Similarities Between Adulthood And Catcher In The Rye

Are childhood and adolescence the same for fictional boys and girls or do they experience a different set of tensions? Discuss by comparing two texts with female and male protagonists.
Undeniably there are differences between men and women and their journey’s through adolescence. The extent of these differences, but also their similarities, can be seen in the novels My Brilliant Career and Catcher in the Rye. Social and gender factors do not influence Horton as they do Sybylla who must struggle against both to achieve her dreams. Horton however, must deal with the pressures to achieve and to mature, developing a fear of reality and what the future consists for him. A fear both the protagonists share is a fear of intimacy with the opposite sex and the consequences of such relationships hold. In such a confusing reality, siblings play the part of confidants for both protagonists.
The characters find their journey through adolescence challenged with social …show more content…
Instead of trying to achieve academically, he readily admits to being a ‘moron’. By failing academically, Horton freezes himself at a school boy age and halts any progression he would make academically, and therefore in his life. ‘I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I’m about thirteen’ develops the crisis of identity that he is experiencing as Horton tries to escape the eventuality of adulthood. By acting like he is ‘about thirteen’ he is refusing to act as an expected adult should do, and is therefore rebelling against the social expectation. Horton believes that adult is synonymic for liar; ‘every adult is a phony’ and therefore every adult is a liar and is lying to him. He believes the world of adulthood to be isolated because of their inability to say the truth but Horton is isolating himself as well as he refuses to follow the natural process of