as, "a person who is not what he pretends to be." There are many examples of phonies in the novel, such as Sally Hayes, Stradlater, and even Holden Caulfield. Holden appears to be the biggest phonie of them all. Holden Caulfield is by far the king of all the phonies mentioned in the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, for he lies, is a hypocrite, and adjust his outside image.
Being a liar is one form of deceiving the world of what you truly are, and this is one thing that Holden Caulfield isn't even shy about doing, nor admitting to. He uses lies to deceives his true intentions from those around him, this is shown while leaving Pencey Prep on the train and encountering the mother of Ernest Morrow. " It's me [Holden]. I have to have this operation... It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain." (Salinger, 58). In reality Holden was not going to New York to have a tumor taken out of his brain, but he was really going on a little vacation from everything. Although it was none of Mrs. Morrow's business to know where Holden was going, he chosee to deceive her of the truth, and received her pity because of the situation he described to her. He wanted her pity but he knew in order to receive it he would have to change his reality in order to earn it. Holden pretends to be sick, while he was in reality healthy. From that he ends up being a fake ill person. Holden also appears to use lying to protect his phoniness in another way. This is shown when Maurice asked him if he wants a girl sent up to his room. " I was already sort of sorry I'd let the thing start rolling, but it was too late now." (Salinger, 91). Before the final arrangements had been made for a girl to be sent up to Holden's hotel room, he wanted to back out. Instead he kept on going with the arrangements with Maurice. Yet again, Holden Caulfield deceived the world of what he truly...