Theme Of Identity In Catcher In The Rye

There are some different types of identity in the society. People can maintain the identity as a member of a community such as a country or religion, and the identity as an individual, or personality. Thus, the theme of identity can be argued in some ways. For example, “First Muse,” the poem written by Julia Alvarez is about the Mexican-American girl who faces the problem to have her identity as an American. The Catcher in the Rye, the novel written by J. D. Salinger, is also based on the process of establishing the sixteen-year-old boy’s identity by spending time in New York. In these stories, both teenage characters struggle to establish their identity by feeling loneliness, and their thoughts were changed through the experience. Therefore, …show more content…
Through the experience to maintain identity, their thoughts were changed, and both of them become optimistic. At the end of the story of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden allows to go to the new school and decides to apply the school. Before he spends time in New York and goes back to his home, he did not think he wants to go to school because he considered all people around him as “phonies,” and he was not so interested in studying. That is also one of the reasons that he was kicked out from the school four times. In addition, when Mr. Antolini who was his English teacher teaches Holden the importance of getting academic experience by going to the school, Holden did not pay so much attention to what Mr. Antolini says. But, after he goes back to home, he decides to go a school again. It means that his thought is changed through his process of constructing identity, and probably his idea towards identity is changed, too. There is one more evidence that shows his way of thinking becomes different from before. In the last chapter, he says, "I sort of miss everybody I told about" (214). When he was at the school, he kept his individual identity by trying to be different from others and he despised other people. However, at the end of the story, he misses everybody he mentioned. It represents that his way of expressing his identity and his thoughts are a bit changed. And the girl in the poem, “First Muse,” also becomes different from the time when she was shocked by what the famous poet said. In the last stanza, she says, "it seemed the way the heart would speak English if it could speak” (Alvarez, 27-28) when she watched the advice of Chiquita Banana. This means she finds that it does not matter whether she is native English speaker or not to write a poem and to be an American. Therefore, now she thinks that she can have the strong identity as an American even though she