Similarities Between Catcher In The Rye And All My Sons

Authority, culpability and power; all synonyms of responsibility and all relate to the theme of responsibility and guilty. This theme is conveyed in the novels The Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451 and All My Sons. Although these novels are different they have many similarities between the three of them through this theme and how it has affected each character by an event that has occurred in the novels. Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye feels a sense of guilt and responsibility for the death of his brother Allie. Therefore he drinks, smokes and becomes very depressed and ends up missing his own brother’s funeral because of hurting himself. In the novel All My Sons Joe Keller, a thought to be responsible business man ends up committing …show more content…
He feels a responsibility to protect the books that are being burned in the story by his fellow firefighters. In the totalitarian society that is present in Fahrenheit 451, the state holds total authority and control over all aspects of public and private life whenever possible. This is shown throughout the novel, such as that books are illegal to obtain and if found, they will be burned and your house will be burned with them. Montag feels that although he is a fireman and this would be going against what firemen are supposed to do and going against this society he feels that he needs to obtain and protect all of the books. He feels that he is responsible for protecting from the destruction of the books. Therefore because Captain Beatty and all of the other firemen are destroying the books he ends up killing Captain Beatty when he comes to Montag’s house and taunts him while Montag is holding a flamethrower. Montag feels threatened by the fact that Beatty is destroying the books and that he is teasing him. In addition Montag during one of the book raids from an old lady on Elm Street he tell begins by entering the house wanting to destroy the books and the house but the woman inside starts talking about how she loves her books and doesn’t want to leave them and won’t leave them. This hits Montag like a brick wall, he has a cloud of guilt and responsibility comes over him telling him not to burn down the house, the old woman and especially the books. He attempts to convince her to leave and that she doesn’t need the books but then suddenly the old woman ignites herself on fire. This event and woman had caused Montag to reassess how he feels for books and now wants to save