What is phony?
- Something or someone that is fake or not genuine
- Fraudulent - Intended to decieve or mislead
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Thesis
The meaning of phoniness is someone or something is fake or not genuine; Holden in the Catcher in the Rye describes many characters and things as portraying this trait.
ArgumentS
Museum
"I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another 'F*** You' on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn't come off. It's hopeless, anyways. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the 'F*** you' signs in the worlds. It's impossible." (Salinger, 202)
Holden's 'Friends'
"I stopped on the way, through, and picked up Ackley's hand, and gave him a big, phony handshake. He pulled it away from me." (Salinger, 50)
Mr. Haas
"On Sunday, for instance, Old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school. He'd be charming the hell and all. Except if some boy had a little old funny-looking parents. You should've seen the way he did with my roommate's parents. I mean if a boy's mother was sort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody's father was one of those guys that wear those suits with very big shoulders and corny black-and-white shoes, then old Haas would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile and then he'd go talk, for maybe a half an hour, with somebody else's parents." (Salinger, 14)