JD Salinger s Catcher in the Rye Compared to Mark Twains Essay Example For Students

JD Salinger s Catcher in the Rye Compared to Mark Twains Essay Huckleberry Finn All famous American authors have written novels using a variety of characters, plots, and settings to illustrate important themes. Throughout literary history many of the same themes have been stressed in different novels. In J. D. Salinger s The Catcher in the Rye and Mark Twain s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, each author writes about the common theme of coming of age. The two novels were written more than half a century apart about two boys who seem like complete opposites, yet they bear striking resemblances to each other. Each author wrote his book depicting ettings from his own past and based the plots on personal experiences. While the two novels are in different times and places, they have remarkably similar characters, plots, and themes. To completely understand the two novels, it is necessary to know about each author s background and how he got the ideas to write them. J. D. Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 in New York City. His father was a Jewish importer, his mother a Scott-Irish housewife, and he had one older sister. His parents were divorced in September 1947 before he began his career as an author. He grew up in Manhattan and ttended public school until he was enrolled in Valley Forge Military Academy, where he had trouble adjusting. Later he attended New York University, Ursinus College, and Columbia University. Before he became a writer he worked as an entertainer on a Swedish cruise ship in the Caribbean and had a four-year military career as a staff sergeant in World War II ( Salinger CA 332-334). Salinger began writing popularly in the late 1940 s and 50 s in the Post-Modernist period. Authors of this period showed despair, paranoia, and irrational violence due to threatening implications of the world after WWII. In this era, Salinger wrote his most creative works such as Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories. These books show the dilemma of people trying to come to terms with either a self-created or contemporary hell with a common theme of coming of age or loss of innocence. Recurring incidents of adulterated emotion can be seen in many of Salinger s works, and he believes that is the history of human trouble and the poetry of love which explains many controversial events in his works ( Salinger CA 334-335). In most of his works, it is obvious that Salinger wrote about his background and personal experiences lthough he never dealt with adultery. Most of his fictional characters grew up in New York and were of mixed parentage. For example, Holden Caulfield, the main character in The Catcher in the Rye, grew up in New York City and had a hard time adjusting to life at school. Also, Pencey Prep, the school Holden went to, was modeled from Valley Forge Military Academy ( Salinger CA 333). Salinger s work was very controversial, especially his characters and his language. Some critics concentrate on his characters, saying that the heroes in his works are self-righteous and self-centered misfits, indicating mmaturity in Salinger s vision. He also brought back the concept of vernacular dialect and idiomatic phrases previously unused in American literature but popular in everyday speech. Some critics object to his use of foul language, while others feel that his use of speech is a brilliant technique to help shape his theme. James Miller says he is one of the most controversial writers yet, and he is greeted with praise as well as condemnation ( Salinger CLC Vol. 299). Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835 to Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, a frontier town, where he got his richest sources for his writing. Between 1853 and 1857 he was a journeyman printer in St. Louis, New York City, Philadelphia, and other places around the U. S. In 1857 he went to the Mississippi River, became a river pilot s apprentice and won his license shortly afterward. He piloted until 1861 when the Civil War broke out, and he served in the Confederacy for a short period of time. Christian symbolism, especially images that refer to the crucifixion of Christ, is present throughout The Old Man and the Sea EssayIn John Aldrigde s comparison he wrote that both books rely on the concept of nnocence to show how their main characters reach their coming of age. In The Catcher in the Rye innocence is a compound of urban intelligence, juvenile contempt, and New Yorker sentimentality. The symbol of innocence in this book is the children of the world, especially Phoebe, which are continuously challenged by phonies, profanity, and adult life. In this novel, innocence calls for genuineness and sincerity in a dull and loveless world. In Huckleberry Finn, innocence is a compound of frontier ignorance, juvenile delinquency, and petty heroism. The symbols of innocence are the raft and the river. The challenging factors of innocence in this book are thugs, thieves, feuds, and other dangers on shore that call for narrow escapes. The raft represents innocence because that is how Huck and Jim make their narrow escapes from the dangers of the shore, and the river because its time, faith, and continuity, move endlessly and dependably beside and between the temporary problems of men. In Huck Finn, innocence calls for escape from violence because innocence and the world of violence are seriously and effectively opposed ( Salinger CLC Vol. 56 323). When Huck headed down the river with Jim to seek reedom, he was actually seeking a new home free from the injustices of his old life. Just like Huck, Holden too was seeking a new home where he could have a life without the pain and disillusionment that comes with becoming involved with anything life has to offer. Both Huck and Holden encountered tests for them to pass on their way to adulthood. For Huck the tests were mostly physical, but the tests that Holden had to overcome were primarily metaphorical dangers created by the loss of individuality, accepted values, and self-reliant intellectuality (Branch Mark Twain and J. D. Salinger 3). Not only are the two books similar in their themes, but they also share other common writing devices. They have similar comic irony, informal language, picaresque structure, anti-phony themes, and both boys represent the average American boy at different times (Branch Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait 5). S. N. Behrman wrote that Holden and Huck are neither comical, nor are they marked by hatred or contempt of mankind; they just repudiate mankind s faults. They always pay attention to what is happening whether involved or not. The two novels are one-way journeys from holy innocence to the nlightenment that the world offers. Both works are concerned with the problems that people were facing at the times they were written. And finally, they both have been repeatedly banned and restricted because of the use of questionable language that people use in everyday speech ( Salinger CLC Vol. 56 321). The Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have strikingly similar plots, characters, and themes even though they were written in different time periods and settings. Their primary similarity is the resemblance between Huck and Holden as they lose their youthful innocence and grow up. Huck tries to escape injustice to gain freedom floating down the Mississippi River on his raft, and Holden tries to escape the phoniness he found in the adult world to gain a pleasant life. Both boys realize in the end that they play minor roles in life and loss of innocence is inevitable in the emergence of adulthood. In J. D. Salinger s The Catcher in the Rye and Mark Twain s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn both authors stress the themes of coming of age and loss of innocence to prove the point that everyone grows up and passes into adulthood. They show that this is a natural and unavoidable part of life.