Salinger just wants people, especially teens, to realize and be aware of the phoniness in the world. He wants people to see the dishonesty and selfishness in people before they fall into a trap that holds ulterior motives. From reading the book, I had a feeling that Salinger wrote the book from his own perspective as a teenager and the way he thought of the world and people back then. A perfect example is the situation with Mr. Antolini. This seemingly kind and genuine adult showed to supportive and helping to Holden. Yet when Holden was sleeping, Mr. Antolini was inappropriate in rubbing Holden’s head and seemingly had no reason on why he was doing it. This completely showed to Holden what Mr. Antolini’s real intentions were with him. In a way, he was just grooming Holden by giving him hospitality and kindness, when in the end he had complete ulterior motives. In conclusion, the word phony can be interpreted in many ways. It can be used to describe people and things in regard to being insincere or fake. Holden himself uses phony to help him keep true to himself and maintain the little innocence he can in life. Holden himself can be phony at times, but in his defense, he does it without realizing that he’s doing it or that he’s being phony at all. Salinger wrote the book to keep the readers aware of the phoniness in the world and how fake people can truly be. Holden’s use of the word “phony” is to help him cope as he is slowly put into the adult world and to describe people, places or things that are not true to their form. As stated in the beginning of this essay, Holden Claufield is an extremely interesting character in The Catcher in the Rye. We see his use of the word “phony” multiple times throughout the novel. Holden uses this word as a coping mechanism to help him in his slow but sure transition into the adult world, which he does not want to be a part of. I think that Salinger wrote this book to show any teens like Holden that they are not alone in the world in feeling the way that Holden does. Salinger’s purpose of writing this book stands out to me as I think the book can seriously help many teens that have overwhelming feelings of phoniness; just like Holden.>