Two paragraphs from "The Catcher in the Rye"

This spring I am reading "The Catcher in the Rye", a novel by J. D. Salinger. The book was first published in 1951, and has been very popular since."The Catcher in the Rye" is a story about a 17-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield. Holden has a lot on his mind, among other things he has failed four schools, his brother died of leukemia and he has trouble with girls. The story is really about how Holden thinks that most adults are "phony". The Catcher in the Rye is really a boy who is trying to save children from entering the adult and phony world.  In this blog entry I will include two paragraphs from the book that I think represents one of the most important themes of the book.

So, as I mentioned before, I think the main theme of this book is how Holden thinks that almost all the people around him are phonies. I think this upcoming paragraph from early in the story gives us a pretty good idea about how Holden is as a person, and what he thinks of phonies. The paragraph is from when Holden visits his old history teacher, who tries to teach him a lesson about life:

 ““Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.” “Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.” Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game."

It is obvious that Holden gets very annoyed when the teacher tells him this, because Holden feels that the teacher is phony. I think that Holden feels that the teacher does not know what he is talking about, because the teacher probably hasn't experienced the hard side of life, where there aren't any hot-shots.

Another paragraph from the book that I think represents the theme is when Holden is listening to a speech from a man called Ossenburger, who used to go to the same school as Holden when he was young.

"He started telling us how he was never ashamed, when he was in some kind of trouble or something, to get right down on his knees and pray to God. He told us we should always pray to God - talk to Him and all - whenever we were. He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time. Even when he was driving in his car. That killed me. I can just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs".

In both of these paragraphs we clearly see how Holden is annoyed when grown-ups say phony things. If adults are bragging, exaggerating or simply not telling the entire truth, Holden sees them as phony.