Selma Lagerlof once said “Nothing can make up for the loss of one who has loved you,” Growing up and discovering oneself is hard enough, without the added trauma of losing someone close to you. J.D Salinger’s “The Catcher In The Rye” and Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” both revolved around confused teenage boys who have lost a lot and are therefore unsure about who they are and what they feel. These two “coming-of-age” novels explore the individuality of pain, and the different ways people must deal with it.
Both books are narrated in first person, creating an intimacy between the characters and the reader. This intimacy creates a connection that makes the audience truly care about the outcome of the characters, no matter how hopeless it may seem. This is especially effective in the audience understanding the motivations of the characters based on their distressing pasts. Holden, from J.D Salinger’s “The Catcher In The Rye,” and Charlie, from Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” both go through very similar traumatic experiences, ranging from witnessing forms of date rape to the loss of a treasured love one. These experiences, though similar, result in two boys with completely different personalities, both going through the same sorrow. Taking their similar experiences in the death of a loved one for example, Holden losing his brother Allie caused him to become angrier and more cynical in his outlook on life. This is portrayed by Salinger’s use of Holden’s harsh commentary, that remained true to the characters, on those around him, constantly using words like “ugly” and “phony”. Meanwhile, Charlie losing his Aunt Helen and best friend resulted in a desperate need for companionship, making Charlie more trusting and forgiving of others. At one point in Salinger’s narrative, Holden states “Everytime you mention a guy that’s strictly a bastard [...] She’ll mention how he has an inferiority complex. Maybe he has, but that still doesn’t keep him from being a bastard,” revealing that he holds people accountable for their actions no matter the reasoning behind them doing so. Charlie, however, has to be taught this lesson by his father, and still continues to be more forgiving than most people would be.
The experiences of these two characters shaped their personalities, but also led to their isolation while they attempted to understand the pain these situations inflicted upon them. “‘Well are you dancing at these dances?”he asked. ‘I’m not a very good dancer.’” Charlie’s desperation for companionship, after the death of his Aunt and his friend, keeps him from participating in fear of looking stupid and repelling anyone who might previously have wished to interact with him. This lack of participation keeps Charlie from interacting with other people, and leaving him stranded on his island of isolation. Though Salinger explores the same idea of isolation, the main character in his book, Holden, is isolated for a very different reason. The audience of this narrative can assume that the loss of his brother changed him. “I know he’s dead! Don’t you think I know that? [...] Especially if [he] was about a thousand times nicer than the people [I] know that are alive and all!” After his brother’s death, Holden began to compare everyone to his brother, in order to fill that gap in his life. When someone doesn’t live up to Allie, his brother, Holden pushes them away, furthering his isolation.
As these books progress, the authors implicitly hint at a gateway out of isolation for the two characters. Salinger makes it obvious that Phoebe is the one person Holden trusts and wants to be around. Slowly the reader can also infer that Holden seeks stability and a constant in his life. From constantly changing boarding houses, he wants familiarity and comfort while he processes and moves on from Allie’s death, something he still hasn’t fully done. He wants “certain things [to] stay where they are.” He wants things to not change while he copes and moves past the tragedy he has faced. By the end of this narrative, Holden is able to recognise this and takes steps to cope and eventually, move on. Chbosky hints at Charlie having a way to cope as well, however it is vastly different from Holden’s. While Holden needed stability and comfort to understand his feelings, Charlie required change to stop mulling over his and seal that once raw pain for good. His “participation” is a distraction, and the friends he makes along the way assist him in learning to live outside his head, and giving his trust to only a selected few. All of this helps him to transition into a new portion of his life, as he has already processed his loss and now needs to move past it, as he begins to do.
Charlie and Holden both struggle with either understanding, or moving past their emotions, proving that grief is handled in many different ways and is not a step by step process. Trying to understand who you are while also dealing with the loss of someone you love is not easy, but as these characters have proven, is possible. The process is messy and long and the progress jumps back and forth, being great at a moment, and as if you just lost them in the next moment. All of this leaves a question to be asked - Is there a “most efficient” way to cope with death? And if there is, why aren’t more people aware of it?
By Akanksha
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