Papers on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"" and similar term paper topics

Paper #023454 :: "Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"
Buy and instantly download this paper now

A look at the discourse of youth in the novels "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger and Brett Easton Ellis' "Less Than Zero".

Written in 2002; 1,000 words; 2 sources; MLA; $ 35.95

Paper Summary:

Up through the 1970s, teenage resistance to social authority was such a pervasive motif in American fiction that the adolescent struggle for autonomy embodied for many critics the national myth of self-reliance. The paper shows that in contemporary novels, however, youth's disaffected disposition is credited not to the oppressiveness of adult authority but to a lack of it. The voice in both "Catcher in the Rye" and "Less than Zero" is a detached, ironic voice that demonstrates a need for security and for home. The paper shows that by implicitly endorsing an idealized, nostalgic vision of family, these narratives split with the genre's antiauthoritarian tradition and re-script the utilization of adolescent disaffection. Whereas the teenager once intuitively asserted youth's moral supremacy over their elders, today's aimless, amoral kids cry out for adult intervention as they beg entry into the shelters of home. This paper examines the similarities and differences in the discourse of the young in both "Less Than Zero" and "The Catcher in the Rye".

From the Paper:

"In the penultimate chapter of Catcher, Holden declines to run away to California in order to spare his younger sister Phoebe from the cynicism and despair he suffers. He does so because he understands that if he lets Phoebe follow him westward he will fail in his dream of protecting her innocence; instead of preventing her terrible fall into adulthood, he will be just as guilty of pushing her over the edge of childhood as the anonymous "pervert" who scrawls profanity on her elementary school walls. Therefore, to save her, Holden must sacrifice his passionate disdain for adult phonies and submit to the indignity of their "asking me if I'm going to apply myself" (213). Through this concluding gesture, Salinger insists that adolescent rebellion is guided by moral intent and is not symptomatic of the narcissism and selfishness so closely associated with this stage of life. The intuitive morality that this plot ascribes to its teen protagonists implies that "if the young demonstrate their inability to accept the code of civilized society, the fault cannot lie in them but in those who have failed to provide acceptable values. By extension, youth's rituals of disaffection are not expressions of antisocial behavior but confirmations that they are engaged in an arduous quest, searching, seeking, grasping, testing in an effort to find the proper moral course in life (265, 269)."

Tags: Phoebe Clay Blair Holden Julian

More papers on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero""

1. Paper #046153 :: "The Catcher in the Rye" ( 1,936 words; 8 sources; MLA )
2. Paper #042472 :: "Romeo and Juliet" and "The Catcher in the Rye". ( 1,400 words; 3 sources; )
3. Paper #028901 :: "Catcher in the Rye" ( 1,053 words; 1 source; MLA )
4. Paper #035279 :: Symbolism in the "Catcher in the Rye" ( 900 words; 4 sources; )
5. Paper #037541 :: "Catcher in the Rye" ( 650 words; 2 sources; )

About AcaDemon

We have thousands of high-quality term papers, research papers, essays, book reports and dissertations on every topic. At AcaDemon, you can download those term papers to help you write yours! You can be sure that the term paper, essay, book report or research paper, you download are top-quality, competitively priced and high-level work.

Look for more research papers, essays and book reports on "Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"

This Free Term Paper Abstract is a part of our Term Paper Library. Here you can purchase research papers, examples of essays, academic dissertations, articles, notes, analytical papers, book reports, stories and poems. We have thousands of persuasive, point-of-view, narrative, critical, compare and contrast and other types of essays in our Library. You can also find here Term papers on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Essays on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Research papers on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Student papers on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Book reports on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Dissertation on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Thesis on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Summary of paper on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"", Articles written on ""Catcher in the Rye" and "Less Than Zero"".