Phoebe and other children are a hope that Holden holds in his heart. Their childish innocence gives him a true and pure outlook that lets him feel secure in their presence. .
To Holden the world is filled with "phonies- or "morons- who are loosing their innocence or have already lost it, and now are constantly trying to corrupt the innocence and goodness in the world. In his narratives, Holden reveals many individuals who have fallen into the world of "phoniness-. Old Maurice, the prostitute's pimp, was one of the phony adults. Holden retaliates, " You're a dirty moron, I said. You're a stupid chiseling moron, and in about two years you'll be one of those scraggy guys that come up to you on the street and ask for a dime for coffee- (103). Maurice is a bully, having fallen of a cliff at an early age with many other phony adult symptoms. When discussing Stradlater, his roommate, he makes sure to include that he is secretly a slob because his toilets are kept dirty, even though most people view him as handsome and clean. At the hotel in New York, in Lavender room, he refers to the three girl he met as stupid when he said, " I tried to get them in a little intelligent conversation, but it was practically impossible. You had to twist their arms. You could hardly tell which was the stupidest of the three of them- (73). Also when he met old D.B.'s girlfriend at the Ernie's he calls her "strictly a phony- (86). We learn very quickly of Holden's overwhelming distaste of fake people. And even in his most safe place, in the Museum of Natural History as well as in the Phoebe s school, he still found something that rubbed him the wrong way. Holden speculates, "That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think that there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody will sneak up on you and write "Fuck you- under your nose- (186).