Similarities Between Holden Caulfield And The Great Gatsby

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Aspirations are the foundations that allow people to strive for the unattainable. In Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby, Holden Caulfield and Jay Gatsby both have high expectations for how their lives will turn out, but circumstances and their inability to adapt to those circumstances ultimately leave both characters failing to attain their goals. Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield both have goals they want to achieve, but their dreams, how they face reality, and their level of maturity all affect their goals. In both novels, with Holden Caulfield and Jay Gatsby strive for unrealistic dreams. Holden’s dream is to maintain every child’s innocence along with his own. He describes this saying, “[. . .] I’m standing on the edge of some crazy …show more content…

Holden cannot cope with change, and thus unrealistically dreams of preventing children from changing and can be seen in his desire to catch kids from getting hurt and losing their innocence. This is further shown by Holden’s love of the museum. He states, “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move [. . . .] Nobody’d be different” (Salinger 135). Holden’s love of continuity connects him to his dream to preserve innocence from falling off the cliff symbolically saving them from being hurt by loss of innocence. Similarly, Jay Gatsby dreams of marrying Daisy and cannot cope with the fact she loves someone else. “I wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’”(Fitzgerald 117). While Daisy is with Tom, Gatsby thought that if he had an affair with her, she would be able to tell Tom, she never loved him for the time she was …show more content…

Holden realizes that he has to grow up and cannot remain innocent forever, but he still fights this reality by refusing to become a lawyer, “Lawyers are all right, I guess – but it doesn't appeal to me,’ I said. ‘I mean they're all right if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides […] how would you know you weren't being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t’” (Salinger 192). Holden’s obsession with innocence even leads him to dislike his brother, “Now he's out in Hollywood, D. B., being a prostitute” (Salinger 4). By working in Hollywood, Holden sees his brother as a prostitute for selling out his principles. Jay Gatsby also fights reality, fantasizing that he can get Daisy back, despite the potential negative consequences of his actions. Nick advises Gatsby to be careful, but Gatsby does not listen, saying, “’I wouldn't ask too much of her,’ I ventured. ‘You can't repeat the past.’ ‘Can't repeat the past?’ he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can […] I’m going to fix everything just the way it was before’, he said, nodding determinedly. “She’ll see” (Fitzgerald 118). Gatsby struggles to accept the reality that people and

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