Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.

The line is spoken by Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger’s novel *The Catcher in the Rye* (1951), during one of his characteristic digressions about language and “phoniness.” Holden repeatedly fixates on words and social formulas that, to him, signal insincerity or self-congratulation. His irritation at “grand” fits the novel’s postwar, mid-century American milieu, where polite, upbeat diction can mask discomfort, hypocrisy, or emotional distance. The remark occurs amid Holden’s running commentary on how people talk—teachers, parents, and peers—and it underscores his tendency to treat everyday speech as evidence of moral character.

Holden’s disgust at the word “grand” is less about vocabulary than about what he believes it represents: a performative, socially approved cheerfulness that papers over real feeling. Calling the word “phony” reveals his moral absolutism and his hypersensitivity to perceived inauthenticity. The visceral “I could puke” intensifies the reaction, showing how language triggers bodily revulsion in him—an adolescent’s bluntness, but also a sign of deeper alienation. More broadly, the moment illustrates one of the novel’s central tensions: Holden’s longing for sincerity and innocence versus his inability to tolerate the compromises and conventions through which adults (and would-be adults) navigate social life.