Dealing with insincere people and struggling to grow up is something that people have had to deal with for a long time. JD Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye and Mike Nichols’ The Graduate explore stories of boys going through that same experience. However, the portrayals of their characters contrast dramatically in almost every way. While these boys both initially don’t know how to deal with the transition from childhood to inevitable adulthoods, their strategies of approaching it are immensely different. Because of the dissimilarities in which they handle these uncertainties and the way they interact with their families, this ultimately contributes to how each story ends for them, and we see someone who inadvertently makes steps to
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After Ben interrupts the wedding between Elaine and Carl, he is able to fight his way through the crowd and run away with her after yelling, “Move!”. He is able to show what he is willing to do in order to get what he wants, regardless of what consequences result from his decisions. Ben does not let society beat him although it seemed to frequently dominate him. In contrast, immediately after he recalls watching his sister Phoebe ride the carousel, Holden writes, “...this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I’m going to apply myself when I go back to school next September” (Salinger 234). Unlike Ben, Holden is still unable to answer this question of where he is going to apply himself, and his uncertain character traits has led him into a mental hospital. Ben is able to finally develop a plan for his future and pursued it until it became a reality, whereas Holden never shook off his spontaneous mentality. Both storytellers realize these characters’ struggles, yet Nichols decides to push his main character to grow while still retaining some of his spontaneous ways. Nichols gives viewers a character who eventually dealt with his problems head on and disable from letting it overcome him. Salinger gives readers a mentally broken character who is unable to solve his problems that are frequently
After Ben interrupts the wedding between Elaine and Carl, he is able to fight his way through the crowd and run away with her after yelling, “Move!”. He is able to show what he is willing to do in order to get what he wants, regardless of what consequences result from his decisions. Ben does not let society beat him although it seemed to frequently dominate him. In contrast, immediately after he recalls watching his sister Phoebe ride the carousel, Holden writes, “...this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I’m going to apply myself when I go back to school next September” (Salinger 234). Unlike Ben, Holden is still unable to answer this question of where he is going to apply himself, and his uncertain character traits has led him into a mental hospital. Ben is able to finally develop a plan for his future and pursued it until it became a reality, whereas Holden never shook off his spontaneous mentality. Both storytellers realize these characters’ struggles, yet Nichols decides to push his main character to grow while still retaining some of his spontaneous ways. Nichols gives viewers a character who eventually dealt with his problems head on and disable from letting it overcome him. Salinger gives readers a mentally broken character who is unable to solve his problems that are frequently