Similarities Between The Rye And Rebel Without A Cause

In both the book The Catcher in The Rye and the movie “Rebel Without a Cause” the adolescent protagonists experience monumental changes, and face many struggles which shape the way they view society. In “Rebel Without a Cause” Jim Stark, a teenager living in the 50’s is constantly moving from place to place because his parents want to maintain a picture-perfect image for society. This instability puts him at odds with his family and sets up a generational conflict. At his newest school, Jim starts to be influenced by two friends, Judy and Plato, who push him to rebel against his parents and society. Like Jim, Holden Caulfield, the main protagonist in The Catcher in The Rye, is also a teenager living during the 50’s. However Holden, who seems

to come from a rather stable family, is depressed because of the death of his younger brother and cannot stand the phony nature of people in his society. He turns his problems inward and separates himself from society. Although they are fighting against different pressures, Jim Stark and Holden Caulfield both experience a loss of innocence which prompts them to rebel against society by forming their own belief systems, creating authentic personas, and protecting the innocence of those they love.
After facing conflicts in life, both Jim Stark and Holden Caulfield generate different ideas on how best to live.

Jim’s creates a belief system that revolves around distancing himself from his fathers beliefs and morals to separate himself from his family. When Jim is deciding to race in the Chickie Run, his father suggests he make a pro and con list to weigh out his decision effectively. Jim scoffs at his father’s caution and immediately goes against his father’s advice of participating. Jim feels his father is weak and has little respect for him. Jim wants to be his own man because he can’t rely on his father to be a role model. Likewise, Holden also forms a belief system for the purpose of protecting himself. He judges and blames everyone else so he does not have to deal with his own problems. As Holden fails out of another prep school instead of feeling remorse for his own actions, he leaves with shout, “...and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" I'll bet I woke up every bastard on the whole floor” (Salinger, 59). Yelling his goodbyes to his peers makes Holden feel better about himself. He will not allow others to witness his true feelings so he convinces them and himself that he does not care. Holden is protecting himself from sustaining even more hurt. Both protagonists create a world which provides a safe haven for them to

exist.
Each teenager constructs an authentic persona to control how other view them.

Jim creates a tough guy persona to prove to others he is not a chicken. When Jim talks to Judy in front of her boyfriend Buzz, he finds himself on the edge of a knife fight. Jim did not want to fight with Buzz until Buzz called him a chicken. Jim immediately reacts and defends himself. Jim wants to prove his manhood and he believes the best way to do so is act tough and protect himself against others. He doesn’t want an individual calling him a chicken because that is what Jim believes his father to be. As for Holden, throughout the novel, he does his best to display a carefree persona to the world. When Holden leaves Pencey Prep, he heads to New York City without a plan or a place to stay. "All of a sudden, I decided what I'd really do, I'd get the hell out of Pencey....So what I decided to do, I decided I'd take a room in a hotel in New York . . . and just take it easy till Wednesday. Then, on Wednesday, I'd go home all rested up and feeling swell" (Salinger, 51). Instead of going directly home and telling his parents he failed out, Holden acts it's no big deal and goes off into New York city to take it easy. Holden wants others to believe that he has his life under control so he acts like nothing matters. Jim and Holden want to frame the narratives around them in order to control their

lives.
One interesting component about each young man is that even in their loss of innocence, they made it their mission to assist individuals they love to preserve their own. Jim displays great empathy for his friend Plato when he tries to save him from a disastrous decision. Plato believes that Buzz’s gang is trying to hurt Jim, and wants to protect him. Jim understands that this will only end badly for Plato, so he tries to coax the gun from Plato in exchange for his red jacket. Additionally, Holden is staunch protector of his younger sister Phoebe. Holden noticed the foul language written on the walls of Phoebe's school building, “Somebody'd written "Fuck you" on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they'd wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them--all cockeyed, naturally--what it meant, and how they'd all think about it and maybe even worry about it for a couple of days” (Salinger, 221). Holden wants Phoebe to continue to be pure. He doesn’t want an individual corrupting the way Phoebe envisions the world. Holden wants to protect Phoebe because he does not want to lose her innocence. Even with all their own problems to deal with the two protagonists display their affection for others.

Holden Caulfield and Jim Stark both endure a major loss of innocence moment which causes them to react by creating a new personality, new standards for themselves and positively impact other individuals who have not lost their own innocence. The reasons why the book and the movie are so relevant is it is the norm for teenagers to rebel against parents and their society. Teenagers step out of their comfort zone and show the world a face they want to see even if it is not accurate. Teenagers also don’t want those who are more innocent than they are to struggle. They those who are innocent to be free of phoniness and love themselves for who they are. It is natural for a teenager to rebel against society and fight for what they think is right. Because the portrayal of the teenager is accurate, both the book and the movie are revered as coming of age works.