Comparison Of Being A Wallflower And Catcher In The Rye

As our society continuously exemplifies growth and development through various contextual elements seen through time, we as an audience, are able to grasp the concept of how the complex nature of truth and the adversities of social conformity tie in to make and individual who they are. This is portrayed seamlessly through the prescribed text, The Catcher in the Rye (TCITR), written by JD Salinger in 1940 and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (TPOBAW) directed by Steven Chbosky in 2012. The complex nature of truth is a concept in which portrays the various impediments associated with veracity. In the text, TCITR, the protagonist Holden Caulfield, is represented as a peculiar, ignorant and judgemental young boy who finds himself expelled from Pencey Prep High School at merely the age of 16. Although he is intelligent and

Holden finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. Under the influence of a 1940’s North American, Post World War 11 prosperous society, Holden finds himself stuck paradoxically “surrounded by phonies” in an unbreakable loop of consumerism and conformity. As was valued at the time of TCITR, the need for an individual to conform and the ability of an individual to react to authority was highly esteemed, “life is a game boy, and life is a game that one plays according to the rules”. The values of compliance and obedience were treasured within society and were upheld especially by adolescents. In this manner, Holden’s character is succinctly illuminated within key aspects of the constant denial of maturity. Ingeniously used as a reoccurring motif throughout the novel, the colloquial symbolic