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J. D. Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye And A Separate Peace

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J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and John Knowels’ A Separate Peace involve boy’s school environments. The main characters of these novels, Holden and Gene, are sent to boarding schools and encounter multiple conflicts. Holden and Gene’s parents place them in these boarding schools for the entirety of the school year, forcing them to adapt to its environment. Throughout both novels, they encounter different situations. Most of Gene’s conflicts correlate with his external surroundings, such as his friend Phineas and the World War, while Holden’s conflicts are more internal and based on his view of certain people. They react differently to these situations, which impact Holden and Gene physically, mentally, and emotionally. The reader can …show more content…

A Separate Peace takes place during World War 2. This setting affects the way of life at Devon, with an added summer session to propel the senior class into the army. Gene acknowledges the seniors as “draft-bait” (Knowles 15). The war not only affects the graduating class, but also most of Gene’s activities. “For me, … this moment was the war. The war was and is reality for me” (Knowles 40). Devon’s involvement in the war forces Gene to think only of it. Phineas makes up a game, which they play daily throughout the summer session, that has to do with the war. When the railroad tracks freeze over, Gene and a few others volunteer to clear them. Brinker refers to Phineas’ broken leg as a casualty. At the end of the book, one area of the school grounds becomes crowded with army Jeeps and troops. Boy’s school life is a major element in both J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and John Knowles’ A Separate Peace. The actual events taking place in Devon and Pencey are different, but both schools have the same effect on Holden and Gene. They lose their childhood innocence through attending these schools; life experience takes its place. In both novels, the boy’s school environment has a long-term effect on Holden and Gene and brings out different reactions from the two characters. These reactions shape a majority of the plot of both novels and present a deeper meaning behind their

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The entire time Finny and Gene are boarding at the Devon School, WWII is taking place. There are students enlisting and being drafted into the war and are surround by stress because they are worrying about being involved in the war. “The far common could be seen from my room, and early in June, I stood at the window and watched the war moving in to occupy it” (196). This quote is showing how resources at Devon School were being occupied and handed over to the unforgiving war. War, a scary thought and even a scarier reality during this time period.

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Leper asks Gene, “Would they bother you if you did, if you happened to keep imagining a man’s head on a woman’s body, or if sometimes the arm of a chair turned into a human arm if you looked at it too long, things like that?” This had a large impact on readers as it strikes some of the scariest, and deepest fears that we bury within society. The picture of a innocent person being completely dismantled and thrown back together changes our whole perspective on what the war really did to people. It relates back to Devon as an example of the unpreparedness of the whole school for what was to come. Although many of the boys understood their fate, they did not understand that it was something that could envelop their mind and destroy their sense of peace.

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As the book starts Holden describes his childhood and how he has been kicked out of several school and once more again from his currently school, giving a sense of irresponsibility and no care in the world. Holden later on mentioned slowly the loss of his brother due to leukemia and how he reacted outrageously by breaking the windows of his garage home. As a reader one would view that behavior as abnormal, but Peter Shaw descried it as a normal behavior for a fictional character in the 1950s and by mentioning that Holden, “is presenting in a somewhat different manner than are the sentimentalized young people in other novels if his period” (par. 3), admitting that Holden was somewhat of an outcast of a character even for its time he is still considered normal. Shaw also challenged the reader’s view of Holden by emphasizing that Holden is not a real person, but a fiction character developed in the 1950s and in fact a mad psychological character is normal and made the reading rather more interesting and acceptable during that time. As readers someone may come across as understanding Holden’s behavior due to a loss and everyone mourns differently and as Shaw said, “ the one period of life in which abnormal behavior is common rather than exceptional” (par.

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The period of transition between adolescence and adulthood can diminish one’s innocence and positive outlook of life. The Catcher in the Rye depicts a seventeen year old boy’s struggle as he deals with the the hopelessness and tragedies of reality. J.D. Salinger weaves together a wistful novel that details the depressing life of Holden Caulfield. Through his creative usage of simple syntax, mundane setting, and relatable diction, Salinger concocts a story so wonderfully written that the reader feels the same heartache and anger that Holden does. Salinger combines the understandable diction with very simple and straightforward syntax.

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Protection from reality creates more harm than safety. John Knowles's novel, A Separate Peace, presents an unconventional dark representation of adolescence through a young boy’s life-altering experience. During World War II, the Devon School in New Hampshire houses many children, including Gene Forrester and Phineas. A Separate Peace displays how war forces children to lose their innocence and divert from the standard ways of growing up. The Devon School protects the children’s adolescence and shelter’s them from the dark realities of the world including war and internal struggle.

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Holden represents the typical teenager. He demands his independence and refuses to view himself as anything but invincible. In his mind, he has life figured out and everyone around him is simply stupid. He fails out of multiple schools and cannot manage to find friends because he is looking for his environment to cater to him. He does not want to put in the time or effort required to succeed.

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The guilt of the war is present within Norman and O’Brien and is unshakeable even decades after the war. In addition, the repetitive disturbances of the war highlight the flaws of those present leading to lifelong self-condemnation. The vast gap between civilization and war establishes a tretourous path for the soldiers back into society. The illustration of post-war life provided by O’Brien serves not to reveal the whole reality of the war, but its impacts. A cause and effect analysis, leaving out much of the gore and inhumanities of the war, in hopes that the glimpse provided would be enough to allow the public to see not the questionable ethics of war by both sides, but the impact that the life of a soldier has.

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The conflict of the story is internal, because it revolves around Holden’s struggle between wanting to stay as an innocent child and reject the “phony” world of adults, and his desire to become

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The importance of war emphasizes not only the actual war taking place but also both Gene and Finny 's internal conflict with themselves, and their external conflicts with each other. This also expresses how even though considering the book takes place during World War II, The Devon School still tried to shield the boys from the war, that the residual effects of war can still seep through the cracks and reach everyone at the school. One person can only hide so much, especially if there is a war going on, emotionally or literally. People often try to reduce the appearance of emotions and shield personal battle scars from the public eye, similar to how Devon attempted to shield the war from the students attending.

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1400 Words | 6 Pages

Purpose: To show how a small change in choice could affect holden’s life The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden Caulfield, a 16-year-old boy from New York. The novel starts with Holden, writing in his book, hinting that he is in some sort of mental facility .Even though he comes from a wealthy family,because of his loss of interest in studies,and low grades, he gets expelled from all schools he has studied in .Holden leaves his final school, Pency Prep and decides that he will stay in New York City until his parents learn of his expulsion and “cool down” .Most of the novel is dedicated to Holden’s time in the city, Holden lives in a hotel room for a few days during his stay .Holden then starts meeting with people that he used know, some strangers and goes to places with. From his conversations, he

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1142 Words | 5 Pages

The beginning of Holden’s journey starts with the innocence and naivety of childhood. Childhood is the stage that ignorance is bliss with no care in the world. Holden goes to a prestigious boarding school for boys and he believes that everyone in that school is a phony in some way. Holden is an observant character as he stays in the background, but he can also cause the most trouble. Like a child, he asks many questions and he is very curious to the point that he can be annoying.

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1418 Words | 6 Pages

This describes Holden to-a-t, because of his alienation problem, his conflict with “phoniness” and his struggle of growing up and leaving his small problems behind him. Throughout the novel,

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1322 Words | 6 Pages

In the novel Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger readers are introduced to a young man named Holden Caulfield who introduces himself and begins to tell his story of how and why he left his school; Pencey Prep. In the story, Holden explains how he is being kicked out of school and doesn't want his parents to know and so leaves school early. throughout the story, Holden explains what happens to him before he must go home and act like he is home from school for a break instead of being kicked out. When it comes to the topic of Author's purpose of The will of individual vs the will of the majority some will think the purpose is to show that Holden going against the will of society to rebel, however, I think the author’s purpose of The Catcher in the Rye was to show that the individual will manifest in his desire for isolation comes from his is fear and damage done by fear of pain, failure, rejection, and is unwilling or unable to go along with the majority. This all shown through Imagery, symbolism, and diction.

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522 Words | 3 Pages

One of the prevailing themes is that of the imminent war and enlistment. The war encroaches and finally dominates the boys lives at Devon. Starting with the boys shoveling snow off of the train tracks, then their friend, Leper, enlists, and finally when troops get permanently stationed at Devon. This story is relatable to teens that are the same age as Gene since they do not constantly think about war but as they get older they start to think more and more about

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Catcher in the Rye In the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the narrator and protagonist Holden Caulfield a sixteen year old junior undergoes a series of changes. Holden learns multiple life changing lessons; one of them is you must grow up. In the beginning of the novel, Holden starts out as “that kid”; the one with the parents who expect him to get into an ivy league school, and end up with a kid with no intentions of doing so. At the beginning of the book it is very apparent that Holden lacks motivation; he also has hit rock bottom.

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