By: J.D. Salinger
“People think being alone makes you lonely, but I do not think that is true. Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world.” - Kim Culbertson Holden's attitude to life in general in this novel is a very confusing and abrupt one. His consistent criticism and dislike for “phonies” along with his ideas about life and the ways people should live it, creates an abstract image of a confused, and socially unstable youth. He believes that he is the only person who can see, or who can be bothered enough to stop and see, that people are becoming following of the same path of life. He explains that they only know how to live this way. He argues though out the novel that these people are all fake and do not have any original ideas of their own. Throughout the novel Holden creates a complex image of different feelings, attitudes and thoughts.
Holden's attitude is negative to all people who enjoy the “phony” life and are able to live pleased that they are achieving the necessary. He feels this because in his own life he is not able to fulfill the guidelines needed to live this life both in and out of school. He does not have the necessary qualities like being an able sportsman or apt student. His attitude towards society is mixed. He manages to criticize everyone and no one that he writes about in the novel, other than his sister Phoebe, Allie and Jane, are approved. His attitude towards society is actually very realistic for someone who stops and sees what is happening. His views are based from his experiences that he had gotten by living both the teenager at a high-end private school and a rich boy almost living on the streets. He experiences the dirty life of downtown New York as well as the uptown polished life of a well-raised school boy. He criticizes everyone he meets while he travels around New York bars and nightclubs. This is very ironic; be cause he is a young man who is drowning himself