Which is worse a cough or a runny nose

Holden has a specific idea of what makes someone phony in The Catcher in the Rye. We’ve discussed in class how he seems to be okay with lying to spare someone ill feelings, yet he despises those who show off real talents for attention or recognition. He seems to believe those who beg for attention are "more fake" than those who betray the truth.

Throughout the novel, Holden lies his way through countless uncomfortable situations. He lies about reading his history textbook in order to save his teacher even more disappointment. He lies about Ernest Morrow to his mother on the subway to convince the mom that his son is a role model rather than a huge punk. These lies are not necessarily harmful; they make the listener feel good. Holden tells the listener what they want to hear rather than the ugly truth. Holden even withholds the truth from the reader, but he is honest about doing so. He won't tell us about his childhood, and he doesn’t go into much detail about his past schools. This relative honesty makes the reader feel as if although Holden will outright lie to people in the story, he will be honest about keeping information from the reader.

Furthermore, Holden takes his relationship with the reader and lying to another level when he tells the reader just how much he is fabricating. An example of this is when his history teacher agrees with Pencey’s headmaster that life is a game. Holden, to save an argument, agrees seemingly wholeheartedly that life is, in fact, a game. He reveals to us, though, that he was lying and the fact that people think of life as a game was something that caused him a degree of anger.

So what is the difference between outright lying and being a showoff? The distinction is never explicitly made, but it can be observed that Holden’s lies are meant to “help” others, or improve their moods, as opposed to his own. A counter-argument to this could be that Holden was telling people what they wanted to hear in order for him to escape ridicule, but that does not fall in line with Holden’s observations of those who are “phony” and we don’t want to call Holden a hypocrite because he is already suffering enough. Those who are “show offs” are demanding attention or recognition. One of the first examples of someone Holden calls “phony” is the dean of one of his previous schools. He would wait outside every day to shake parents’ hands and talk about their kids and other people’s parents for up to a half an hour (that last one is strange but to each their own lol). The explanation for why the dean is phony could be that he is attempting to build a personal relationship with the parents in order the skew their opinions of the school as opposed to simply doing good work as a dean without feeling the need to be liked by each individual parent. Other examples are more clear such as the piano player with a mirror in front of his face, or the arrogant actors.

The question now is whether or not Holden’s deception is better than the phoniness he hates. How much is phoniness hurting others? And how innocent are Holden’s lies? Would you call Holden a hypocrite? Let me know what you think!