Esther Greenwood Vs. Holden Caufield
As I got closer and closer to the end of this novel, I couldn't help but see parallels between Esther and Holden. Both of these characters separate themselves from society and act as if nobody else could understand what they are going through. Holden expresses this through his notion that the world is completely superficial and narrating it as if he's the only one to have figured it out. Esther, when at the mental hospital, meets Joan, a fellow patient. A one-sided rivalry ensues where Esther claims that Joan has no reason to be here and how much greater her own pain was. Joan's enthusiasm irked Esther and was the main reason behind this claim. It all stemmed from jealousy. Joan was who Esther wanted to be. "I felt it unfair of Joan to beat me through the gates," Esther thinks, after hearing that Joan was going to Cambridge. Holden also has this similar rivalry/jealousy A deeper look into each book's ending also reveals a failure to come-of-age. Holden remai...