Fake Holden

It seems like the typical, adolescent dilemma: How do I find my place in this life? In most respects, Holden is not unlike the typical teenager. He, too, is on his own quest to find himself. He needs to find acceptance. Going to school at Pency, Holden becomes the manager of the fencing team. In doing so, he tried to gain friends as well as social status within his peer group. Even then the whole team "ostracized him"(page 3). Like most teens at that age, Holden was having trouble gaining acceptance and making friends.

"I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible." (pg.16) Holden's ability to lie is one of the first t

raits that he reveals about himself. He takes pride in saying that he is a good liar. His inability to have normal conversations and relationships is probably one of the factors that has him shunned by his peers. Holden's insecurity is one of the reasons for his compulsive lying. This is why he can't find his place in the world. The world doesn't know Holden, and he doesn't know himself. It is difficult to separate fact from fantasy.

It is Holden's rejection that forces him to act the way he does. To compensate for having no friends of his own age, he looks to the older and younger. Even though immature, Holden tries to act like an adult by smoking and drinking in hopes that he will find companionship. He even admits, though, "I'm a goddamn minor." (pg.70) When this approach fails, he goes to the complete opposite of the spectrum. "(Phoebe) was always someone you felt like talking to on the phone." (pg.66) The reason why Holden has such high regards for his sister in a world of "phonies" is two-fold. First, Holden comes across as being somewhat immature. (Proof of this is when he and Stradlater are fighting in the beginning of the book.) This would cause him to find comfort in talking to a younger person. Secondly, it seems as if Phoebe is really the only person that will listen to him, and not reject his presence. This, in itself, is enough reason for Holden to have such a strong bond with his younger sibling. Even she, though, still worries about Holden's meaningless existence.

In the second half of this novel, rather than the ducks, it seemed to be the museum which was a point of both interest and topic. The Random House College Dictionary gives the definition of a museum to be "a building or place where works of art or other objects of a permanent value are kept and displayed". The key word in the definition is 'permanent'. Holden said that, "the best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just fishing those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deer would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bos

Some topics in this essay:
Central Park, I'm I'm, College Dictionary, Essentially Holden, Holden Caulfield, Pency Holden, Miss Aigletinger, Ol' JD, Secondly Phoebe, Catcher Rye, reason holden, half book, holden caulfield, holden museum, ducks central park, catcher rye, ducks pond, mother father, ducks central, central park, holden doesn't,