Phoniness and Innocence in The Catcher in the Rye

There comes a time when constantlyybody has to say good-bye to their adolescent historic period and become an big. The c atomic subjugate 18free childhood leave be challenged by strains and expectations. Those unwilling to verbalism them ar doomed to fail. Holden Caul dramaturgy, the 16-year-old protagonist of J.D. Salinger?s novel The backstop in the Rye, is one of the adolescents who question the tie of being an adult. concisely before Christmas vacation, Holden has been expelled from an elite prep initiate in Pennsylvania. shape to stay at the work about(prenominal) longer or revert home, Holden decides to spend a some days in new York City. During his tour, he meets different community that he calls ?phonies?. The frequent implement of the word has a deeper substance than it might appear at first look. Holden?s irresistible impulse with phoniness demonstrates his conflict with the insincere adult dry land. The word ? counterfeit? has a uncomparable meaning for Holden. He uses it to describe people that realize to be someone else in position to feel superior. They inhabit to themselves and to otherwises. This deception does not al authoritys happen consciously. For example, the first supposed dissembler that Holden mentions is Mr. Ossenburger, who made a lot of money by burying people with cheap funerals. He says that this human came up to school in this big goddam Cadillac, and we all had to contri onlye up in the eminentstand and give him a locomotor ? that?s a cheer (16). Holden calls him a phony because Ossenburger dialog about legality and praying to Jesus in his speech to the students magic spell he takes advantage of mourning families. Furthermore, the school is phony because they welcomed him and named a antechamber aft(prenominal) him only because he gave the school money. This trickery bothers Holden very much. Whether it is a stereotype presented in a movie, or the expression ?grand?, he classifies them int o the category ?phony?. Holden?s hatred towa! rds phoniness is close connected with his sheltering nature. In his mind, phoniness is an subdivision of adulthood. Being an adult essence being forced to face problems and make compromises. Grown-ups want to hide their weaknesses in order to survive. Therefore, ontogenesis up of necessity means being phony. Opposite to that, children do not take for to act a certain way to achieve something. Consequently, purity is the opposite of phoniness, and growing up means to lose your pureness and become phony. Thus, Holden wants to protect the ingenuousness and virtuousness of young children, hoping that they would neer be confronted with the ugliness of the adult humans. This custodial instinct leads to an amazement and idealization of children, especially his young baby Phoebe and his inanimate brother Allie. Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye, someone who catches children that diminish over the edge of an imaginary field of rye carry out the cliff into the corrupt adulthood. When he sees ? eff you? written on the walls in his sister?s school and in the museum, he tries to erase it but eventually realizes that he can?t erase all the curses in the world. Children will always, at some point, be confronted with sexuality. This pessimistic view of the world affects him in a harmful way that ultimately leads to his breakdown. Holden sees the world in scandalous and white. Some people are phony, others are not.

However, he fears that he is slowly becoming a phony himself. ?I?m the most terrific liar you ever saw? (9), he admits. Alone his judge moral remarks show how confused and unstable he is. On one hand, he tries to act go through and ! mature when talking to adults, but on the other hand, he desperately tries to maintain the innocence of himself and others. He tries to protect himself by using a cynical voice passim the novel, but this only obligates him alienated from his environment. With every disappointment, his denial grows, and a cordial breakdown is unavoidable. He walks around in cutting York, yell out his dead brother?s name. single Phoebe, his younger sister, can show him his real situation and keep him from escaping honesty and becoming mad. Still, he ends up in a mental institution in California. Holden struggles between the phoniness of adulthood and the innocence of childhood. He is trapped between the two worlds. His refusal to grow up keeps him isolated. His motive English teacher, Mr Antollini, advises him to start applying himself in the next school. He tells him that Wilhelm Stekel once said, The mark of the immature man is that he wants to pass along nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one? (). Finally, Holden understands that giving up isn?t the solution to his problem, and he indicates that he might try on harder in the future. Maybe Holden isn?t so much of an outlander after all. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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