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Compare And Contrast Catcher In The Rye And Ordinary People

464 Words2 Pages

In the book Catcher in the Rye we meet a young man named Holden Caulfield. In the movie Ordinary People we meet Conrad Jarrett. In this paper they will both be compared, contrasted and discussed. In Catcher in the Rye Holden’s brother died at a young age from cancer. He was Holden’s best friend. When he died Holden got angry and went out to the garage and punched a window. He hurt his hand because of this and has a scar. In Ordinary People Conrad’s brother died in a boating accident. Conrad and his brother were out boating and a storm came. His brother let go of the boat and Conrad held on. Holden and Conrad’s grief is brought onto them by the death of a brother. They both try and deal with it in the best way that they can. They both have some sort of positive outlook on life after their tragedies. Holden may leave school but he is good at English and looks at life positively. Conrad is on his school's swim team and tries to socialize with his old friends. They both know that their tragedies have affected them and that they will be different people in the end. They know that they will have to change. They can’t go back to how their lives were before the death of their brothers. …show more content…

Holden is not really there when his brother died the way that Conrad is. Holden feel sad and depressed but he does not really want to kill himself and hasn’t really tried. Conrad is in my opinion dealing with his grief the worst. Conrad tries to kill himself but is saved by his father after he noticed Conrad was not in his room. We get the feeling Conrad’s mother blames him for the death of his brother and wishes that Conrad would have been the one who died in his place. We don’t see much of Holden’s parents in Catcher in the Rye but we don’t get the feeling that anyone blames him for the death of his brother, except

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