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Catcher In The Rye


             He decides to isolate himself by declaring that everyone besides himself is a "phony". He wants to be close to someone, but he does not know how to communicate with people. Even though he thinks most people are "phonies" or "slobs," he still looks for and finds something good about everyone. He wants people to look past society and be their true selves, and he wants to do that also, but he does not want to be in complete isolation. He feels that the cause of phoniness is being in group situations and feeling like you need to be good enough for everyone else. What he really needs is affection, but he there is no one other than his sister Phoebe with which he can be affectionate. She is the one who will ultimately help him find his way back into the world and be able to communicate with people again. Holden is a very insecure and sensitive teenager desperately trying to connect with someone. Because he is immature he has problems understanding the adult world and because he is sensitive he has the same difficulty relating to his peers. He feels very much alone and doesn't know how to create a connection partly because he is very idealistic and had no tolerance for insincerity to any degree. He labels anyone whom he considers not to be completely genuine all the time as a phony, claiming they do and say things for the sole purpose of being socially accepted and polite. However, Holden himself does many of the things he claims to be phony. He even admits that sometimes it's necessary to take part in these actions and ultimately become a phony in order to exist in the adult world, which is why he is so strongly opposed to it. The turning point in the situation is when Holden is finally able to communicate with his sister Phoebe. In refusing to ride the carousel with her he was symbolically giving up his idealistic attempts to reject anything in the adult world . It's at this point that he was finally able to begin his transition into adulthood.


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