Catcher In The Rye And Franny Character Analysis

The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey are two stories written by the author JD Salinger. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye suffers from depression within the reason of not being able to conform to the society around him. Over his four day escapade in New York City, the reader learns that Holden's depression is exacerbated by his unhappiness with society. Franny and Zooey's protagonist is named Franny, and she is similar to Holden in The Catcher in the Rye. Franny had difficulty dealing with society because she feels that her society does not accept her the way she is throughout the story. Both Franny and Holden have a mental breakdown due to having trouble conforming to society. Conformity is hard for both characters

The things they went through do not make them feel better at the end. Holden's ending is not similar to Franny's ending because they both end up reacting to society in a different way. "The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall of," (Salinger, 232). Holden learns a huge lesson when he is with Phoebe at the carousel. The gold ring represents maturing and the kids always want to mature and be different so they try to grab it. Holden always looks for innocence in each child and he is afraid kids would catch the gold ring because they lose their innocence the moment they catch it. Holden always wants to be the one that saves children from losing their innocence. He now realized that he should conform to society and let things happen. He conforms to the society by accepting the idea that each child at some point will grab the gold ring and lose innocence. After all, Holden conforms and learns a few lessons at the end of the story. The other protagonist, Franny, ended up not conforming to the society around her. Franny ends up being lost more than Holden and her situation is much worse. She still cannot conform to the society around her and her view on society does not change. Her negative view of society affects her mentally and physically. She is pale and it makes her body tired. "Alone, Franny lay quite still, looking at the ceiling. Her lips began to move, forming soundless words, and they continued to move," (Salinger, 21). After Lane leaves the room, Franny lays quietly trying to cure her tired body. She then falls into a deep sleep while being so tired and lonesome. She keeps praying while falling asleep because she cannot deal with the things around her anymore. She wants to escape from her society that was causing her pain. Franny ends up not conforming to