Phony? or Reality?

Holden refers to pretty much everyone as “a phony.” In-fact there are forty-six mentions of the word phony throughout novel. It is true. Holden’s life is filled with phonies; however a universal truth reveals itself in the novel. At first readers think they have entered a fictional world where everyone is phony; however, upon further reading readers begin to realize that Holden’s world is not much different than our own. The world is influenced by popular culture and it causes phoniness to become an everyday phenomenon.
          Popular culture effects people. When people see other people doing something represented as “cool” they think it is cool aswell. A good example of phoniness in popular culture is MTV’s The Real World. The show claims to represent real life, but if one thinks about the behind the scenes motives of the show, it gets complicated. For instance, the producers of the program need to create enjoyable television to receive high ratings or else the show gets cut from the budget. They must pick interesting people to live in the house. They look for the craziest people in America; people that will clash with each other and cause drama and suspense. Not only are the people that they pick crazy, they push their craziness to their limits because they want to be memorable. For example, in the last season of The Real World, House member Ryan discovered that a fish had died in their household fish tank and made the decision to cook and eat the dead fish. It is likely that Ryan would not have done this in his normal personal life, he simply wanted to do something that would be memorable after the season ends.
          Another example of phoniness in popular culture would be the show Jersey Shore. The show is centered around seven to eight early twenty-somethings. Their big claim to fame is their ability to never stop drinking, relentlessly workout, and religiously spray-tanned.   If the ‘characters’ stopped working out and decided to embrace sobriety,...