Comparison Essay
Change can mean totally different things to many people. Whether it is dealing with a loss, or you are gaining something it has major affects on people. The two stories Catcher in The Rye by J.D Salinger, and Pleasantville by Gary Ross had similar and different ways of showing how the characters had changed. I think one of the major changes that happened in the story’s was has the characters transferred from childhood innocence to the experience of adulthood. Each story dealt with the topic of change in their own way, but each change had similarities to the other story.
My first similarity in these 2 stories was how both of the main characters got in fights for other people. In the book the main character Holden was getting mad at his roommate “That's a professional secret buddy. This next part I don't remember so hot. All I know is I got up from my bed, like I was going down to the
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At the end of the book Holden had gone into a safe house. “I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I'm supposed to go to next fall,after I get out of here”(Page: 234). This event showed that Holden was taking actions for what he had done which was very mature. Holden was finally able to face all the things and take responsibility. The comparison to the movie was how to other main character Jennifer (David’s twin who goes with him) decides to stay in pleasantville “ I'm not ready yet. I gotta do this for a little while. (They stand on the edge of town) Besides. You think there's like a chance I'm gonna get into college back there?”(Script). Jennifer was trying to change the life she had created back out of the show. These 2 parts showed major maturity to adulthood. These 2 characters took a big chance in both of these situations to better help themselves out in the
The purpose of my essay is to explore how different social backgrounds and the social norms that follow affect the personality of two fictive characters and encourage them to break out of their station to find an identity. The protagonists Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye and Tambudzai in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel Nervous Conditions are both victims of social norms. Therefore, the foundation of this essay was to analyze the character’s social background, which has influenced their personalities, behavior and aspirations, and consequently their opposing actions against society. Holden Caulfield is an American adolescent during the period after the Second World War.
Holden goes through many different changes throughout the novel and becomes very different from how he was at the start. Although many would argue that he does not change and that by the end of the novel, there is no development. There is a lot of development as he continues to change throughout the novel and has many different ways of perceiving his surroundings in the end. The main reason he changes is that by the end he thinks that everyone should grow up out of their childhood, he has also gained a deeper understanding of himself, and he is finally prepared and able to fight the real world as an adult. One of the biggest things that Holden realizes towards the end of the book and throughout it is that everyone should grow up out of their childhood.
The things they went through do not make them feel better at the end. Holden's ending is not similar to Franny's ending because they both end up reacting to society in a different way. "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall of," (Salinger, 232). Holden learns a huge lesson when he is with Phoebe at the carousel.
Catcher in the Rye Relevance The Catcher in the Rye is a common book used to educate high school students. But is it still relevant? Teens are having a harder time relating to Holden 's problems from “phonies” to all the “fuck you”’s(Salinger, p.g. 201). That is no longer a real problem to teens anywhere.
Text Analysis Practicum Course Instructor: Dr. Lorelei Caraman Dimişcă Bianca-Melania Russian - English Childhood vs. adulthood in J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” “The Catcher in the Rye” is a novel written by J.D. Salinger in 1951. The book is one of the most controversial books ever written and its popularity comes from the author’s rough attitude towards society from the perspective of a teenager. “The Catcher in the Rye” is thought to be J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece and it is listed as one of the best novels of the 20th century. In 2009 Finlo Rohrer affirmed that even 58 years later after the book has been published it is still considerate “the defining work on what it is like to be a teenager”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye)
In Chapter 9-14 Holden Caulfield leaves Penecy Prep and heads to New York City. Where he will stay for a couple days before winter vacation starts and he will head home. Delaying breaking the news to his family he got kicked out of school for as long as possible. These chapters are where Holden’s loneliness becomes abundantly clear. The reader is subjected to many long rants by Holden about the company he wants, though he attempts to settle several times.
After overcoming most obstacles, he has changed and developed into the person he is today. Joey is now very mature because sister was barely around and his mom had a serious drinking problem so he had “become the parent at just thirteen” (Graceffa 36). Now he is much more mature because he had to be due to the obstacles he faced. Although he is mature, he can also be very childish because he was not able to be childish when he was younger. Joey is also himself.
When two people are desperate for “interaction”, they might have a liking for each other. This is especially true if these people are acquainted with each other. This is what could happen between Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and Lee Fiora from Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld if they knew each other. As said by The Washington Post, “Holden Caulfield would love this heroine.” Holden would undoubtedly “love” Lee because of his and Lee’s neediness for sex.
In America, we grow up in a society that grooms us to become a successful and happy adult. A society in which people are able to say and do what they want. This freedom that comes with growing up can be too much to handle. As we grow up we start to realize the flaws in our society and the flaws within ourselves. This pressure to remain happy can have various effects.
In The Catcher in the Rye, the author J.D. Salinger, introduces the protagonist; Holden Caulfield. Holden feels the sense that he cannot choose between the two worlds. For example, he makes it seem as both of them are complete opposites from each other. In the book, Holden wants to keep his innocence, but he also wants to grow up and toss that innocence away. He still keeps his childhood personality by constantly obsessing over things that shouldn’t matter.
Society as a whole is something you make of it. If one wants to denounce the society they live in because it is “phony” that is because they’ve made the world around them phony. The character of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye is a prime example of someone being stuck in the idea that society is unchanging. Society is just how a person perceives the world in front of them. The eye of the beholder is the one that creates the society of their choice.
Holden Caulfield lives his life as an outsider to his society, because of this any we (as a reader) find normal is a phony to him. Basically, every breathing thing in The Catcher in the Rye is a phony expect a select few, like Jane Gallagher. What is a phony to Holden and why is he obsessed with them? A phony is anyone who Holden feels is that living their authentic life, like D.B. (his older brother). Or simply anyone who fits into society norms, for example, Sally Hayes.
Jessica Casimiro October 30, 2015 English 3/PayLea Short Story Essay Patrick Rothfuss once claimed, “The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.” The novel Catcher in the Rye focuses on Holden Caulfield, an angst-ridden teen conflicted between remaining in a state of prolonged innocence or transitioning into the world of adulthood, thus facing the corruption and phoniness that it correlates with. Through Holden’s dynamic character, J.D Salinger depicts how innocence is slowly lost when exposed to adulthood. Reluctant to the idea of growing up, Holden strives to protect the innocence of himself and the ones’ around him. Holden reminisces about the Natural Museum of History, a place he enjoyed going
In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Mr. Antolini gives Holden Caulfield advice when he is at one of his lowest points. Already aware of Holden’s mental state and position on school, he quotes Wilhelm Stekel, a psychoanalyst, “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” (Salinger 188). Although Holden fails to grasp Mr. Antolini’s message, the quote applies directly to his life because of his relationship with death as a result of his younger brother, Allie’s, death. Mr. Antolini uses this quote specifically because he wants Holden take a step back and try to live for a noble cause instead of resorting to death.
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help develop and inform the text 's major themes. One of the recurring themes in the novel The Catcher in the Rye is the omnipresent theme of death. It could be argued that the novel is not only full of references to death in the literal sense, physical disappearance, but also in the metaphorical, taking the form of spiritual disappearance, something which Holden often focuses on, along with the actual theme of mortality. It is possible that this occurs because of his reluctance to interact with the living world. As his means of escaping from the reality he despises, his mundane thoughts and the “phoniness” that he is surrounded by.