How Does Holden Use Phony In Catcher In The Rye

Throughout the novel Catcher in the Rye Holden excessively uses the term phony in many of his sentences that include describing people or things he does not like. The term can describe more than just a person but also organizations and things. Phony is not just for describing people. According to Holden in the novel Catcher in the Rye a phony is someone who makes Holden feel depressed on the inside. Salinger wants to display through Holden that a phony can be known as a bully or a fake person. Holden’s excessive use of the word shows the reader that it is a side effect of his depression.
Holden blames his problems on phonies throughout the novel. He does not want to take fault for anything that he might of be of cause for. He blames the fault on the people he calls phonies as a way out from reality “One of the biggest reasons why I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies” (Salinger 13) That might of been one of the main reasons he left Elkton Hills but it might not of been because they were phonies. He probably did not fit in at this school which is more likely than not. So he became
He also uses it to describe places and things, even languages. “Grand. There's a word I really hate It’s a phony. I could puke every time I hear it” (Salinger 9) He believes that a single word in a single a language can be a phony. That seems pretty obscure to judge a word in q language as you would a human. It makes the word a dehumanizing word which makes it worse than it actually is. Phony does not relate to just people and also can be used on places and things. It is a put down turn and it’s Holden’s way of saying the modern version we hear all the time “That's so gay” That is what people say nowadays in place of Phony. Something that they do not like is considered ‘gay’ which is just the same as Holden saying ‘phony’ except this novel is from 60 years