Holden :: essays papers

Holden Holden Caulfield is in many ways a typical teenager, skeptical of all authority and with a truculent attitude. The one value that he espouses is authenticity and morality, although he does not carry any other these characteristics himself. Holden also focuses on authenticity and, in turn, the essential phoniness of others around him but does not see the phoniness in himself. Holden's admission that he is the "most terrific liar." One could meet is an apt statement, for his delusions extend beyond making others believe his deceptions. In fact, it is debatable whether or not people believe Holden's lies. Rather, Holden's ability to lie is most manifest in his own sense of self-delusion. Holden is at a constant war with himself between the way he acts and the way he likes other to act. Continuing to berate others for phoniness, Holden cannot recognize the same sense of vapidity within himself. For example, he claims to be both illiterate and an avid reader, and when identifying his favorite authors he cannot identify any particular reason why he likes those authors' works. A reoccurring theme in the story is how Holden thinks everyone he comes into contact with is a phony, but yet throughout the novel it seems that the phoniest person is Holden. These two sides are contradicting each other . For instance, he says that he hates Ackley and yet when he needs a place to stay after his fight with Stadlater he turns to Ackley for a place to stay. What I think Holden really feels is that Ackley is someone who socially he feels should be a looser but someone who he trusts and can come to in a time of need. Holden seems to harbor a disgust for any type of sexuality, whether Ackley's obviously false boasts or Stradlater's successful seductions. Yet, Holden brags about his own false sexual encounters. To the reader, it could be easy to determine that Holden is sexually frustrated wanting sex but when having the opportunity to have it forcefully declines. Holden continues to show a latent hostility toward everyone he meets, for instance the encounters with Lillian Simmons or Horwitz. In most of these encounters, Holden expresses a false sense of cordiality toward the people he encounters, yet describes only their most negative traits.