Essay on No Person Is Exempt from Flaws

Holden Caulfield and Will Hunting, both adolescent boys, often had trouble forging relationships with others. The main character of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Holden, rejected those around him. He called them “phony” (106) and “bastards” (33). Will in the movie Good Will Hunting also had similar feelings and feared that there may be imperfections in people which would convince him those persons could not be his friends. Despite their initial attitudes, they both embarked on journeys that lead them to a better understanding. The boys both learned to ignore faults and embrace people for who they are. For Will, this understanding came when he realized that his girlfriend Skylar meant more to him than anything else. He grasped that she is more important than his job, or his seemingly set future. Holden became conscious of much the same thing when watching his younger sister Phoebe. Holden and Will both realized that all people are flawed but that those flaws are not reasons to forgo a meaningful connection. One night Will met a girl named Skylar at a bar. There he impressed her with his knowledge and the two soon found themselves in a relationship. Skylar fell in love with Will, but he found it hard to do the same because he kept anticipating flaws in her. His therapist, Sean, believed that this anticipation was a result of his abandonment “by the people who were supposed to love him the most” (Van Sant); his parents. Because of his mother and father, Will was “afraid” (Van Sant) to let anyone close to him again and was afraid to allow himself to grow too fond of someone. He believed if he did, they “won’t love him back” (Van Sant) and would leave him. Will imagined everything that could go wrong, everything that could be wrong with her, and looked at this point in the plot as if he will never lead a life with someone he can bring close to his heart. However, Sean started to help him and built Will’s confidence. Will was told stories of Sean fell in love with his wife and about their life together, including his wife’s faults. Sean sees her quirks as what made her unique and special. Will’s therapist remembers his wife for her faults and was glad that she had them. This convinced Will that he shouldn’t be afraid and that taking a chance with another person is the only way to forge a truly meaningful connection. He leaves a note in Sean’s mailbox saying, “If the professor calls about that job, just tell him, ‘Sorry I had to go see about a girl’ ” (Van Sant) and then left to find Skylar. Much as Will found understanding through Skylar, Holden found his realization through his sister Phoebe. Throughout the book Holden continually called people phonies because he saw other’s actions as hypocritical and fake. He noticed people were “secret slob[s]” (27) and The only people he seemed to find polite and real were children. Phoebe, being a child, was one of them and Holden could not bear to see her grow up. To him this seemed to be the cause of phoniness, the loss of innocence in children. This loss also seemed to him to be the ultimate flaw, the flaw that caused

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