Holden and his fake family in The Catcher in the Rye The protagonist, Holden Caulfield, interacts with many people throughout JD Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, but probably none had as much impact on him as on some members of his immediate family. The way Holden acts or reacts towards different members of his family gives the reader a first-hand view of Holden's philosophy surrounding each member. Holden refers to the word “false” forty-four times throughout the novel (Corbett 68-73). . Each time he seems to refer to the subject of this metaphor as someone who discriminates against others, is hypocritical about something, or exhibits displays of conformity (Corbett 71). Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden describes and interacts with various members of his family. The way he talks about each one gives you an idea of ​​whether he thinks they're "fake" or normal. Some of his stories make it more obvious than others how he categorizes each member of the family. From the very first page of the novel, Holden begins to characterize his parents as distant and frequently generalizes his father and mother throughout his chronicle. An example is: "...my parents would each have about two hemorrhages if I mentioned anything personal about them. They're quite touchy about it, especially my dad. They're nice and all - I'm not saying that - but they're also touchy as hell” (Salinger 1) Holden's father is a lawyer and so he considers him “fake” because he decidedly sees his father's profession as a parallel to his father's personality. example, when Holden talks to Phoebe about what he wants to do when he grows up, he can't answer her question and gives her his opinion on their father's profession "Lawyers are fine, I suppose - but this. That's not the case." I don't like it, I said. "I mean, they have nothing to fear if they're saving innocent lives all the time, and like that, but you don't Don't do that stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of money and play golf and bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hotshot. How would you know you're not an imposter? The problem is, you wouldn't do it” (Salinger 172).