Irony: The Catcher in the Rye.

There are many cases of Irony in The Catcher in the Rye. I think that it is very peculiar that all of these things and people in the world are phony to Holden, but that none of the things he does is ever phony. The thing is though, that i think this show he puts on to act like a teenager is an act so that he can slow the process of maturity and the next progression in his life to adulthood. He is afraid of adulthood even though he tries to act like an adult.He does quite a bit of drinking and smoking which most kids do not do.

He also buys a prostitute from the elevator boy but when she comes to the room he does not want to "give it to her" even though he says she is very pretty. He makes up all of these outrageous reasons why he can not have intercourse with her. Holden says that he has just had a very bad day and when this does not work he tells her that he just had a procedure done his is spine and on a part of his spine that i do not know to exist. He is frightened because he is guilty of the sins he criticizes in others, and because he can’t understand everything around him. But he refuses to acknowledge this fear, expressing it only in a few instances. "Sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to God I don't." (Salinger, 82).

Holden is afraid of becoming an adult because he does not want to become one of those people who get up and do the same things everyday. All of this is phony because he is not acting in a consistent manner. He is putting on some type of front to make us think that he is mature when he isn't. It is ironic because he is phony, when he does not think that he is but that everything else is.

Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print