Differences And Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Catcher In The Rye

The novels The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in The Rye have many similarities. Like many books have themes and motifs that intertwine with one another. The character struggles and the similarities between the main characters are ways that The Great Gatsby and Catcher In The Rye are similar and contrasting.
In Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby, Gatsby, the wealthy neighbor of the narrator, Nick Carraway, is obsessed with the past. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye, cannot advance in his life because he is equally caught up in what was once. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is obsessed with the idea that Daisy never loved Tom. Gatsby has spent the last eight years building a beautiful house, living close to Daisy all to make up for the time that he was too far away and too poor to be with her.

When he reunites with Daisy, Gatsby immaturely thinks they can go right back to the time when they were in love.

When Daisy is talking about Tom, Gatsby tells her that it was all over and nothing could change that. He told the truth and expalined that she never loved him it would be with him for forever.. When Tom tells Gatsby “There are things between Daisy and me, that you will never know, things that neither of us can forget.” Tom’s talking kills Gatsby’s optimistic thinking, as Nick notices, “The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.” Gatsby’s love and infatuation with Daisy is parallel to Holden’s want to keep his first love, Jane preserved in the past. Just like Gatsby wants to start all over Holden states that, “Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” Holden is

afraid of the effects of reality on the things he loves Gatsby is trying to wipe the bad effects of reality on Daisy and go back to where they were, to the glass case that Holden longs for. Holden Caulfield and Jay Gatsby are just two of many “Boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Gatsby and Holden, though very different characters, both suffer from similar problems. Being idealistic characters, they both want what they cannot have; being accepted and feeling belonged. However where Holden seeks this in being a abhorrent character that believes everyone is a fake or a phony and he seemingly doesn’t like anything that’s happening Gatsby is a likeable and more idealistic character that does not want to give up hope, even when Daisy seems to have chosen Tom instead of Gatsby himself. Catcher in The Rye and The Great Gatsby have many similarities along with some differences. The main character have many similarities like the character struggle and what they have to overcome. The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick who explains the story from his point of view while as The Catcher In The Rye is narrated by the main character, Holden.