Compare And Contrast Paul's Case And Catcher In The Rye

There is a story that was written in 1904, about a teenager boy. Paul’s Case was the story and it was written by Willa Cather. It talked about a teenage boy, Paul, facing problems in school and personal life, and the way he reacted to it was by lying about it, for in some way escape his reality. Throughout the story the narrator also tells us about his depression, the lies he tells and about his social life. Some similarities could be found in the novel “Catcher In The Rye” by J.D Salinger, about another teenage boy with similar characteristics as Paul. J.D Salinger and Willa Cather have created two different characters that have many things in common, such as being outsiders, lying frequently and feeling depressed. After reading both,

Paul and Holden show signs of going through difficult times. In both, the novel and the story, one of the themes seems to be depression. “The nearer he approached his house the more absolutely unequal Paul felt to the sight of it all: his ugly sleeping chamber[...]” This passage was one of the many the narrator has used to describe how depressed or “unequal” Paul felt because of the appearance of his house and how it reflected his economic status. Holden also seems to talk about it throughout the novel due to how much it bothered him that he was wealthy in comparison to others and made him be seen and feel different. “They were so ignorant, and they had those sad, fancy hats on and all. And that business about getting up early to see the first show at Radio City Music Hall depressed me.If somebody, some girl in an awful-looking hat, for instance, comes all the way to New York –from Seattle,Washington, for God's sake – and ends up getting up early in the morning to see the goddam first show at Radio City Music Hall, it makes me so depressed I can't stand it. I'd've bought the whole three of them a hundred drinks if only they hadn't told me that.” (Salinger 84-85). All in all, I have reasons to believe that Paul ,from Paul’s Case, and Holden, from Catcher In The Rye, have things in common such as they lie to escape their reality, they both feel depressed about their reality and that they are outsiders. Both of stories have different backgrounds and were written by different writers but, the two have characters that share similar