Salinger's children, as they appear in various novels and short stories, portray the ills of modern society through their innocence and spirituality, their honesty and sometimes, erratic behaviour. They are often as fragile and odd as they are intelligent and endearing, and the obscenities of life tend to overwhelm them at times. My intention is to show how Salinger uses the same technique over and over in his work. That is the use of children with all the innocence and idealism of youth, to depict the falseness of modern society. Through these children and young adults, from Holden and Franny, to little Esme, Ramona and Teddy, along with others, Salinger tells a tale of the human condition that is witty and humourous, but at the same time often tragic.
             Holden Cauflield who is the main character in Catcher in the Rye and Franny Glass of Franny and Zooey are similar characters is many ways. They are of a similar age and are very sensitive to what they call the 'phoniness' of the world around them. An example is when Holden goes to a bar called Ernie's which was run by Ernie, some big hotshot piano player. Holden describes him as being, "a terrific snob and he won't hardly even talk to you unless you're a big shot or a celebrity," every time he would finish a song, "old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very phony, humble bow. Like as if he was a helluva humble guy."
             Franny describes what she calls a "Wally Campbell" type of person. "they're going to pull up a chair and straddle in backward and start bragging in a terribly quiet, casual voice--or name dropping in a terribly quiet casual voice. There's an unwritten law that people in a certain social or financial bracket can name-drop as much as they like as long as they say something terribly disparaging about the person as soon as they've dropped his name"
             Salinger makes us like these young characters. They become dear to us even though they are oddballs to...