I believe that Holden is lying because he gets a kick out of it and because I think that he doesn’t want people to know who he is. Not necessarily because he wants to be anonymous but because he likes being a different person for a moment. However, it does also relieve him of responsibility and/or consequence if he is someone else. 

He enjoys analyzing people and interacting with people. He is fascinated by other people doing weird stuff as in the hotel, where he watches other people doing strange stuff. I think that he has a very clear picture in his mind of how other people are, like a character sheet where it says every characteristic.

The world of the book is quite small. Yes, he travelled to New York and it’s a big place and all but it is very centred around Holden. We are following him very closely and quite a lot is happening in one location. But story wise I feel like we are reaching a point of no return if we aren’t there already by him travelling to New York and soon we will reach some conflict.  

He is stuck in the past and feels like a child. His “friend” told him he was immature and acted the same old way even thought it had been years since they’d met. And while you expect a person to be themselves still he hadn’t changed the slightest. While everyone else are moving forward he still lives and acts the same way. This becomes even more clear when he talks to his sister who puts him in his place and knows what’s happening. He is afraid of change as many of us probably are, but in an extreme way. Every social interaction he has he sabotages. He has created a defence mechanism which makes him blind to his self-isolation. 

       The death of Allie has in my opinion made Holden who he is. The reason he has the thoughts that he does about people and about life, I think, is because Allie is gone. I mean, he probably would have similar thoughts but I think that Allie being dead escalates those feelings. The way Holden describes Allie gives us a very pure picture of him. To Holden, Allie is an innocent, unique and angel-like being. We don’t hear anything negative about him because Holden doesn’t think that Allie has anything negative about him. When he is by the pond, he retells Allie’s funeral. He thinks about how sad and horrible it was, that it was raining etc. But the more notable thing is the ducks. He has been talking about the ducks this whole time and because it is winter they aren’t there. He wants to know where they have gone. But they always come back. They never leave permanently.

Phoebe’s notebook is clean of any fake mirage. She writes what she thinks without having a narrative to follow. Something Holden could read for days and which to him is the epitome of how one should be. Nothing phony, just your real self. Just a child. When Phoebe wakes up and tries to talk sense to him his picture of this perfect world is challenged.