[Essay] Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Catcher in the Rye: The Journey to Maturation

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Catcher in the Rye: The Journey to Maturation

Most people who succeed have also experienced failure at least once in their lives. Successful people often say that failure breeds success, which leads them to find the meaning of their lives by overcoming their failures. This fact is embodied in the novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which tells the story of Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy. It delineates how Oskar overcomes his grief which is caused by the death of his father following the 9/11 attacks, which eventually leads him to grow up with the support of his mother. The novel describes Oskar’s journey to maturity; Holden Caulfield’s maturation is similarly a main theme in The Catcher in the Rye. At first, Holden refuses to accept reality which he experiences as a society of adults that is full of phonies and liars. However, he ultimately acknowledges reality, which results in Holden growing up against his will. In the process of Oskar’s and Holden’s growth, both characters encounter hardships which are life changing and which lead them to isolate themselves from society. After isolation, they start their journey to find the meaning in their lives. Eventually, both Oskar and Holden grow up. However, unlike Oskar who successfully matures by finding the meaning of his life with his family’s help, Holden acknowledges reality and grows up by the force of society. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, both Oskar and Holden experience challenges which eventually lead them to grow up by overcoming their ordeals. However, unlike Oskar who successfully grows up with the support of his mother, Holden is forced to grow up on his own by acknowledging reality.

When Oskar and Holden encounter their challenges—death of father and expulsion respectively—they do not accept reality and start to isolate themselves from society. McClinton-Temple states: “Children identify most readily with their parents, and that before adolescence they believe they share the same basic qualities and values with their ‘parental models.’” He notes that children consider their parents as their role model; and that is the reason why Oskar, who is a nine-year-old boy, gets a great shock after he loses his father—the closest and greatest person in his world. After Oskar experiences the death of his father—who is the closest person to him—he does not cry, but tries to think about ridiculous ideas or situations in order to be ready to face a huge emotional change and overcome his grief. He, thereby, suppresses the emotional impact by focusing on his inventions. He is good at thinking outside of the box. By doing these things, Oskar tries to prevent deep sorrow following the death of his father. However, even though with his efforts, he falls into isolation, as he utters: “If I’d been someone else in a different world I’d’ve done something different, but I was myself and the world was the world, so I was silent” (Foer 30). Even for adults, it is hard to face the death of a family member. Oskar’s reaction is unusual for a nine-year-old boy, and he moves one step forward to growing up. However, McClinton-Temple recognizes that: “Grief, by its very nature, disrupts us, places us at a loss for words.” His grief increases even though he tries to lock himself away from the world—which eventually leads him to isolation.

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a student who fails four courses out of five and is scolded by the principal because he leaves all of the school’s fencing equipment on the subway on the day of the match. He argues with his dorm mates, Ackley and Stradlater, whom he considers snobs, and finally, he has a fight with them. Then, he decides to leave the school earlier than his previous plan. Holden complains that all adults are phonies and do not believe whatever he says: “The bus driver opened the doors and made me throw [a snowball] out. I told him I wasn’t going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldn’t believe me. People never believe you” (Salinger 36-37). Since “Holden wishes to be the one who preserves the innocence of youth” (Pettineo), he does not want to accept others—except children—in his mind. So he is always lonely. His loneliness becomes worse after he leaves the school, as he says: “All I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the window. I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead . . . Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome” (Salinger 48). Eventually, he considers committing suicide due to his isolation. At the beginning of these two novels, both Oskar and Holden face their life changing ordeals and enter into states of isolation.

Both Oskar and Holden lose the purpose of their lives, but once they confront their hardship, they begin their journey to re-discover the meaning of it. Oskar begins his journey right after he has a conflict with his mother. McClinton-Temple states: “When family, for whatever reason, disappoints us, we turn to others to provide identification, support, comfort, and sanctuary.” The purpose of his journey is to discover the meaning of his life after he found the key with the word ‘Black.’ He figures out that ‘Black’ may be the last name and he starts to find all of people who has last name ‘Black’ in New York. During his journey, Oskar always follows his father’s teaching. Shortly after, Oskar takes the role of Yorick in the school play. “I felt, that night, on that stage, under that skull, incredibly close to everything in the universe, but also extremely alone. I wondered, for the first time, if life was worth all the work it took to live” (Foer 145). During the play Oskar considers giving up his life because he feels like his life is meaningless without his father—he says that he is too lonely—since he is way too young to face the death of his father. However, he passes the hardest time—considering committing suicide. “Moving through grief requires a great deal of hard work on the part of the mourner” (McClinton-Temple). Oskar starts to acknowledge reality and accept the death of his father, after he meets all of the people who have the last name ‘Black’ in New York and finds the meaning behind the key.

As Oskar begins his journey, Holden’s decision to go to New York a few days earlier shows that he makes his first independent decision to move forward, which indicates that he is on the way to find his own identity. On the other hand, this fact leads Holden to feel even greater loneliness because nobody in New York understands him since they are also phonies and liars, like his friends in Pencey. Even though he moves one step forward to growing up, his loneliness is increasing. When he is wandering around New York, his loneliness makes him consider committing suicide, as he utters: “It took me quite a while to get to sleep—I wasn’t even tired—but finally I did. What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window” (Salinger 104). Holden declaims: “I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (173). Despite all of his struggles along his journey, he eventually finds the meaning of his life—keeping children’s innocence—and decides to be the catcher in the rye. After Oskar and Holden encounter their challenges, they begin their journey in order to find the meaning of their lives, and they successfully discover them.

Both Holden and Oskar mature in two different ways: in the case of Holden, by forcibly

admitting reality and, in the case of Oskar, with the assistance of family, proving that Holden does not grow up as successfully as Oskar. McClinton-Temple states the steps of overcoming one’s grief: “[T]he opening stage is one of denial, followed by a period of anger, followed by some kind of depression or disorganization, with a final period of acceptance or reorganization.” By the end of the novel, Oskar passes through most of the steps and now he begins to acknowledge reality. He finds out that Ron, who becomes his mother’s boyfriend after the death of his father, lost his wife and daughter too. The death of his father is the centre of their relationship because they meet at a support group. At the same time, Oskar realizes that his mother also suffers from the death of her husband as well. After all, he describes his journey to his father’s gravesite again as he does in the first chapter. Oskar wants to dig and open the coffin even though he knows that it is empty. He digs with his grandfather and fills the coffin with his letters. When Oskar arrives home, his mother is waiting for him and is not angry. Shortly after, they cry together because Oskar finds out that his father calls his mother after the building was hit by the airplane. This time, Oskar says: “I don’t believe in God, but I believe that things are extremely complicated, and her looking over me was as complicated as anything ever could be. But it was also incredibly simple. In my only life, she was my mom, and I was her son” (Foer 324). Oskar now sees others’ pains, which results in him realizing that his mother also suffers from the death of her husband, and by loving his mother, he ultimately overcomes his grief.

By the end of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden reveals that he was receiving psychotherapy—which is now done—and announces that his story ends. Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye who protects children’s purity from the adult world full of phonies and liars. He plans to go West and collects money by pretending to be mute and deaf. Then, he wants to live in a cabin until he dies. That means he wants to say goodbye to the world that is full of phonies and liars to keep his purity. But Phoebe wants to follow him after she sees his message that he is going to go West. Holden gives up his plan and promises Phoebe that he will stay in New York with his family. This fact indicates that Holden moves one step towards the adult world while passing through adolescence. Holden’s final passage is that: “I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 213-214). Holden says that his story has finished and now he misses his friends, who are the phonies and liars in Pencey, that he once despised. Pettineo describes this as “an almost ‘mature’ understanding of the fleeting nature of relationships . . . he begins to realize that the time he has to spend with people is precious and not to be wasted.” Holden does not accept the society of adults that is full of phonies. However, he gives up his dream—keeping the innocence of children—and ultimately accepts reality, which results in him becoming a mature person. Eventually, both Oskar and Holden enter the world of adults. However, the fact, that Holden grows up forcibly unlike Oskar, indicates that Holden’s maturation is not as successful as Oskar’s.

Both Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger respectively delineate Oskar’s and Holden’s journey of growing up with their hardships. While Oskar successfully matures with the support of his family, Holden grows up by forcibly acknowledging reality. Oskar has a hard time after the death of his father. He faces huge fears about the loss of the closest and greatest person in his life—his father—and starts to isolate himself from society. Then, he begins to wander around. During his journey, he has a hard time to overcome his sorrow, and he also considers committing suicide. However, his emotional journey successfully ends with overcoming his grief. Through his journey, he learns how to see others’ pains and this lesson leads him to overcome his grief together with them. Also, Oskar is able to see his mother’s grief as well. By loving his mother, he can overcome the grief following the death of his father. Ultimately, he successfully grows up. As Oskar suffers from the death of his father, Holden also has a hard time during his adolescence. He rejects the world of adults and is wandering around New York seeking the meaning of his life. During his journey, he also thinks of committing suicide just as Oskar does. Then, he dreams to be the catcher in the rye. However, he gives up his dream and acclimates himself to the adult world which is full of phonies and liars due to the painfulness of growing up. Holden is an afflicted teenager who puts himself both in an ideal world, and in reality, which means he was an ideal rebellious teenager, on the one hand, and a social misfit, on the other. “Even though Holden loves niceness and purity, he can’t break away from the evil and ugliness of the society” (Han). As she states, Holden forcibly grows up. Even though it is against his will, a part of growing up has been satisfied; Holden has taken on the role of a mature person. People may wander and suffer like Holden and Oskar due to the trials of adolescence. However, as is embodied in Holden and Oskar, people need to keep asking themselves questions and find answers in order to discover the meaning of their lives which will lead them to succeed.

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