Society plays a crucial part in shaping lives, but some people are destined to be a certain way even without society’s influence. Bigger Thomas and Holden Caulfield from Richard Wright’s Native Son and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye are testaments that society is not always to blame for every issue. Their psychological deterioration is progressed and encouraged by their societies, but their falls were destined to happen. Bigger and Holden, though from different environments, experience a similar psychological decline. Bigger Thomas allows his experience with oppression and prejudice to define his actions and behavior. He is hopeless about his imminent future. He dreams of flying planes, but his blackness deters him. He says that “I reckon we the only things in this city that can’t go where we want to go and do what we want to do” (Wright 21). Rather than fight the oppression and hate he receives,
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Their hatred blinds them of morality and allows them to behave the way they do. Holden shows signs of depression and suicidal thoughts. He says that “I’m sort of glad they’ve got the atomic bomb invented. If there’s ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will” (156). Holden’s suicidal thoughts grace a few times a chapter, and his depression every few pages. He feels an inclinations to die, but his careless and self-pitying attitude stops him. Bigger kills Mary, tells Bessie about it, and feels the need to get rid of her. To him, his only option is to brutally murder her with a brick. “His hand gripped the brick and shot upward and paused a second and then plunged downward through the darkness to the accompaniment of a deep short grunt from his chest and landed with a thud. Yes!” (237). All of Bigger’s actions led to this act of violence. When hate was not enough, the next option was violence. Their thoughts became actions, and they took their hatred out on
Their hatred blinds them of morality and allows them to behave the way they do. Holden shows signs of depression and suicidal thoughts. He says that “I’m sort of glad they’ve got the atomic bomb invented. If there’s ever another war, I’m going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will” (156). Holden’s suicidal thoughts grace a few times a chapter, and his depression every few pages. He feels an inclinations to die, but his careless and self-pitying attitude stops him. Bigger kills Mary, tells Bessie about it, and feels the need to get rid of her. To him, his only option is to brutally murder her with a brick. “His hand gripped the brick and shot upward and paused a second and then plunged downward through the darkness to the accompaniment of a deep short grunt from his chest and landed with a thud. Yes!” (237). All of Bigger’s actions led to this act of violence. When hate was not enough, the next option was violence. Their thoughts became actions, and they took their hatred out on