Holden Caulfield Comparison

Unlike other protagonists with amazing superpowers or cunning wits, the characters from the film Rushmore, and the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” share many of the same characteristics. In Wes Anderson’s film, Rushmore, the main character, Max Fischer, played by Jason Schwartzman has an unprecedented amount of similarities to J.D Salinger’s character Holden Caulfield from “The Catcher in the Rye”. Both stories focus on the idea of children wanting to grow up quickly whilst still being too immature to do so. The similarities include their personality traits, and the relationships they have, but the characters also differ in one major way, their views on sex. These similarities create a feel of familiarity in the reader or viewer allowing them

He was accepted into the school after receiving a full academic scholarship; the one act play he wrote and directed while in the second grade showed the dean of the school Max Fischer’s academic promise. Although, Fischer’s grades end up putting him on academic probation; henceforth, causing him to be later suspended and expelled. This sequence of events is eerily similar to the one we see in the “The Catcher in the Rye” Holden Caulfield: a sixteen-year-old boy filled with promise and also gifted with his ability to write was also expelled from his school Pencey Prep for academic insubordination. In Caulfield’s case the see his own English teacher recognize his writing when his roommate Stradlater asks him to write a descriptive essay but not to do it to good because “that son of a bitch Hartsell knows you’re a hot shot at English”. (Salinger). The recognition from Caulfield’s teacher exemplifies that his writing skill was not just one recognized by his peers but by people of authority as well. Fischer and Caulfield both are unwilling to apply themselves in school leading the reader to believe these characters are both immature sue

These two children both attempt to alienate themselves from their parents Caulfield thinks to I would never go away to another school and… then I’d hitch hike my way out west” (Salinger), he also never plans to say goodbye to his parents and only planned to say goodbye to his younger sister Phoebe. Moreover, Max isolates himself from his father in one instant when he tells is father that his dinner after his show was cast and crew only; the dinner was for Ms. Cross and Herman Blume. While at dinner with Ms. Cross, Blume and Ms. Cross’ guest, Max begins to let his emotions fly after he has had a drink and confesses his love for Ms. Cross. This immature act is then followed by countless more acts of pure desperation including faking a head injury to get inside Ms. Cross’ house and attempting to kiss her. These acts end up destroying the friendship Fischer had with Ms. Cross. In the case of Caulfield, he has one girl who could be described as “the one that got away”, Jane Gallagher is a girl whom Caulfield spent an abundance of time with one year at a cottage in Maine. Although never present in the story we only hear positives about Jane and how she “always kept her kings in the back row” (Salinger). As the story progresses we only see Caulfield make one attempt to reach out to Jane and when it is unsuccessful he never tries again, Holden withheld future attempts