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Showing posts from February, 2021

Holden the Hypocrite

 Throughout The Catcher in the Rye,  Holden constantly says that people who do certain things, say certain phrases, or act in certain ways are "phony". Honestly, I think it's definitely favorite word. However, I've noticed that a lot of the time, the things he says are phony, are characteristics which apply to him. The example that brought my attention to this hypocrisy is when he is in the restaurant with the nuns. He goes on a monologue about how people who dress up fancily and go eat lunch at fancy restaurants are phony and he doesn't like them. Yet, Holden and his family are quite well off and Holden isn't reserved at all when it comes to spending his money. He'll pay for cabs when he could easily walk, he buys countless drinks, and he gave the nuns 10 dollars completely unprompted and even tried to pay for their order on top of that donation. It's quite hypocritical that the very class of wealth Holden is from is the one he finds most phony. Anoth...