Catcher in the Rye

            
            
             Who has ever felt like there needs to be someone there to talk to, cry with, fight with, or just need a hug from? Those feelings represent loneliness, something Holden Caulfield knows all about. Holden Caulfield, J.D. Salinger's main character in the book The Catcher In the Rye, is a young man on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. His negativity towards life causes his loneliness, inspired in the death of his brother Allie. This is the main cause of Holden's breakdown. Even though Holden tries not to desmostrated, he is a loneliness person.
             Holden is currently attending Pencey private school or getting the boot from there for his poor academics, and this is his third school he has now been through. At Pencey, just as in the past two schools, Holden has trouble making friends. To Holden, everyone is phony. He used the term to describe when a person acts naturally and follows other people's manners and grace. Holden didn't like phonies. Instead he thought of them as if they were trying to show off. He didn't like it when they showed off because it seemed so fake and unnatural every time they would do it. When Holden was on his way to a bar, he shared his insights about the piano player Earnie: "Earnie's a big, fat, colored guy who plays the piano. He's a terrific snob and won't hardly talk to you unless you are a big shot or celebrity or something, but he can really play the piano. He's so good, he's almost corny in fact- (Salinger 80). Also he makes reference to Earnie's playing again: "They [people outside the theater] acted a little bit the way old Earnie, down in the village, plays the piano. If you do something too good, then after a while if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not as good anymore."" (Salinger 126). With this, Holden says that almost every person shows off, and that means that they don't act like they really are.