Compare And Contrast The Perks Of Being A Wallflower And Catcher In The Rye

Some of the most powerful novels are ones that can emotionally touch readers. Ones that people can connect or relate to their own lives, or perhaps one of their companion’s lives. Chances are, if you enjoyed a book you read then you probably had some type of emotional connection to the main character or maybe with a side character. Let’s say a book with a sad ending made you cry. Why exactly can a book push you to tears? It is because the book built up a relationship overtime between you and maybe a character that experienced some sort of hardship. You will remember this type of book. It is a book that to you, is almost certainly one of good composure.
Holden Caulfield is the main character in The Catcher in the Rye. One of the reasons this …show more content…
Charlie is a socially awkward kid who was molested by his Aunt Helen in his younger stages of life. Throughout Charlie’s entire life, he has suppressed his feelings and emotions that uncontrollably exist from this upsetting incident. He has a lot of issues mentally as a result from this mess. This certainly does not help him as he is developing into a young adult. It is difficult for Charlie to make friends or even talk to people in general conversations due to his lack of confidence. This is where a reader will generally develop sympathetic emotions for Charlie. Being as smart as he was, Charlie surely had a great amount of potential in terms of things he could accomplish. Unfortunately, his nonexistent confidence seemed to prevent some of these better things that could have played part in his life. Near the very end of the book, Charlie’s memories from the inappropriate encounter with his aunt seem to all surface at once. He cannot control these emotions of which he feels and ends up in a hospital needing medical attention. Now that the readers are emotionally attached to the wallflower Charlie, emotions from the book are passed to and felt by the readers themselves. Recovering in the hospital, Charlie writes a last letter that seems to be both positive and optimistic. He is looking forward to his next year in …show more content…
Holden and Charlie seem to be incredibly similar in their personalities. Sometimes they seem like the same character in ways. They both deal with problems that are very alike each other’s. Readers see these problems and tend to develop sympathy for Holden and Charlie. Both of the authors use these problems to begin the construction of their novel. They do this while having the intention of developing a relationship between the main character and the reader. This technique is used by many authors in many different ways. Some authors will attach you to their character by making them heroic, some will make their character very intelligent, or maybe they might make their character possess a particular trait or characteristic that appeals to certain readers. The amount of the reader’s emotional attachment to a character has a lot to do with the reader’s personal characteristics and likings. Different readers will attach to different characters on different levels. Authors can develop their character in various ways to appeal to which ever group of readers they want to reach. Salinger and Chbosky allowed readers to develop sympathy for their almost identical main characters. This is what makes these two novels very comparable. Even though they have very dissimilar plots and endings, these two novels remain truly similar in structure and technique used by