Good Country People And Catcher In The Rye Analysis

Some traditions show that certain people must have certain roles in society. For example, today’s society puts pressure on the female to conform to fixed rules. They are expected to be seen, and not heard, while the man does all of the work. Two short stories that break these traditions are Good Country People, by Flannery O’Connor, and Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Good Country People is about a girl who does not conform to that society’s rules about women and is seen as odd by the people around her, even her mother. The passage from Catcher in the Rye being used will speak about a young man trying to convince a girl to run away with him and make a new life. Both of these passages show people attempting to break tradition. Yet, in a Ted Talk by Rita Barreto Craig, she speaks about how traditions should be cherished and continued through generations. Even though this may be true for some cases, some traditions are toxic. They should be discarded before they continue to contaminate today’s society and the future. Some traditions are worth keeping around because they …show more content…
In Catcher in the Rye, Holden feels like if he continues on the path that he was heading on, he will never get anywhere. He would like to leave and start a new life for himself, where he can be anybody and do anything he wants for himself. There are few options presented for both men and women as Holden describes them, but he did not even mention the fact that Sally, the girl he is trying to convince, could get a job as well. All Holden says is, “We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out… I could get a job somewhere and we can live somewhere…”(Salinger). This also does not present a healthy idea of tradition, as he only paints the picture with him doing most, to all of the work for their lives. This is very outdated, as both men and women are allowed to work in any profession they’d