Comparative Essay: The Catcher and the Rye vs. The Curious Insident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Struggle to Be Normal
In today’s society, many teenagers struggle in their everyday lives due to the fact that they have different qualities than others. The novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is about a young man named Holden Caulfield, who suffers from multiple mental illnesses, causing him to be treated different by others. Due to tragedies he has suffered from in the past, and all that is going on in is present life, Holden can no longer cope and runs away to New York. Christopher Boone, from the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, also suffers from multiple mental illnesses and has experienced life changing tragedies over the years. For many years Christopher’s father has been telling him his mother had died when he was just a little boy, but when he find out the truth that she is still alive, as well as that his father was the one to kill the neighbor’s dog, he runs away to find his mother because he no longer feels safe in his home. Both main characters have grown up being alone and isolated from people and events all throughout their lives, and have learned to accept and cope with it in ways that most teenagers do not understand. Holden and Christopher also know and understand the importance of independence, and have had to learn to care for themselves and make wise choices from a young age. Hypocrisy is also a common theme between both Holden and Christopher, and due to this they have gotten themselves into stressful situations causing them to make rash and bad decisions. Due to their pasts, both boys experience rebellion as an everyday event, leading them to getting in trouble with people around them, family, friends, and the government. In the novels, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, both main characters struggle from the idea of being a teenager who is different from what is considered normal through the themes of isolation,
In today’s society, many teenagers struggle in their everyday lives due to the fact that they have different qualities than others. The novel, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is about a young man named Holden Caulfield, who suffers from multiple mental illnesses, causing him to be treated different by others. Due to tragedies he has suffered from in the past, and all that is going on in is present life, Holden can no longer cope and runs away to New York. Christopher Boone, from the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, also suffers from multiple mental illnesses and has experienced life changing tragedies over the years. For many years Christopher’s father has been telling him his mother had died when he was just a little boy, but when he find out the truth that she is still alive, as well as that his father was the one to kill the neighbor’s dog, he runs away to find his mother because he no longer feels safe in his home. Both main characters have grown up being alone and isolated from people and events all throughout their lives, and have learned to accept and cope with it in ways that most teenagers do not understand. Holden and Christopher also know and understand the importance of independence, and have had to learn to care for themselves and make wise choices from a young age. Hypocrisy is also a common theme between both Holden and Christopher, and due to this they have gotten themselves into stressful situations causing them to make rash and bad decisions. Due to their pasts, both boys experience rebellion as an everyday event, leading them to getting in trouble with people around them, family, friends, and the government. In the novels, Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, both main characters struggle from the idea of being a teenager who is different from what is considered normal through the themes of isolation,
Cited: Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Print. Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print.