The book Catcher in the Rye is a story of Holden Caulfield’s thoughts aboutlife and the world around him. Holden tells many of his opinions aboutpeople and takes the reader on a 5-day trip into his mind. Holden,throughout the book, made other people feel inferior to his own. I canrelate to this because although I do not view people inferior to me, Ijudge others unequally. Holden and I both have similar judgements ofpeople from the way they act and behave. We also share feelings aboutmotivation as well as lack of it. After reading this book, I came to theconclusion that Holden and I are much more similar than I initiallybelieved.
Holden portrayed others to be inferior to his own kind all throughoutthe book. He made several references as to how people aren’t as perfect ashe was. “The reason Stradlater fixed himself up to look good wasbecause he was madly in love with himself.” Holden had adifficults with no being good. He was afraid of not having any special talents orabilities and and did other thi8ngs to make himself look tough.
“Boy, I sat at that goddam bar till around one o’clock or so, getting drunkas a bastard. I could hardly see straight.” Holden tried all hecould to try to be cool he was faking it just to fit in. He drank, cursed and criticized life l to make itseem he was like he knew of his habits. I myself have found me doing thisat times, also. I, at times, feel the need to fit in to a group and dothings similar to what others do in order to be accepted by others, but I do have my limitations. Ismoked a cigarratte once by myself cause I saw everybody doing that so I was like let me see how it is, I tried it andit didn’t grow on me but that was only once. Holden and I bothput people on levels higher and lower other than our own for amount of knowledge andand characteristicHolden used the term ‘phonies’ to describe more than a few people inthis book. He used the term to be what a person is if they don’t actthemselfs and follow other people’s ways. Holden didn’t likephonies, he thought of them as if they were trying to show off. He didn’tlike it when they showed off because it seemed fake and unnatural everytime they would act like it..
“At the end of the first act we went out with allthe other jerks for a cigarette. What a deal thatwas. You never saw so many phonies in all your life,everybody smoking their ears off and talking aboutthe play so that everybody could hear how sharp theywere.”
