Catcher Of The Flies And The Catcher In The Rye

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and the Lord of the Flies by William Golding both explore the nature of adolescent behaviors influenced by their environment. These 20th century works reveal that adolescents are innately destined to rebel against society. The main characters of the Lord of the Flies are stuck on an uncharted island with no adult supervision, and rebel against the social norms of their previous society. Holden Caulfield, the narrator of the Catcher in the Rye, disregards the expectations of his parents, teachers, and figures of authority, and decides his own destiny. Although the environments and situations surrounding the adolescent characters in The Catcher in the Rye and the Lord of the Flies are immensely different, they both reveal the innate, ingrained, and instinctive desires for rebellion, independence, and freedom that exist inherently in youth.

Although the authors of the two books might have not known it at the time, the idea that teenagers are instinctively destined to rebel is actually backed up by scientific facts. According to psychological research, during the adolescent years, parts of the brain are still developing, which means their ability to think and make good judgment is not fully developed yet. This explains why Holden from the Catcher in the Rye and the boys on the island from Lord of the Flies make so many mistakes; their judgment skills are not quite developed yet. Whereas younger children don't see the flaws in their parents, adolescents suddenly see the world more realistically. This explains why the younger children from both novels follow the directions of their leaders, while the older children are more likely to oppose them. Adolescents construct an ideal of what parents, au...

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...of society’s rules, and when they rebel against them, they start to seek out their inner instinctive desires disregarding the consequences of their actions. As they do this, like Holden and many of the boys on the island did, their minds drift into a wild and primitive mentality, which can only be cleaned after they fully understand the serious consequences of their mistakes and actions.

The characters from both Catcher in the Rye and the Lord of the Flies exemplify adolescents who rebel against society in order to create their own ideal world. Overall, neither Holden nor the boys on the island show strong evidence that they regret the acts of rebellion and defiance that they have committed. This further exemplifies the theory that adolescent rebellion is a natural part of life, and both authors have done a good job expressing this universal idea in their novels.