Holden Caulfield Relationships

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Do relationships really have an influence on a person's choices and actions? Holden Caulfield of The Catcher In The Rye and Chris Mccandless of Into The Wild both encounter many relationships during their adventures to find themselves that have helped them understand society and help give them a nudge in the right direction. Through their journeys their parents have been a burden on them always seeming to be in the way of everything. Their siblings however have been very trustworthy and reliable. Their stories have been highly influenced by the relationships that they themselves have with other people. These relationships include siblings and strangers that become acquaintances on the road.
First, both Holden Caulfield and Chris Mccandless …show more content…
Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy. (Salinger 22).
This quote was the response of Phoebe's question to Holden about what he wanted to do with his life. This quote shows a major breakthrough in Holden because Phoebe finally got Holden to clearly express his emotions and actually confront his feelings and come to the conclusion of what he wants to do with his life. Even Though being a Catcher in the Rye isn't an actual job Holden finally was able to express his emotion about his future plans which helps Holden start to enter reality. Similarly, Chris McCandless also had a very deep bond with his sister that indirectly resulted in him attempting to return to society once more. In the movie Into the wild Carine had a very big impact on Chris because Chris and Carine were very close to each other, therefore Chris was always thinking about his sister. In the movie Chris stated that he was never going to come back to his sister but Carine was indirectly …show more content…
If their parents had not treated them badly and loved and paid attention to them then they would not have had to worry about their children running away or making bad choices. Holden’s parents did not show any love or affection to Holden. Holden could have been an entirely different person if his parents had showed some effort into his childhood instead of sending him to a boarding school. Kids need love and affection for them to feel confident and secured and Holden had never felt that type of love or affection. Salinger writes: “how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” (Salinger 1) This quote shows how Holden was neglected when he was a child because his parents were too preoccupied by their work that hey didn't have time to take care of Holden and nourish him properly with the right values. This resulted in Holden feeling insecure about himself and wasn't “normal” compared to other children he met and that’s exactly why he felt they were phonies. Similarly, Chris had a incredibly terrible childhood where he witnessed his mom being abused several times and secrets about his dad’s other wife unraveling. These dark secrets messed with his mind and but him into a very bad position. To escape from the secrets and abuse Chris choose to run
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