The Catcher in the Rye

I am reading Catcher in the Rye, the classic novel about a misunderstood teen. It is told in first person by Holden Caulfield. He gives off the impression that he doesn’t care about anything or anyone. In reality, this is just a mask. He has some of the worst luck ever and the only way he knows how to deal with it is to pretend it doesn’t matter to him. In general, he has nothing to look forward to in life. He is failing out of a prestigious prep school and is only the manager of the fencing team, in which he loses all of their gear and infuriates any friends he had on the team. Friends really are not something he has. He tries so hard to give off a cool appearance that he never makes any lasting friendships. In his descriptions of his roommate and neighbor, you can see just how much he resists being friendly with people. He spends more time explaining their filthy grooming habits than explaining real reasons as to why he doesn’t like them. Holden describes Ackley as a pimply loser and his roommate, Stradlater, as a “secret slob”. The teenager only respects people of the opposite sex, like his crush Jane and his sister Phoebe. This shows how much Holden values innocence, a main theme in this book. He doesn’t like the boys from Pencey Prep because they are concerned with mostly just sex and girls. The women mentioned by him are his idea of purity. He likes Jane for simple things like holding hands and playing golf with him. Phoebe hasn’t been corrupted by teenage life yet. The people that bring him back to his childhood and who in his mind will never change or grow up are the people who he values the most.  

The Outsiders

In The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy Curtis narrates a story of his gang, the greasers, and the struggles they face. These hardships include everything from rival gangs, class differences, to even death.  The main theme in this novel is the differences in the rich and the poor. Ponyboy is beyond his years with what life has served him, being only fourteen years old. He likes things like literature and the symbolic nature of sunsets. The leader of the greasers’ rival gang, the Socs, actually likes the same things but their different backgrounds make a friendship impossible. They also never have a real reason to constantly beat up each other except mutual hatred. The greasers’ have a brotherhood that is stronger because they hate the Socs so strongly. Barely even being old enough to be in high school, Ponyboy’s friend Johnny is devoted enough to the gang that he kills another boy to protect him. This leads to the two boys having to hide in an abandoned church and change their own identities. In these few days, it is apparent how young they really are and that they are more scared than their persona leads them to seem. They are only really tough in front of the Socs, but in other situations they have a strong conscience even if it isn’t perfect. This is shown as they leave the church and they notice that there is a fire engulfing the building. The boys save children and risk their own lives for strangers. This act put the greasers, the lower class in a more flattering manner than the Socs. The higher class in this novel are the ones who cause fights and initiate hatred. They ultimately wants revenge, and they will find it in the upcoming rumble between the two groups.