The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, interacts with many people
throughout J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, but probably
none have as much impact on him as certain members of his immediate
family. The ways Holden acts around or reacts to the various members of
his family give the reader a direct view of Holden's philosophy
surrounding each member. How do Holden's different opinions of his
family compare and do his views constitute enough merit to be deemed
Holden makes reference to the word "phony" forty-four separate times
throughout the novel (Corbett 68-73). Each time he seems to be
referring to the subject of this metaphor as -- someone who
discriminates against others, is a hypocrite about something, or has
manifestations of conformity (Corbett 71). Throughout The Catcher in
the Rye, Holden describes and interacts with various members of his
family. The way he talks about or to each gives you some idea of
whether he thinks they are "phony" or normal. A few of his accounts
make it more obvious than others to discover how he classifies each
From the very first page of the novel, Holden begins to refer to his
parents as distant and generalizes both his father and mother frequently
throughout his chronicle. One example is: "...my parents would have
about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them.
They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father.
They're nice and all – I'm not saying that – but they're also touchy as
hell" (Salinger 1). Holden's father is a lawyer and therefore he
considers him "phony" because he views his father's occupation
unswervingly as a parallel of his father's personality. For example,
when Holden is talking to Phoebe about what he wants to be when he grows
up, he cannot answer her question and proceeds to give her his opinion
about their father...