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Similarities Between Catcher In The Rye And The Things They Carried

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The Catcher in the Rye and The Things They Carried Comparison The two novels, The Catcher in the Rye and The Things They Carried both have main characters that carry emotional baggage. In The Catcher in the Rye the main character, Holden Caulfield, is teen going to a prep school in New York. He is a pretty lonely person and doesn’t make personal connections with anyone. He goes through life visualizing many things in a negative way although truly he’s a caring person. Holden carries the emotional baggage of his loneliness and the death of his little brother. In The Things They Carried the main character, Tim O’brien, is a soldier of A-Company in the Vietnam War. He doesn’t really agree with the motifs of the war but must fight in order to survive. …show more content…

An example of this from The Catcher in the Rye is shown in the quote, “...practically the whole school except me was there.” (P. 5). Holden is referring to the football game taking place with all of the school there except him. Interestingly, it’s not because he was excluded, but instead it is own decision not to go to the game. This shows the emotional baggage he carries in the form of his conscious decision to isolate himself from others. This is important because it outlines how he deals with emotional distraught on his own and how he wants to keep to himself relating with internal problems. An example form The Things They Carried is in the quote, “...I headed straight west along the Rainy River...” (P. 45). This quote refers to when O’Brien received his draft notice for the military during the Vietnam War. He became very upset and responds to it by driving on his own towards Canada in hopes of avoiding the draft and isolating himself from his family and friends. This shows that O’Brien responds to emotional baggage by isolating himself from friends and family in order to deal with the situation. This is important because it shows that O’Brien responds to emotional baggage by pushing himself away from others as does Holden. They both deal with there internal problems on their own and keep others out. Both of the novels are similar because both main character respond and carry emotional baggage in the form of isolationism by separating themselves from

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