Similarities Between Holden And The Great Gatsby

When teaching about the American dream many English classes use The Great Gatsby by F. Scotts Fitzgerald as a primary example. While highly different, a secondary example used to teach the same lesson is The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger. In both novels the main characters, Gatsby and Holden, don't seem to have much in common but going in deeper both have much in common. Both characters are so ignorant and flawed that their plans are set to fail. However Gatsby being more ignorant, fails deeper. Now both Gatsby and Holden, mostly having nothing in common, but both suffer from similar issues. Having idealized minds, they both desire what they cannot reach which includes being accepted and wanting the feeling like they belong. However Holden tries to look for this and while being a dislikeable character that has a negative mind set on everyone and doesn’t like, “… anything that’s happening” (169), Gatsby is a outgoing, likeable and more idealistic character that refuses to give up hope, even when Daisy strongly shows liking Tom over Gatsby himself (144-145). According to Nick’s narration Gatsby is , “...worth the whole damn bunch put together’”(154). In saying this Nick

He believes that when one knows everything about everything to know about reality, they won’t be able to have such a life than they could’ve, which causes him held back by little details. In doing this, Holden doesn't enjoy his life. Holden knows that he is going through his own fail, as his older teacher shows, “‘I have a feeling that you’re riding for some kind of a terrible, terrible fall’” (186). Mr. Antolini here is telling Holden o he is going through this fail, and that if he doesn’t start paying attention something terrible will happen. By knowing of his fail and also knowing he's a terrible person he believes his knowledge and experiences are the reason behind his fail. Holden believes he deserves the awful happening that will come from his