Themes In Something Wicked This Way Comes

In both Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Catcher in the Rye, loss of innocence and youth is a main theme. But which portrayed it better? Was it The Catcher in the Rye with the teenage protagonist Holden Caulfield, who spends three days drinking, partying, and being reckless, or was it Something Wicked This Way Comes, where the two thirteen-year old protagonists Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway fight an evil, magic carnival that comes to their town and go through traumatic events that lead them to the brink of death? The Catcher in the Rye shows the loss of innocence and youth far better than Something Wicked This Way Comes because even though Something Wicked This Way Comes explores the themes of death and evil in depth, it also explores magic which is so unrealistic that it detaches the

There are three main things that display Holden’s loss of innocence: his excessive drinking and smoking, leaving for three days and not contacting anyone, and Sunny the prostitute. When Holden is drinking and smoking, it shows how much h doesn’t care about his own health and how he’s more mature than others his age. When he doesn’t contact anyone it shows how he believes he can take care of himself and is an adult, much like when he interacts with Sunny. Holden helps many of the children who he meets keep their innocence because he has lost his. In An Analysis of the Adolescent Problems in The Catcher in the Rye, Lingdi Chen says that Holden sees the protection of children’s innocence as a primary virtue and that he enjoys being with Jane Gallagher and Phoebe because they are innocent and youthful. Holden is extremely kind to Jane Gallagher not only because she’s innocent but also because he thinks he can help her keep her innocence by being her friend and punching Stradlater before he takes her on a