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Essay Comparing Holden Caulfield And Asher Lev

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While Holden Caulfield and Asher Lev struggle with their impending ostracization from society, their respective narratives of reinvention differ as Holden isolates himself further from the people around him while Asher immerses himself in his physical world. Both characters also experience two conflicting forces - Asher’s battle between art and judaism, and Holden’s struggle to remain innocent in the face of corruption, and it is the way in which both Holden and Asher choose to balance the two that ultimately change them. . Holden Caulfield’s isolation, unlike Asher Lev’s, is self-imposed in an effort to distance himself from the “phoniness” he sees in adults. His misanthropic perspective is reflected in the distance Holden places between himself and other people; very …show more content…

For example, Holden refuses to call his childhood friend, Jane Gallagher, in fear of discovering she has lost her naive innocence - he prefers to think of her as a terrible at checkers rather than a sexual being involved with Stradlater. In keeping himself disengaged from the rest of the world, he is able to defend himself from daunting metamorphosis from child to adult. Furthermore, this sentiment is expanded as Holden undergoes the beginnings of his breakdown with Sally. To demonstrate, Holden hatches an idea that involves “stay[ing] in [...] cabin camps” where he would “chop [his] own wood” (Salinger 132). The remote description implies a withdrawal from the rapid pace of life that Holden desperately tries to cling onto in order to remain innocent. Despite the signals from his body - his tall height and grey hair - warning him of adulthood, he is loath to succumb to it. Additionally, his ultimate goal, to stop time and protect children from evil, is highlighted by how he wishes for the Museum of Art to stay the same and his aversion of change each time he enters the building. The three days in which Holden spends wandering the streets of New

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