Holden's biggest gripe in The Catcher in the Rye is "phony" (fake) people. Holden criticizes and judges everyone with whom he comes in contact, and that includes characters in books such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and even the disciples from The Holy Bible. He recounts a discussion that he had about the disciples with a classmate from Whooton School named Arthur Childs who was a Quaker. Childs tells Holden that he should...
Holden's biggest gripe in The Catcher in the Rye is "phony" (fake) people. Holden criticizes and judges everyone with whom he comes in contact, and that includes characters in books such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and even the disciples from The Holy Bible. He recounts a discussion that he had about the disciples with a classmate from Whooton School named Arthur Childs who was a Quaker. Childs tells Holden that he should like the disciples simply because Jesus chose them to help him out. Holden must have found something fake or phoney with the disciples, because that is what he usually finds annoying in people. Holden never says that in particular, but he does say the following:
"Take the Disciples for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting Him down" (99).
One can infer that if Holden thinks that the disciples let Jesus down all of the time that they were flaky, flighty, or phony in his eyes. It would seem that Holden identifies with Jesus and the feeling of having people let him down all of the time; then, he projects this onto the disciples and that's why he doesn't like them.
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