In “The Catcher in the Rye” the main character and narrator of the story is Holden Cau field. Holden is telling the story of his adolescence from a hospital in California after having had a nervous breakdown. Holden is a troubled teenager that is unable to cope with school, people and life. Holden lies a lot and for many different reasons but I believe the biggest reason he lies is to make it easier for him to cope with the world. Holden believes that the adult world is full of “phonies” and although he hated adults for being phony on some level, I believe, that he felt in order to fit in he too had to be a phony himself and lie. On page 87, Holden says, “If you want to stay alive, you have to say that kind of stuff, though.” Another reason, I think Holden lies is because he is not content or satisfied with who he is.
He manages to find something wrong about every element of his life. One example is when he keeps lying about his age. Holden is not content with being sixteen years old especially since there are things going on with his body that he does not understand. For example, at sixteen years old he already has grey hair. I believe he wants to be grown right now and skip adolescence instead of being a teenager and taking time to grow up. Another reason Holden lies so much is to get out of situations that he has created for himself and does not know how to act in.
The Term Paper on Phoniness: Its Effect On Holden Caulfield’s Character And His View On Society
... within his own character. As a result, Holden develops a “phony stigma” that he uses to identify ... the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That’s all. They ... lies to other people he is technically considered to be his own definition of “phony”. The world is not as simple as Holden ... from perfect and that he is the reason behind all of the desolation in his ...
Situations that could have been avoided by just shutting up. Like when he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow and she starting asking him all those questions; he lied about a lot of things and then had to lie again to get out of the first lies he told. Finally, the last reason Holden lies so much is that he thinks it is easier to deal with issues by telling people what he thinks they want to hear. For instance, when Mr. Spencer is lecturing him about getting thrown out of school Holden replies by saying things that he thought Mr.
Spencer wanted to hear. Another example is when he is on the train with Mrs. Morrow he tells her that her son is a “gem” and other good things about him when in truth Holden knew that her son is a wretch and disliked by many of the students at school. Ultimately Holden is a good person. He has issues with the world as a whole, especially the adult world where everyone is “phony” and only concerned with material things. He finds it difficult to deal with those people and is bothered by the innocence being taken away from young people for growing up in a world with “the phonies.” Holden also has issues of loneliness and depression.
If he cold just realize that he would be a much better person if he stopped lying he would have less problems. But because he believes this is how the world is, he will probably continue to lie.
