Symbols and imagery are two types of figurative language, and Salinger uses both to illustrate phony behavior in The Catcher in the Rye. Here are examples of each kind of figurative language:
Holden discusses movies, a symbol of phoniness, in the first paragraph of the book while he criticizes his brother for working for Hollywood after writing a proper book of short stories. To Holden, movies symbolize phoniness; movie screenplays lack the emotional power of written stories, and after all, movies rely on actors who are pretending to be people they are not. That Holden's brother would be "a prostitute" for Hollywood means he is ultimately a phony person writing phony stories for the movies.
The image of Selma Thurmer, the headmaster's daughter, and her "falsies" also discusses phoniness. But interestingly, even though the girl's breasts are literally artificial, Holden appreciates her for being an authentic person: "What I liked about her, she didn't give you a lot of horse manure about what a great guy her father was. She probably knew what a phony slob he was." So here, Salinger uses phony imagery to link an authentic person with her apparently phony father.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
How does J.D. Salinger use symbols, figurative language, and imagery to show that people are phony?
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