Holden Caulfield Comparison Essay

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, seven year old Charles Baker Harris, also known as Dill, is shipped from Meridian, Mississippi to Maycomb, Alabama to stay with his aunt, Miss Rachel. His recently-divorced mom and his step-dad pay little attention to him; they buy him toys to play with in his room, so not to bother them, and they send him off to Maycomb during the summer. In J.D. Salinger’s coming of age story, The Catcher in the Rye, protagonist Holden Caulfield comes from a very wealthy Manhattan family that sends him to different boarding schools, no matter how many times he flunks out. There are numerous similarities between Dill and Holden, namely the hardships they each face, including a great loss of innocence.
Holden loses his innocence when his brother, Allie, dies. Allie is one of the only people Holden cared about, and he struggles with the idea of his beloved brother being touched by the angel of death. He always talks about how Allie was one of the nicest people he has ever met and his mind won’t let him get over it: "But it wasn't just that he was the most intelligent member in the family. He
Each of them live their lives in such a way that they can’t open up to their parents because no one seems to care enough to put in the time to help them. Holden loses all attachment to the people he cares about after his brother dies because missing him hurts more than he thinks it would feel good to have close relationships with people. Dill, who had always thought everyone is meant to be kind to everyone else, is alarmed to see that Tom Robinson’s prosecutor treats him like dirt at the trial. Both of them feel a sense of emptiness due to a loss of innocence they face at an age during which they still should be able to enjoy childhood, but because they are forced into experiencing a hardship so early on in life, they must learn to