Comparing The Catcher In The Rye And Movie Inside Out

This book, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, is a novel that explores a dropout's adventure through New York City. Holden Caulfeild, the narrator, failed out of Pencey Prep and stayed in a hotel in the city, rather than going home to the disappointment of his parents. Not valuing the life he has, Holden makes spontaneous decisions every night. As he struggles with depression from a recent loss, Holden reaches rock bottom. Holden would attune to the movie Inside Out by Pixar because he lets his emotions take over and has little control of his reactions. “If you push me, I’m going to blow my top!” The character, Anger, says in the movie Inside Out. Holden also finds himself getting mad, overreacting, and saying many things he doesn’t mean.

In the movie Inside Out, Joy says, “Happiness is not always about big moments. It’s about finding joy in everyday life.” I think Holden finally found happiness at the very end of the book when he was watching Phoebe on the carousel. Holden states, “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around. I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy” (Salinger 213). Throughout Catcher in the Rye, we learn about the death of Holden's brother, Allie, which was a traumatic time in his life that still affects him to this day. Because he never got over the loss in a healthy way, answering the question, “How can childhood trauma affect social behavior in high school students?”, proves he never really found a way to cope. He has a hard time with his sense of reality, and wishes everything would stay the same. In the end, we see he learns to appreciate the small moments with his sister, and moving forward, he learns to look at the little things in life and find happiness in those, rather than the big picture. “Change is scary, but sometimes it leads to great things,” said Fear in the movie Inside