Holden often uses the word "phony" to describe people whom he sees as inauthentic or hypocritical. He uses this term to criticize those who he perceives as being fake or pretentious in their behavior or speech.
Holden used the word phony very often when describing people and things to create verbal irony.
he calls them a phony because he thinks they sre fake, in their personality and who they are as a person. but isn't Holden a phony himself for always lying.
The significance is that Holden himself is a phony, yet he does not realize it.
Holden defines phony as someone or something that is insincere, fake, or pretentious. He uses the term to describe people whom he perceives as dishonest or inauthentic.
he thinks phony is someone who discriminates against other or people who are untruthful.
Holden Caulfield says the word "phony" 35 times in J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the Rye." It is a word that he frequently uses to describe people or situations that he finds insincere or fake.
A lawyer has to try and prove their client innocent whether they really are or not. Holden's father is a lawyer and Holdens feels that that is a "phony" way to make a living. Holden is worried that he will have the same "phony" life as his father.
they are phony
they are phony
Holden is in fact more of a phony than the people that he accuses. Holden believes that all adults are phony because of the fact that they take responsibility for their lives, even when things don't go your way, adults have to cope. Holden finds it particularly difficult to accept that his parents are able to move on from Allie's death. His parents move forward, continue to live, to work to make money. Unfortunately for Holden, he does not realize that life requires the living to go on, even though you bear a deep sadness and loss in your heart. D.B., Holden's older brother is a phony, a sell-out, because he writes scripts for Hollywood instead of serious books. Yet Holden, who refuses to participate in being a responsible student does not see his own faults. His family is not pretending to live, they are not phony, what is phony is Holden's refusal to grow up. You can't stop the process. It is phony of Holden to pretend to remain a child, when he knows that, he is maturing into a young adult. It is phony of Holden to say that he really cares about Jane Gallagher, yet he never calls her. When she has a date with Stradlater, Holden does not go to the Annex to say hello. Holden is a very depressed person, he is stuck in a grief cycle over his brother's death, refuses to accept responsibility and accuses everyone around him who lives their life of being a phony. - pmiranda2857
Holden uses the word phony forty-four times in Catcher, and it is obvious that the young man is extremely sensitive to phonies--so sensitive, in fact, that he even wants to puke when he hears someone use the word grand... and to expose the rampant hypocrisy that so many see in modern society.
An example of connotation in "Catcher in the Rye" is the word "phony," which Holden Caulfield uses to describe people whom he perceives as fake or insincere. This word carries a negative connotation and reflects Holden's deep mistrust of others and his desire for authenticity.