What does Holden Caulfield most often criticize people for? (He's got a certain word for it.)

Holden Caulfield continually refers to people as "phony," which expresses his cynical nature and belief that the majority of adults and popular classmates are disingenuous. Holden is one of literature's most classic unreliable narrators and is depicted as a neurotic, pessimistic adolescent, who desperately fears entering the world of adults. Holden's feelings of uncertainty, inferiority, and failure dramatically affect his perspective of the world in a negative way. Holden does not trust many individuals and believes that the majority of people are only concerned with keeping up appearances. Holden sees competitive, successful adults and popular students as phony because he believes they are simply trying to get ahead in life by taking advantage of others. Holden is attracted to humble, flawed people, who remind him of himself or his innocent spirit that he subconsciously tries to protect. Essentially, Holden's use of the term phony is more of a reflection of his low self-esteem and emphasizes his negative perception of the world. As a neurotic, jaded adolescent, Holden is wary of individuals who present themselves as successful, confident, or self-assured. Holden's use of the word phony is nothing more than a dismissive term that helps characterize him as a cynical adolescent.


In J.D. Salinger's classic novel The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield is a teenager trying in vain to find some sort of meaning in life.
The thing Holden most criticizes others for is being phony. He is constantly calling out others for their phoniness, meaning that he finds them shallow, disingenuous, or hypocritical. He sees the world around him as trying to keep up false appearances and shutting out the truth.
Ironically, our narrator has quite a bit of his own "phoniness" going on. Throughout the course of his story, we see a decent amount of hypocrisy from Holden. He is highly critical of others' phoniness, but lying and pretending are essentially what he does best. He even goes out with Sally Hayes, whom he calls the queen of the phonies, just to try to distract himself from the reality of his situation.

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