Matty coming of age

Phony, phony, phony, phony, phony. It seems like that's Holden favorite word since he uses it every other sentence. Holden manages to find a way to classify everyone he knows as a phony. People are phonies because they exchange greetings, people are phony because they like certain actors, or people are phonies because they have a worn out razor. The only people who are exempted from his obsession of phoniness are children, people he view as completely innocent and straightforward. Holden's definition of a phony person is generally someone who is superficial and has ulterior motives or agendas behind their actions. Holden sees this quality in Stradlater, who is very concerned about his physical appearance yet is a complete slob around Holden. Stradlater also sucks up to him just so Holden would do his English homework for him. These traits exemplify the phoniness that Holden detests so much. It's interesting however, after seeing how much criticism Holden makes about pho...

At the end of chapter five we see Stephen finally detach himself from faith. He completely abandons any form of Christianity—his commitment to his secularism cannot even be broken by the pleas and heartbreak of his own mother. The state of Stephen's faith took a complete 180 from his strict letter-of-the-law observance of religion. He prayed routinely at Clongowes even through freezing cold and sickness, and he disciplined his senses, forgoing mortal comforts all in fear of being damned to hell. While it may seem surprising to see the pious young Stephen's transformation to complete secularism, given the nature of Stephen's relationship with his faith, we really should have seen that coming. Stephen's faith has always been driven by fear. In the beginning at Clongowes, he was driven to pray by the belief that missing a single prayer will damn him to hell. It seems that Stephen's faith is not genuine and kind of misguided. The fire and brimstone speech is one of th...