Catcher In The Rye Coming Of Age Essay

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Why do teenagers always face so many problems and feel confused about the world? After reading both Black Boy and The Catcher in the Rye, in which the protagonists deal with difficult situations during the coming-of-age process, I start to believe that life's struggles can force these teenagers to coming-of-age and affect their perspective of the world. In Black Boy, Richard's dad left him as he was four and he has had a very weak connection with his family members as he grows up. Most of the time Richard seemed to feel lonely and lost. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a 16-year-old boy who has been kicked out of another fancy prep school for failing 4 out of 5 subjects. He also viewed other people around him as phonies. Based on this, …show more content…

Teenagers will feel more anger and negativity about almost everything around them. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s life is a great example of negativity and anger. He had also experienced the injustice of fate - his brother died. On the night that his brother died, Holden broke all the windows in the garage with his own fists. After that day, Holden changed to a different person who is always full of anger and feels disgusted about the world. It seems like only his brother is the most interesting person in the world. In the book, the most noticeable of Holden's "peculiarities" is how extremely judgmental he is of almost everything and everybody around him. He criticizes and philosophizes about people who are insecure, people who are boring, and, above all, people who react like "phony." During the coming of age, Holden had a bad relationship with almost everyone around him. He couldn't remember what he supposed to do and failed four courses out of five in one semester. After he got kicked out of school, he started to get confused about the world. Holden is weak, and he is nothing like Richard in the Black Boy. The only strong part of his body is his mouse, and his language during the conversations is