Life is full of phonies. Roughly good 75% of the people I have met at this high school I would say they are phony. Holden is a very cynical character, but he has good reason. Ask a teenager, they will deny being a phony whether if it is true or not. At this point of our lives I feel like teenagers have a very strong desire to be accepted, but of course we deny that fact and we will always say something along the lines of “It’s just who I am” or “I don’t care what they think of me” when in reality those are naturally phony statements. At this age everyone is so insecure about themselves that these phony facades are just these phony shields people have to protect themselves. I know for a fact that if I ever met Holden he would call me a phony. That’s because I am. I have the desire to be accepted by my peers, just as my peers have similar desires. There are people at this school that I am very honest with. They know who I am because I tell them the truth. There are only the select people that I will let into my head and whom I will share how I am truly feeling. Others around me will never know how I really felt that one day I snapped at my friend or why I was silent during lunch. These phony tendencies are caused by the fact that I do not trust the fact that if I shared my personal true feelings that if I ever needed help with something that relates to how I truly feel about the subject. Sometimes in life though, you need to be phony to protect yourself.
The way Holden views phonies is harsh but in some aspects he is not wrong. He is very critical of the entertainment industry especially, he feels very strongly about people in the business that know they are good so to him instead of being quality entertainment he sees it as a bunch of phonies showing off their talents. “He's so good, he's almost corny, in fact. I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it. I certainly like to hear him play, but sometimes you feel like turning the goddam piano over. I think it's because sometimes when he plays, he sounds like the kind of guy that won't talk to you unless you're a big shot.” But Holden condemns all phonies to the same boat, whether they are being phony for protective reasons or if they re being phonies for personal gain. Holden is too critical though, in my life I have honestly tried to be as real as possible but the fact of the matter is sometimes telling the truth can be very difficult. The truth can have a very strong impact on those around you and sometimes for their sake and for your sake being a phony may be a way to make things just a little bit easier for the both of you. Everyone in one way or another is a phony, not every thought that runs through your mind nor is every sentence going to be true. People lie, plain and simple.