Holden :: essays papers

Holden Holden Caulfield is in m whatever ways a typical teenager, skeptical of all authority and with a truculent attitude. The champion 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 closely him but does not see the phoniness in himself. Holdens admission that he is the most terrific liar. One could meet is an apt statement, for his delusions extend beyond reservation others take his deceptions. In fact, it is debatable whether or not people believe Holdens lies. Rather, Holdens ability to lie is most manifest in his own sense datum 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 equivalent 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 land 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 even throughout the novel it seems that the phoniest person is Holden. These two sides are contradicting each other . For typeface, he says that he hates Ackley and yet when he needs a place to stay after his bid with Stadlater he turns to Ackley for a place to stay. What I think Holden really feels is that Ackley is soul 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 Ackleys obviously false boasts or Stradlaters undefeated seductions. Yet, Holden brags about his own false sexual encounters. To the reader, it could be easy to control that Holden is sexually frustrated wanting sex but when having the opportunity to bring 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 amity toward the people he encounters, yet describes only their most negative traits.