CRITIQUE-- Catcher in the rye
...at Ossenburger prays to the lord to send him more dead bodies for more business so he can make loads of cash. Adults always hide their flaws to make themselves look good, but as Holden states, they are “secret slobs.”(p. 27) He thinks all that matters to adults is being accepted into the society. Holden is a very hypocritical individual as much as he hates selfish people, where he is selfish himself. As much as he hates phonies, he has stronger hatred towards liars and crooks. Holden runs into many liars and crooks through out the book. Some of which being Maurice and Sunny. Holden is very precocious for his age. The elevator boy offers him a prostitute for the night during his stay at a hotel after leaving Pencey. “Interested in having a little tail t’night” (p. 90) Holden accepts this offer quickly and waits for the prostitute, Sunny, to show up. After, having a little chat with the prostitute, he insisted on paying her without any play. Soon after she leaves, she came back with Maurice, complaining that she was not paid enough. Maurice beats up Holden in order to get his money when Holden was clearly told the exact price. Realizing what real phonies and liars’ people are bound to be growing up, he decides to avoid adulthood and the real world. Holden is a growing adult that fears the thought of having expectations and responsibilities of maturity. Holden hypocrites every situation that is out of his control. He cannot face the thought of being wrong. As a student, he is expected to get good grades and be disciplined. However, Holden does not fulfill this role, and continues to get ‘ax-ed’ from school to school. He is uncertain of his goals in life. After his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, tries to talk to him, he clearly passes his help and states “I’m just going through a phase right now. Everybody goes through phases and all, don’t they?” (p.15) Also, he has little or no care for the future. He always rejects and makes excuses for situations he cannot deal with. He blames everyone for his or natural wrong doings. He leaves Pencey without caring about what was going to happen with his mother. Regardless of the many times he had gotten “ax-ed”, he still did not feel any different about straightening up in school. “I feel some concern for my future… but not too much”. (p. 184) This states that Holden is defiantly not concerned about his future and he does not know what he is going to do with his life. He was never exposed to the real world, but as he does, he comes out a different person. As well as him avoiding his duties, Holden wants to cherish his childhood youth forever. Growing up is never easy, but eventually everyone grows up. Holden is one the growing teens that does not ever want to grow up. He wants to enshrine his childhood youth. Children live on eternal indulgent memories, while adults have a show to put on for the society. Holden buys his sister, Phoebe, a “Little Shirley Beans” record because he knew she would love it. (p. 114) Even though it breaks, he still gives it to her, as she would love it just as much if it were not broken. Holden remembers Allie by his baseball mitt with the po...