Although Jim and Holden are very different people, they both experienced a tough upbringing, where they lost their innocence at a young age and had difficult parents, which led to depression in which they both contemplated suicide. Compared to holden, Jim does not have a singular event that shattered his innocence, rather his parents throughout his childhood did that for him. Before Jim leaves his home for the chickie run he looks for his father and finds him wearing an apron cleaning the floor and mistakes him for his mother. This interaction pretty much summarizes his childhood as he has an overbearing mother who pushes his father around and made his father a weak, cowardly person, who can't be relied upon for advice or help. The apron symbolizes …show more content…
Like Holden, Jim has problems with his parents as they continue to move every time he gets into a little trouble, which creates turmoil in his life. To deal with this pain he thinks about suicide and reveals this when he is talking to Judy about his depression and loneliness and says, “Every day I look in the mirror and say, ‘What? You still here?’”. Jim has dealt with a lot of pain and frustration with not only his parents, but himself. He has reached the point where he can not keep living the life that he has and starts wondering what's the point of keeping going and starts thinking about suicide, just like Holden. It's really sad because a teenager like him should be able to experience life as kid for the short time that he has the chance to be and not have to worry as much as he does, but with his parents, he is put through the ringer every single …show more content…
Although Jim and Holden are similar in the fact that they have had problems dealing with growing up and losing their innocence at such a young age, Jim differs from Holden as he tries to make his life better by trying to make friends. Jim’s attempts to make friends occur when he is at the class field trip and they are in an amphitheater watching a show about the galaxies and stars. When the lecturer starts talking about the Cancer stars (The crab) Buzz starts imitating a crab and when the lectures starts talking about the Taurus stars(The Bull) Jim shouts, “Moo!”. Although Jim may be depressed, he decides that he will not just wallow in his sadness and try to find people that can help him dig himself out of his hole of sadness. This is a great sign of progress and hope for Jim as he still has not given up on life and is just trying to fit in. This has been very hard in the past because Jim is constantly moving from one place to another and is never around long enough to fit in, which might cause some people to just quit at trying to make friends, but Jim keeps does not lose hope. After a failed attempt to make friends with the popular kids he eventually befriends and starts dating Judy. He tells his parents with a