LosPollosDiablos




 * Question:** How does the symbol/motif come up in the novel, and how does it impact what is going on? What happens immediately preceding or immediately following a mention or discussion of this idea or thing?


 * Answer:** Phoniness appears in the novel whenever Holden interacts with anyone in his school, especially Stradlater and Ackley. Holden thinks that they're the two biggest phonies he's ever met. It impacts what is going on because the reader gets a feel for what Holden has to experience in his everyday life. Holden is usually talking with these people before he gets into some sort of conflict with them.


 * Question:** What is the mood when this idea or thing is brought up? Would you associate this with times when Holden is content? frightened? frantic? confused? Is this mood consistent with every incidence of this motif?


 * Answer:** I think Holden is annoyed every time he has to interact with Stradlater or Ackley. He never really feels nervous or scared. Usually he is just annoyed with what he has to put up with.

**Question:** Is Holden alone when this motif/symbol occurs? If not, with whom is he interacting? How would you characterize that interaction? Does this motif occur both when he is alone and when he is with other people? Is there a connection to be made?


 * Answer:** Holden is sometimes alone when he experiences the phoniness of the adult world. It's not always certain people who he considers to be phonies. Sometimes, it's just the world and society in general, so Holden may feel like he's living in a phony world.


 * Question:** What does this motif/symbol tell you about Holden, in a “big picture” way - Does this suggest anything about his personality? His weaknesses or strengths? His sense of himself?


 * Answer:** I get the feeling that Holden thinks he is the only perfect person in the world, the only "non-phony". He seems to be unable to accept the world he lives in and just fit in. He is completely his own person, and does not get influenced by the ways of other people.


 * Question:** Tie it all together: Did any pattern emerge? Pick out other words or ideas used in conjunction with this motif. Look back on your investigation and come up with a single sentence that sums up what you’ve discovered.


 * Answer:** Holden hates the world he lives with. At times he seems to tolerate a few people such as Sally Hayes when he takes her to the play or Ackley when hes talking to him in his room, but most of the time he is mad at how everyone in all of the bars and on the streets are all phonies. He makes it sound like he's trapped in his own life.

**I.** **Introduction** a. Many people in the world, today, have to hide who they are or they're personality just so that they can fit in. b. Holden cannot stand these kinds of people and puts them in a class of their own; phonies. i. who are the phonies ii. why he hates phonies iii. how he deals with them

**II.** **Body One (Avenue one/Main reason 1)** a. Ossenburger i. big car, kisses up to adults, gives money away for recognition, corny jokes Pg.16-17 b. Phonies usually hang out with a group of other phonies i. everywhere Holden goes he always surrounded by groups of phonies like in the bars or clubs. on page 85, Holden is surrounded by phonies in Ernie's bar. "I was surrounded by jerks. I am not kidding. at this other tiny table right to my left practically on top of me there was this funny looking guy and this funny looking girl, they were around my age or maybe just a little older. It was funny.... He was telling her about some pro football game he'd seen that afternoon. he gave her every single goddamn play in the whole game- I'm not kidding. .. On my right, the conversation was even worse, though. On my right there was this very Joe Yale looking guy, in a gray flannel suit and one of those flitty-looking Tattersal vests." c. Phoniness covers up peoples true feeling and personality. i. Holden is mad that he can't just have a conversation with someone without them trying to look cool.

**III.** **Holden hates phonies because of who they are and what they do to him.**

a. Stradlater treats Holden very badly and doesn't respect him. i. When Holden wrote Stradlater's composition about Allie's baseball mitt, Stradlater tore it up, despite all the hard work and emotion that Holden put in to the task, because Stradlater claimed that it had to be about a room or a house.

"All of a sudden, he said, 'For Chris//sake//, Holden. This is about a goddam //base//ball glove. I told ya it had to be about a goddam //room// or a house or something' " (Salinger, 41).

b. Ackley doesn't get off Holden's case. i. Ackley continued to cut his nails over the floor, when Holden asked him many times to clip them over the table.

"//Ackley//! For Chrissake. Willya //please// cut your crumby nails over the table? I've asked you fifty times" (Salinger, 24).

c. Stradlater's very full of himself. i. He's always checking himself out in the mirror and taking very good care of himself, which annoys Holden because Holden hates people like that, who are so obsessed with their looks.

"The reason he fixed himself up to look good was because he was madly in love with himself. He thought he was the handsomest guy in the Western Hemisphere. He //was// pretty handsome, too - I'll admit it. Be he was mostly the kind of a handsome guy that if your parents saw his picture in your Year Book, they'd reight away say, 'Who's //this// boy? ' I mean he was mostly a Year Book kind of handsome guy" (Salinger, 27).

**IV.** **Body Three (Avenue one/Main reason 3) linked with THESIS STATEMENT** dollars.
 * A**. He gets into fights with them, which end up in him getting scarred or bruised.
 * i**. Holden got beat up really badly by Stradlater after calling him a moron. He also got into a fight with Maurice over five

"Then he really let one go at me, and the next thing i knew i was on the goddam floor again. I don't remember if he knocked me out or not, but i don't think so" (Salinger, 45).


 * B**. He avoids them.
 * i**. While everyone else was at the football game, Holden stayed back and watched by himself from the hill.

hates Ernie.
 * C**. He talks about them in a good way.
 * i**. When he is on the train with Ernest Morrow's mom, he says that Ernie is very sensitive and quiet but really Holden

'Well. He's a very sensitive boy. He's really never been a terribly good mixer with other boys. Perhaps he takes things a little more seriously than he should at his age.' Sensitive. That killed me. That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat" (Salinger, 55).

**V.** **Conclusion** a. Restate thesis i. Avenue one (Main reason 1) 1. Why this reason reaffirms thesis ii. Avenue two (Main reason 2) 1. Why is reason reaffirms thesis iii. Avenue three (Main reason 3) 1. Why this reason reaffirms thesis iv. Concluding statement