Similarities Between Catcher In The Rye And St. Anthony

Different Aspects of Poverty

Poverty is unexpectedly one of the most misunderstood words there is. People instantly think of poverty as being poor and not having money. What they don’t know, is that poverty actually means to have a lack of a basic need which doesn’t always mean it’s about money. Poverty has about 8 different meanings; economic, social, spiritual, political, intellectual, emotional, psychological, and ethical poverty. In the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and the St. Anthony’s experience, they both are examples of different types of poverty as these two examples compare with each other as well as differ from each other in many ways.

In the book The Catcher in the Rye, the character experiencing poverty is

Holden. An example of poverty he experiences is social poverty. Holden isolates himself from everyone because of his close brother’s death and he doesn’t want to have that feeling of a loss again. Holden showed an example of this when he went to a phone booth and Salinger described,” The first thing I did when I got off at Penn Station, I went into this phone booth. I felt like giving someone a buzz. I left my bags right outside the booth so that I could watch them, but as soon as I was inside, I couldn’t think of anybody to call up”(Salinger, 54). Holden is afraid to call someone because of that relationship fear. Another type of poverty Holden experiences is emotionally. This form of poverty is very similar to social poverty with how Holden experiences

isolation, intense emotional suffering, as well as a lack of connection with people. An example of Holden experiencing intense emotional suffering is when Salinger described again,” So I went in this very cheap-looking restaurant and had doughnuts and coffee. Only, I didn't eat the doughnuts. I couldn't swallow them too well. The thing is, if you get very depressed about something, it's hard as hell to swallow”(Salinger,). This shows how depressed Holden is that he can’t even swallow doughnuts. Obviously, Holden isn’t himself and his state of depression is actually becoming insane. As the novel progressed, you can see that Holden was slowly becoming more insecure daily. He started off by not creating any relationships with anyone, then soonly was unable to eat and saw imaginary visions. The St. Anthony’s experience , like the novel The Catcher in the Rye, also has experiences of poverty as well.
The St. Anthony’s experience has plenty of different forms of poverty depending on who the person is which is unique. A common form of poverty in this program is economical poverty which is a lack of food, water, and etc. One of the reasons people go to the St. Anthony’s program is because of a lack of food, water, or shelter. At this program, people go there to get fed food and water daily which is really great. A form of poverty which I heard about was when a mother joined this program because of social property. She gave her child all her money for her and her child to move to the United States from China and he left her which left her all by herself. She was excluded from her son and because of this, she has to work several jobs and join this program to get food until she makes enough money to get a shelter and take care of herself. Also, since people come to St. Anthony’s because they lack money, they might not have their family with them anymore which might also be a reason why they are there at the program. Economical
and social poverty can lead to emotional poverty, as people might be depressed or isolated from their families. Although The Catcher in the Rye and the St. Anthony’s experience relate with poverty, they also share many differences.
The Catcher in the Rye and the St.

Anthony’s experience both share the form of social and emotional poverty. Holden and the people who attend St. Anthony’s both experience isolation. Although not everyone who attends St. Anthony’s is isolated from their family, some of them are which is why they are there. Holden is totally isolated from his family and he only wants to see his little sister, not his family because he got expelled from his previous school, Pency Prep. Some people at St. Anthony’s may not be happy with their circumstance in life and so is Holden who’s going through depression and is confused about life. With these similarities, Holden from The Catcher in the Rye and the people at St. Anthony’s also differ. Most of the people at St. Anthony’s experience economical poverty while Holden is actually rich because he goes to a prestigious private school. Experiencing social and emotional poverty can possibly lead to economical poverty and vice versa. Holden suffers social and emotional poverty which can lead to economical poverty because him being isolated means he doesn’t have any money because he doesn’t work. Eventually, he will run out of his parent’s money which will lead him to economical poverty. Vice versa, as the people at St. Anthony’s suffer economical poverty, they might eventually suffer socially and emotionally because their family might abandon them. Either way, these types of poverties can lead to new kinds depending on the

situation.
The novel The Catcher in the Rye and the St. Anthony’s experience share many traits of poverty as well as differ in many ways. They share two types in emotional and social poverty

because of the feeling of isolation. The attribute where they differ is economical poverty because Holden’s family is in a pretty prestigious class while the people at St. Anthony’s are lower class people. These similarities and differences show the different attributes of poverty and how diverse they are. Poverty doesn’t just mean to be economically poor as it is a lack of a basic need.