Catcher In The Rye And Good Will Hunting

The premise of the coming of age dilemma lies within the understanding of where a person wants to be and how they get there. It is a nuanced time period that startles, yet emboldens the lives of many young adults, as they try to find their individualized niche in society. In The Catcher in the Rye and Good Will Hunting, main characters Holden Caulfield and Will Hunting experience the effects of becoming adults, but they still end up being two unique characters due to specific notions of their lives that add dimension to the process of finding themselves. While Caulfield and Hunting are both implicated in the battles of aggression and attachment, their distinct experiences in the past demonstrate how the past implicates itself with the coming

Caulfield’s path is bleak as he is stuck in the same loop of isolation and restraint, as he says “don’t ever tell anybody anything, if you do you start missing them” (214). This quote shows how Caulfield is still vulnerable about exhibiting his true emotions to others as he is still struggling to process the deep connection he shared with Allie and continues to miss his presence. Caulfield would rather shield himself from the potential pain rather than experience the same distress that he felt in the past. Rather than realizing that he needs to heal the scars of the past by accepting others into his life, he continues to entrench himself in his own views as well as the past. However, for Hunting, there seems to be a glimmer of optimism in his regard towards his future. Despite taking up a job at Tri-Tech Laboratories, Hunting decides to leave the position, ultimately for the reason of that he “had to go see about a girl” (Affleck and Damon, Good Will Hunting). Here, Hunting is shown doing something that he has been afraid to do for a majority of his life: go down a path of uncertainty. He puts aside his fear of potentially being misguided and deserted and seeks Skylar Satenstein, his former girlfriend, in order to truly establish sincere relationship with a soulmate. Unlike Caulfield, Hunting is not staying in his shell: he takes the advice of Maguire and ventures toward the potential possibilities that his future holds for