Deception In Catcher In The Rye

Everyone has insecurities. Some are physical, which can be covered up, but others are about personality. This can cause people to hide parts of their personality, or even convince themselves that those personality traits don’t exist, resulting in loss of self. It can be confusing to be unaware of one’s true personality, and a major cause of stress. Sometimes personalities can be hidden through actions of others, too. In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, characters experience confusion about who they are.. Katherine’s, Holden’s, and Aristotle’s isolation highlights that self deception results in loss of
Holden spends much of The Catcher in the Rye wandering around New York City, not knowing who he is or how to connect with others. He is lonely and desperate for contact with the world, but he does not know how to get it because he is so hung up on protecting children from the void of adulthood. He feels like he has not got any friends. However, he can always talk to his younger sister, Phoebe. One of the reasons he likes Phoebe so much is that she is a child, and he loves children. He loves how innocent they are because he is obsessed with youth because he hates adulthood. He cannot talk to teenagers or adults, and he is out of touch with the world, but he is happy to call Phoebe, and he tells us this. He says, “I damn near gave my kid sister Phoebe a buzz, though. I certainly felt like talking to her on the phone. Somebody with sense, and all.” (Salinger 66). He is so out of contact that he thinks a child is more sensible than adults are. Holden cannot connect with the rest of the world because he believes that adulthood is horrible, and this is as a result of him deceiving
Holden is most likely depressed, and he admits it multiple times, but he cannot understand why he is depressed. He would probably benefit from some therapy. He lost himself because he was too obsessed with maintaining youth and fooling himself into thinking that adulthood is terrible and something to be avoided. When he is in Phoebe’s school, he says, “When I finally got off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I was crying and all. I don’t know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome.” (Salinger 153). The reader knows that Holden is depressed because of the death of his brother and his self-deception of the concept of adulthood, but he cannot realize that. Holden’s self deception regarding adulthood causes him to not be able to understand himself.
Throughout the books The Catcher in the Rye, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and The Taming of the Shrew, characters lead themselves to believe ideas that are not true and it causes them to lose social skills and lose their sense of self. Holden, Aristotle, and Katherine all struggle with their lives because they are not true to themselves and they lie to themselves. The ideas one believes can shape who the are, and the more deceitful the ideas, the more harmful they are to the