The Catcher in the Rye //Dialectically

 How are we, as adolescents, supposed to be real in such a phony world?

 From the beginning to the end of the story, Holden Caulfield tries to alienate himself from society. Although he is with people for most of the novel, he has a struggle within in himself. He struggles to choose to either interact with people and face their phony and bland personalities that are so much like everyone else or to be by himself and avoid everyone. Either way he is depressed and lonely. So the question that the text is responding to is "How are we, as adolescents, supposed to be real in such a phony world?" Holden Caulfield is constantly questioning or making a remark to how phony the people around him are, especially the adults. I pulled out a phrase from the novel that incorporated with my question,

"It's such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question." (213)

As adolescents, we are always struggling. Our struggles range from family, friends, school, boy/girl problems, self-esteem issues, peer pressure, and the list goes on. This phrase is well stated. How do we know what we're going to do until we actually do it? As I stated before teens don't know much, our emotions are unbalanced and to top it off we have to somehow find out what we're going to do when we are constantly faced with a phony world? Seems unfair to me. So, the text addresses this question by using a teen as the main character who also tells the story. We, as the readers, definitely get a feel for Holden's emotions, but we can relate in so many ways. The text addresses this question by the thoughts, questions, and remarks throughout the novel that Holden makes. Lastly, the text's response to the question does match much of my own personal thinking. Sometimes I do get a little paranoid and a bit crazy when I think about how many phony people I have to deal with in one day. For once it would be nice to see everyone completely being themselves and cut the crap, so to speak. For once it would be nice to see people caring for things other than themselves or their phone. We live in a society where having the most updated and new technological device is more important than just being yourself.