The last remark Holden Caulfield makes at the end of chapter 14 says more about his self-perception, decency, and perception on society more than any other line to this point in "The Catcher in the Rye". His words, "I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve done it, too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory," (page 104) go a long way towards summing up his character as seen thus far in the novel.
While this says many things, the most outstanding of them is the fact that Holden feels that he is superior enough that all the common people walking the streets (and it can be safely assumed he would consider them "phonies") do not even deserve to look at him dead. For them to see him like this would mean that they might think that they are better than Holden, someone who attends (or attended more accurately) a school as prestigious as Pency. And of course, from what is known thus far about Holden, this is something that he just could not have thought about him, even if he was no longer concerned in the matter. What Holden is also saying is that because of the blood on his face from his fight with Stradlater, a person on the street would not see him as he would normally appear, as if they were getting cheated out of seeing such a beautiful, wonderful person. And again, this might lead them to believe that they were equal to him at the very least, something that concerns him perhaps too much.
And as the reader, this is very appalling and offending to myself because here Holden is a person who thinks so highly of himself and looks so far down on society, when in fact, he has no reason to do so. This is so because, based on his actions which have included flunking out of school, calling a prostitute and inviting a prostitute to his room, as well as drinking and smoking, perhaps it is Holden who should be looked down upon by society. He so often refers to the people around him as "phonies" when in fact he is probably the most phony himself out of all of them. And he has proved this by admitting that he enjoys lying and that much of what he tells people is a lie. Also, his critical, as well as hypocritical nature very much fits his unspoken description of a phony. And one truly great example of Holden being hypocritical was when he made it very much aware of how annoying it was to hear Mr. Spencer constantly use the word "boy", when it is Holden who can not refrain from using it himself for more than a few lines.
And while it is almost painfully apparent (since it is hard to accept that the narrator of the story can be seldom trusted) that Holden is himself a phony, it is also apparent that because of Holden’s perception of him being great, he will never admit that it is he that represents the problems with society that bother him so much.