Conformity and Rebellion “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth” (John F. Kennedy). JFK is saying that if you live your life trying to fit in and be like everyone else you will never discover who you are as a person and will never live life how you want to. You can not be like everybody else all of your life because eventually the time will come where you have to make your own decision based on your believes and morales. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye Holden tries to fit in and go with the normal trends so people will not look at him differently. He also rebelled against doing stuff like everybody else and he makes his decisions based on everybody else's opinion. Holden shows many signs of conformity and rebellion …show more content…
Holden wants to get a drink with someone so he ask anybody if they want to get a drink with him (87). He does not really want to get a drink he just wants someone to talk and he will talk to anybody at this point in his life. He does not want to look and show that he is desperate for someone to talk to him so he makes up the excuse that he has to leave. Holden says that believes in Jesus but he claims he is really an atheist (99). He says that he believes because his family believes and are christians. He just does not want to be the only one in his family that is not a christian so he is just trying to fit in with his family's beliefs. Holden was going to jump out the window but he did not want people looking at his body (104). He is depressed and lonely and thinks about ending the misery but he is to worried about what others would think if they saw his body. No matter what Holden is doing in life he always worries what others thoughts are on it. This is a sign of conformity because he is trying to be cool with everyone by doing things based on their opinion of it. Holden says he does not care if his dad kills him (173). Holden is just saying that to sound tough because the truth is the reason he will not go home because he fears his dad. He tries to show people that he is not afraid of his dad by doing whatever he wants but when he gets kicked out of