Third Blog: "What does it mean to be a phony?"

The meaning of being a phony, according to Holden, is to act or portray yourself in a fake way. Basically in the book "Catcher in the Rye" Holden calls just about everyone he sees and or talks to a phony. It seems that Holden has a short temper and everyone that does something to tick him off will be known as a phony. An example of this happening would be when Holden calls Sally H. to invite her to a matinee. Sally's father is the one who answered the phone, and Holden told him who was calling for her, and when he put Sally onto the phone and she asked "who is this", Holden bascally started going on how phony she was, and how he was having doubts about inviting her for saying "grand". In the book though, Holden is quite the cumpolsive liar, which in fact puts him into the definition of being a phony. Holden throughout the whole novel has lied to just about everyone, for instance when he meets someone new and pretends he is someone else, or when he acts up around others. One time, when he calls for the prostitute and later ends up getting beat up by the pimp, he pretends that he has been shot and how he would go on this ganster rampage killing for the pimp who did this to him. So technically Holden is also guilty of being a "phony" and so it seems that Holden is accusing people of things, which he are to try and hide the fact that he is all the things he hates.