Catcher In The Rye And The Awakening

Identity Crises in The Catcher in The Rye and The Awakening

Many of the world's literary characters face struggles or crises of identity, either due to societal pressures or because of their personal lives. Holden Caulfield and Edna Pontellier, from the Catcher in the Rye and The Awakening, respectively, are not exceptions to this common theme. In both The Catcher in the Rye and The Awakening, the main protagonists, Holden and Edna, experience identity crises that stem mainly from their inability to conform to societal molds. However, Holden’s personal struggles contribute more to his crises than Edna’s personal struggles do to hers. Edna Pontellier experiences an identity crisis mainly due to her society’s repressive molds, and
Holden’s struggles with his own society stem mainly from the blatant lack of innocence and so-called “phoniness” exhibited by his classmates and the adults around him. The only people he really admires are children. With childhood, comes a certain amount of innocence that is lost when one reaches adulthood. All Holden really seems to want is to grasp of the innocence he lost after leaving childhood. In order to do this, he must rebel against his own society that continually breaks innocence. Although Holden, in his own way, seeks to destroy the hold society has on him and his lack of innocence, he is unable to do so. can be shown in this quote when he speaks of his dream to run away, “I decided I'd go away. I decided I'd never go home again and I'd never go away to another school again. […] I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. […] Everybody'd think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and they'd leave me alone”(Salinger 25). While Holden expresses this to be his desire, he never really achieves it. His wish is to run away from a corrupt society and to isolate himself, perhaps gaining back his innocence, and yet his inability to do so creates a conflict in his identity. He is unable to cope with his dreams versus
However, Holden’s personal struggles contribute more to his crises than Edna’s personal struggles do to hers. While Edna’s roles as a mother and as a “dutiful” wife constricts her and force her to become someone she is not, leading to an identity crisis, Holden's society’s condemnation of innocence plays a smaller role in his identity crisis. Rather, serious personal issues such as the death of his brother and his isolation and crippling loneliness cause him to reconsider both his life and his mental health through an identity crisis. Despite the differences between the societies, the personalities, and the identity crises of the characters, Holden and Edna share the fact that they were able to, in some way, overcome their identity crises in order to slowly understand themselves. In the progressions from the characters’ sufferings to their imminent understanding of themselves, lies a hope that all who similarly suffer can one day comprehend