Catcher in the Rye

The most recurring theme in the novel is Holden’s obsession over what is phony and what is not. The story is set a decade before the great social movements of the 60s, in a time of rapid media growth and a strong demand for education. Holden was born into a generation traumatized by the great depression and world war two which ultimately resulted in the creation of a culture centered upon normality and conformity.
Due to these circumstances, Holden went mad, and I find it hard to blame him for it. Holdens parents expect his siblings and him to do well in school, and to make a future for themselves. Because of his failure to do so, it seems that his parents treated him as a problem, and ignored the fact that he actually needed help. Holdens younger sister does well in school, and his brother, D.B. is “in Hollywood being a prostitute.” ”[and] making lots of dough.” (4) With such high expectations placed upon him with no chance of meeting them, Holden feels forced to find faults with the world, reasons why under the surface he is better than everyone else. His favorite and most reoccurring fault is “phoniness”, which he can find in almost anything, specifically people and places. Holden thinks his parents, his schools, his friends, and American culture in general is unbearably phony.
Holden not only views the suppression of emotion as phony, but also the expression of emotion in certain ways. When his friend Sally wrote him a heartfelt letter inviting him to her house for Christmas, he says that “She’d written me this long, phony letter, inviting me over to help her trim the Christmas tree on Christmas eve and all.” (77) Both times Holden takes a taxi in the book, he encounters rude drivers. Their blunt and harshly honest personalities strangely appealed to Holden, so much so that he even invited one of them to have a drink with him. The encounters create a clear idea of what Holden considers phony, and not. People who are dishonest to themselves, people who succumb to societies pressures and influences, Holden considers phony. People who do what they want, and know what they want, people who live in the present, with texture and individuality are people Holden considers non phony. Holden also hints that he regards people who have no common sense are phony when he reminisces a man he once knew named Mr. Vixon. He mentioned that he thought “He was very intelligent and all, but you could tell he didn’t have much brains.” (204)
Through out The Catcher in the Rye, this theme occurs more than any other. I calculate that it comes up more than twice per chapter. It shapes who Holden is, it drives him, it sets him apart from everyone else in the world, and that is his most valued characteristic, individuality.