![]() But when we're in his head, he's consistently "not phoney" and swears excessively. Generally he cleans up his language when he's in dialogue with another character, consistently maintaining a cleaner public personna than his inner self. He doesn't even curse with the prostitute or her pimp, the elevator operator. At the dorm in the beginning he curses, but that's a more intimate setting. He was stressed-out, a pressure situation. Late in the story he loses it with with Sally and says "goddam" a lot. Holden doesn't swear with the nuns or the cab drivers, but slips with ladies in the nightclub (after drinking) or with his teachers, former teachers, the boys at the museum or Phoebe. The swearing is a device, a cue reminding us when we're in Holden's head, and it's very effective. When Holden's in dialogue with somone, he cleans up his language, as most people do. These are his thoughts we're reading because the book is narrated in first-person. In the vast majority of cases, the swearing is reserved for inner monologue. Well, the truth is that he's not actually talking. One of the most common complaints I hear about THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is Holden Caufield's swearing-that it's not only offensive but it feels unrealistic because nobody would talk like that.
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