Adam Silbert                                                                                                   11/14/02

English �Composition 4                                                                            Ms. Gokturk

            �Don�t buy it. It�s phony,� warned the father as they walked past the street vendor who had an array of shiny watches spread out on a black velvet towel. The child�s eyes were on a gold and diamond encrusted Rolex. Admittedly, the fact that �ROLEX� was spelled �ROLECKS� did not make the father too confident.

 In that context the word phony meant something that was not real.  It applied to material objects like that sparkling piece of mechanical junk on the black velvet towel that was masquerading as Swiss engineering.  It was bogus.  It was fake.  The word�phony� itself seems to come from an English slang of an Irish term, fawny, referring to a cheap brass ring but even that is subject to debate.  Even then, however, it seemed to be confined to inanimate objects.  

Over the years, the word has come to be used to describe people. A person is referred to as being phony when they attempt to be something they are not.  However, there is a line between being a phony and creating an illusion for legitimate purposes. Madonna is a phony when she speaks with an English accent.  A person is not a phony when they wear a wig because they are undergoing chemotherapy. A restaurant maitre �d is a phony when he tries to intimidate you just because he is wearing a tuxedo and can pronounce words on a menu.  A person is not a phony when they get cosmetic therapy to improve their appearance after a disfiguring accident.   Efforts to create a false appearance in an effort to mask an otherwise normal reality all constitute a modern definition of what is phony.  Pam Anderson would be attractive without her implants, but by getting them so large, she becomes a phony.  The defining element that defines a phony today is the motivation for altering a person�s reality.  If a person changes to fit-in with someone else�s ideals, not their own, then they are being a phony.  To change one�s essence in an effort to enhance self worth at someone else�s expense, is to be a phony. 

In European History there is a period called The Enlightenment. This was an era when people grew and progressed with a new respect for the nature of what made man a noble species.  That nobility came from a desire to change for self-improvement.  Today, that desire is still noble.  But when you change for such shallow reasons as trying to be something you are not, you become just the opposite of your goal.  You become a phony.