Elizabeth 11/12/02

Phony Essay

Many young children often ask what words mean in their quest of mastering the English language so, the word phony, not as commonly used as other words, is often questioned. Because many adults don’t have the patience to answer such simple questions they usually reply with an inadequate answer such as, "phonies are people who are fake."

Although this definition holds true, the word "phony" has a variety of synonyms and whether the word is being used as a noun or an adjective there are many characteristics that lie under the word, "phony." Words such as false, artificial, imitated or imitation, fraud, and affected, all have the ability to replace the word, "phony." People who act a certain way, which is not truly who they are, just to be accepted, liked or thought of in another way would be considered phonies. In contrast, a woman who never wore makeup and did not have any plastic surgery is the opposite of a phony because she is allowing who she truly is to be exposed. A person who seems malicious or unhappy is not necessarily a phony. Society conceives that someone who does not reveal who they really are and acts or does something to themselves to prevent someone else from realizing who they honestly are, is a phony. Those who are labeled phony almost always have an underlying objective when performing their actions.

Many people of society today, have characteristics of a phony. Such a person would include someone who was to find a lost credit card and use it, buying whatever pleased them and signing as if they were the rightful owner of the credit card. The fraud used the credit card that had belonged to someone else without their permission and acted as though he were the owner of the credit card, not his actual self, by signing the receipt. Most likely, the fraud desired certain items that he could not afford or did not want to spend his own money on, so he acted as a phony. The false credit card user may not have necessarily wanted to harm this particular credit card owner. Maybe the fraud was just cheap and that’s why he decided to act in a phony manner.

In conclusion, phonies are those who act or take on different characteristics from that which they truly are. A phony believes he or she successfully tricks others into believing they fulfill the role of something they are not. The phony is not honest and attempts to better himself. Although most people in their lifetime have acted kindly to someone they didn’t admire or dress in an outfit that did not reflect their own personal taste, a phony was not obligated to or placed in certain conditions, under which these false actions were necessary, unlike the majority, the phony desired betterment for himself.