Phonies in movies? That kills me!

Phonies, phonies everywhere!  

Most of people enjoy watching movies and personally I love them! But, you might be wondering, what is the relationship with the book? The answer to this question is simple; Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy and the protagonist of “The Catcher in the rye” (Salinger, 1951), associates the word “phony” with everything he considers fake, false, and hypocrite. Put it another way, full of appearances, especially what refers to adult life.  Does that say a lot to you? 

Movies are constantly showing a different world, where everything and everyone is perfect, and that’s great! Isn’t it?  Although, everyone knows that reality is more complex and makes you realize what you see in movies is plastic and artificial and at the end only generates false people’s stereotypes. To give an illustration of what I mean, let’s have a look at the case of women’s expectations on men, on account of their pretty stereotypical characters’ image in romantic movies. Consequently, as I said above affect and damage and narrow women’s notions of what a man should be and shouldn’t be like.

First of all, men are shown or illustrated as a kind of romantic heroes, something that Holden himself hates about movies because men seem to be less real and very predictable, even Sunny, the prostitute compares Holden with a man that probably she remembered from some movie: "You look like a guy in the movies. You know. Whosis. You know who I mean. What the heck's his name?" (pp.53). This phenomenon happens because Sunny conceives men of what she has seen in media, creating unconsciously a certain image of Holden’s attitude. For instance, according to movies men’s roles, the idea of men’s ability to feel a wide array of emotions, including confusion and fear are considered unmanly since it is not part of their nature, which is completely silly. 

Secondly, movies offer you corny stories about relationships that sometimes make women cry or enjoy them for one simple reason. Women want that beautiful and magic stories that end happily due to it represents what women need to fulfill and they do not have; their life is quite different, although. But, it is shown there on screen, so what is the obstacle to not dream with that? Just think about as a girl about “Disney Movies” and Holden even refers to a woman watching a beautiful story, just because she loves it, which is quite the opposite to the woman's attitude: “[...] the phonier it got, the more she cried. You'd have thought she did it because she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her, and she wasn't ... You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out over phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart. I'm not kidding [...]” (pp.76)

Thirdly, the repetitive aspect is presented in a lot of movies. The girl falls in love with the mean guy, while she suffers for being ignored and not fulfilling his expectations, but she always justifies man’s problems to love, referring to character’s inferiority complex: “The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is, they'll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a guy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited. Even smart girls do it. “ ( pp.74) Hence, women are constantly trying to find explanations about men behavior, for example, the lack of self-worth, doubts, uncertainty and feelings of not measuring up to standards, which his effortless aura of being cool makes him irresistible to all ladies. That’s why unconsciously Holden is secretly afflicted since what he desires is to be what he hates and criticizes as phony and hypocritical stuff.  Mainly, the hero and the man in charge exactly as are presented in movies where men have everyone’s destiny in control.

Finally, how not to mention the physical image of men, come on! They are represented for handsome guys that condition women to prototypical men and their beauty. It's kind of funny because all women dream with that kind of guys, creating false expectations.

Throughout the novel, Holden uses a phrase that I like a lot and I even find amusing and sarcastic, and I decided to incorporate it in my title; That kills me! This phrase represents what people do all the time, we criticize a lot either with a positive or negative connotation, yet we still enjoy or like something or someone, especially if we are impressed for anything we see, especially on media. So, it is not strange that Holden uses the same phrase to describe two completely opposite emotions, therefore, he is considered an unreliable narrator as everyone in this world, and we are full of contradictions.

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you are all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though” (Salinger, pp 10). Regarding this point, it is true that we expect when finishing a book, and especially in these times a movie, we wish that it had been real to feel that those events and characters become part of our real life. 

This is an incredible book that makes you reflect a lot about life. Personally, I loved the book, as I said above I like its language not only that phrase, it becomes so familiar when you read it, especially how you as a reader take part of Holden’s mind because Holden says one thing and thinks another, and that’s real life. Even, Holden’s search to find answers to many questions demonstrates that reality is complicated than that and his conceptions of “happiness” again are reduced to phoniness. “Life is a game, boy, life is a game that one plays according to the rules” (Salinger, pp. 8).

References

Ansbacher, H. L., Ansbacher, R., Shiverick, D., Shiverick, K., & Lee , H. O.­w. (1967). An Adlerian interpretation. Journal of Individual Psychology, págs. 24-34.

Brand, N. (19 de February de 2013). Six Male Stereotypes Hollywood Needs to Let Go Of. Obtenido de The Good men project: http://goodmenproject.com/arts/six-male-stereotypes-hollywood-needs-to-let-go-of/

Salinger, J. D. (1951). The Catcher in the rye. United States: Little, Brown and Company.