In The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield, demonstrates his struggles in life between being a "fake" and a good person. The story begins when Holden is watching the football game from the top of the hill at his high school, Pencey Prep. Just like the other schools Holden has attended, he is expelled because he fails four of his subjects. Holden is in constant struggle with himself and his character and often describes himself as sad and depressed. Holden is very critical of fakes throughout the novel, but is just a fake himself, which depicts hypocrisy and many important things about his character. He doesn't live up to the standards he has for others and isn't as perfect as he would like to be. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay To begin with, Holden criticizes a lot of things, but this leads him to contradict himself and become a hypocrite. He is very critical of the high school he attends, of Pencey and also of the "phonies" there. He talks about the magazine ads about Pencey and says, "They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing a hot guy on a horse jumping over a fence." Like all you do at Pencey is play polo. time" (Salinger 2). Everything about stereotyping Pencey students bothers Holden, and he criticizes them because he feels like they're all impostors trying too hard to be better than everyone else. world. Holden also criticizes the gap between what appears on the surface and what actually exists. One of the people Holden sees as a perfect example of this gap is his roommate, Holden says, “I mean, he. was mostly a good-looking Year Book type guy” (Salinger 27 thinks that Stradlater seems to be what everyone thinks he is, but in reality he is no better than the rest of the Pencey boys. criticizes the way society and everyone around him acts and assumes that what they see is what they get However, while Holden is busy passing judgment on others, he quickly places himself in the situation. same category as those he doesn't like These things he criticizes reveal the hypocrisy as well as the kind of person Holden is and the characteristics he gets. Little by little, throughout the story, Holden talks about his childhood friend Jane Gallagher who brings out the best in Holden's character. Jane takes Holden back to his childhood and he is very protective of the things he cares about. As Holden begins to think about Jane again, he remembers a moment at the movies when they were holding hands. As he begins to think, his mood changes and he says, "You and Jane never even worried about whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was that you I was happy. You really were." (Salinger). Holden finds himself constantly thinking about Jane and how happy she made him when they were kids. He still clings to the relationship they shared growing up because of everything he knew about her and all the time they spent together. Holden continues to talk about Jane and everything they share, saying, "She was the only one, besides my family, that I showed Allie's baseball glove, with all the poems written on it." (Salinger 77). Holden trusts Jane so much that he is willing to open up to her and share something important to him. This shows a more caring side of Holden's character due to the.