Holden's Perspective On The World
Throughout the novel, it is clear that Holden has been showing symptoms of depression and one of the main thoughts plaguing his mind is his view that people grow up to be inauthentic and fake as they think and act in ways that are considered to be normal. However, he does not explain much about the different aspects of his perspective on the world. Much of the interpretations are left to the readers, including what he thinks the root of this inauthenticity is from, and why he thinks in this perspective at all.
In the book, it can be seen that he idolizes children, wanting to save them from adulthood. Furthermore, the fact that he believes that children would potentially become these adults who are phonies shows that he believes that the pathway that children take as they grow up will shape them into phonies. This pathway, however, would be the standard pathway that society expects of or sets for children. In fact, he even talks about wanting to run away from his current life to live on his own with Sally (Salinger 147). This shows that he wants to leave this standard set pathway that he believes will cause him to become a phony and instead wants to go on his own pathway that isn't shaped by society (this could also be seen through graduation when he purposely avoids this path). He sees this as his escape route out of the fate of becoming a phony, further showing how he thinks the standard pathway set by society would cause him and the rest of the world to become phonies.
It is not clear why he thinks everyone is a phony, but could it possibly be a reflection of himself? Throughout the book, he expresses his disgust in liars and people who are not genuine. However, he is then seen lying frequently with ease. Although he does not state this, if he were to judge himself like he does to every other person, he would most likely see himself as a phony because he lies all the time, giving people false stories or pictures of himself or others. Additionally, he tends to put up a fake appearance to others and he knows it. For instance, he stated how he would make sure to act tough when confronting someone, but he knew that it was fake, that he would only "say something very cutting and snotty" to make him seem tough (Salinger 99). He puts on fake images to others, which is an action that he would typically describe as someone being phony.
Overall, one thing that is clear is that Holden views the world as being phony and wants no part of it. However, the book leaves a lot of the interpretation of Holden's situation to be done by the reader. With the information given, it could be seen that Holden believes the standard path set by society ultimately shapes people into phonies. Moreover, a possible reason why Holden thinks in this overall perspective is that it is a reflection of who he is as an inauthentic person to others.
I like your analysis of Holden and how his sense of describing everything as seemingly phony is maybe just a reflection of how inauthentic he is to other people. This is a new point that brings the attention to the fact that Holden is actually acting like the very concept he hates so much "being phony". This leaves room for the reader to think about, and is definitely a good question to pose on whether or not his disdain for growing up and becoming phony are really just a reflection of his own being.
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely on to something here: Holden's distaste for everything phony and inauthentic about adulthood may likely reflect the ways he sees these tendencies in himself--if he sees this process as something so potent that it corrupted D.B. (whom he'd previously held such a high opinion of), then he would see his own eventual corruption as inevitable (and that's "depressing"). My reading of the closing sequence with Phoebe has Holden being shocked to see her quite literally "following in his footsteps"--and he doesn't like what he sees. Instead of being the "catcher" who protects children, he sees himself as a corrupting force in Phoebe's life (like, when she says "shut up" soon after he says it to her, and he doesn't like how it sounds at all). There's a good deal of self-criticism and even self-loathing just beneath many of Holden's complaints about others.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely interesting to think of Holden's judgements reflecting his own phoniness, but I think the difference between society's overall phoniness and Holden's phoniness is the motives behind each. People's phoniness is usually motivated by a desire for success or attention, whereas Holden's phoniness seems to be often motivated by his own amusement or sensitivity to others instead. Nonetheless, Holden definitely lies to avoid situations at times, which does reflect a phony motive.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis of the possible reasons why Holden finds everything phony. I think a majority of his reasoning is that he sees those phony qualities he hates about other people in himself. I talk about this in my blog post and discuss how there are multiple examples of his hypocrisy. Holden seems to desperately want to be authentic (and wants other to be authentic) but ends up lying about himself multiple times. Maybe his like for children stems from the fact that he realizes they most likely won't be phony. Holden sees them as innocent and pure and not capable of lying to the capacity of adults. That's not to say kids don't lie, but maybe Holden sees those lies are more lighthearted and silly rather than a phony personality trait.
ReplyDeleteI really like the points you bring up here. It's very important, in my opinion, that the standards Holden holds other people to are applied to him, even just in one scene, and you do a good job with this. Holden's biggest blindspot isn't women or drinking or something else, it himself. Which is funny, because he can be pretty spot on about other parts of himself, but here he falls short.
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