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 phoniness, to consider whether he himself exhibits these qualities. When I read Chapter 15, where Holden starts going off about suitcases, I began to consider this question. Holden admits, "I can even get to hate somebody, just looking at them, if they have cheap suitcases with them." Holden does defend himself by saying this irrational hatred stems from an experience he had in which his roommate was jealous of his suitcases and wanted to make Holden look bad by making it appear as if his cheap suitcase was Holden's. However, Holden openly admitting he can hate someone purely based on an aspect of their appearance does seem very superficial to me. Before he gets to know the character of a person or seek the good conversationalist he so desires, he can immediately reject that possibility because they own a cheap suitcase. In the case of the two nuns, he didn't let their suitcases get in the way of finding out they were good conversationalists, but if he had let his tendency affect his perception of the nuns, he would have never met the two people he enjoyed conversing so much with. Being this superficial and judging based on appearances is one of the traits of phoniness that Holden condemns, yet exhibits himself. It's interesting to consider if there are other places in the novel where he notice these small instances of hypocrisy.
It's interesting however, after seeing how much criticism Holden makes about phoniness, to consider whether he himself exhibits these qualities. When I read Chapter 15, where Holden starts going off about suitcases, I began to consider this question. Holden admits, "I can even get to hate somebody, just looking at them, if they have cheap suitcases with them." Holden does defend himself by saying this irrational hatred stems from an experience he had in which his roommate was jealous of his suitcases and wanted to make Holden look bad by making it appear as if his cheap suitcase was Holden's. However, Holden openly admitting he can hate someone purely based on an aspect of their appearance does seem very superficial to me. Before he gets to know the character of a person or seek the good conversationalist he so desires, he can immediately reject that possibility because they own a cheap suitcase. In the case of the two nuns, he didn't let their suitcases get in the way of finding out they were good conversationalists, but if he had let his tendency affect his perception of the nuns, he would have never met the two people he enjoyed conversing so much with. Being this superficial and judging based on appearances is one of the traits of phoniness that Holden condemns, yet exhibits himself. It's interesting to consider if there are other places in the novel where he notice these small instances of hypocrisy.
Yeah Holden is definitely a hypocrite. But isn't the worst part of finding other people phony usually realizing that you are too? Maybe he's aware of that and its just another layer of things he doesn't like him his life. But yeah, like with the suitcases as you pointed out, Holden can be pretty irrational and immature in his perceptions of the world.
ReplyDeleteI thought about this myself. It seems like Holden grows aware of this throughout the book. Perhaps this coming of age is about judging yourself and holden applying his ideas to his own life.
ReplyDeleteHolden is an interesting character to analyze. Yes, I see that he judges people from a "face-value" viewpoint, however, I can't help but think that we all do the same? Holden has a strict idea on what's cool or not but forgets to insert himself under scruntinization. Adding on to the comments above me: While we crack at Holden's hypocritical thoughts, I feel that a nice lesson from Holden's narration is that we need to view our own thoughts from time to time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Holden is very much a hypocrite in the way that he treats others. Not only with his judgement of others, which I hadn't thought about before, but with the way he treats others. He doesn't exactly treat Ackley the way he says he wants to, nor Stradlater, and isn't that phony? He's treating them differently to preserve the relationship, which is arguably an ulterior motive to speaking his mind.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that Holden is in fact a hypocrite. I find it so funny that he criticizes people for the same things he does himself. I think it would be really interesting if there was a point in the book where he realizes that what he's doing makes him a phony, but then again, Holden does think that he's right about everything so it might be hard for him to critique himself.
ReplyDeleteI was definitely bothered by Holden's hypocrisy throughout the novel as well. Another place I noticed Holden being "phony" is his compulsive lying. He is honest with the reader and tells us that he is a compulsive liar but then he interacts with people by telling them lies and not really portraying an honest picture of who he really is as a person. Holden seems to be aware of what he's doing but unable to stop.
ReplyDeleteHow many times do you think Holden uses the word "phony" in the novel? Maybe a thousand? Sometimes he labels things as phony because they depress or confuse him and he doesn't want to think about them. It's easy to dismiss something as phony and then forget about it, so Holden uses the concept of phoniness as a kind of defense mechanism. He just wants to stick with his own narrow view of the world so that he doesn't have to follow rules that people impose upon him.
ReplyDeleteYes, Holden is a hypocrite at times, but that can be interpreted as the half of him that is still child-like. In class, we discussed how Holden was in sort of a limbo stage in his life, where he has to move forward even though he doesn't want to. Various aspects of Holden physique and character seem to be halfway in between child and adult. His phoniness could be an example of this.
ReplyDeleteThe point where I got kinda annoyed with the whole phony thing was when Holden was calling Sally to set up a date and he thinks she's phony for using the word "grand" because apparently that word is phony. Like 5 seconds earlier, he said that he was doing "swell" which a. is a lie and b. sounds just as phony as saying "grand". They're both just polite phrases you use in conversation. Also, I ctrl+f'd the word phony on a pdf of Catcher and he only actually says it 35 times.
ReplyDeleteHolden, at least at the beginning of the book, is as big a phony as anyone else. I think he starts to realize this throughout the book though, and begins to gain some self-awareness and maybe even "come of age" a little.
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