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In J.D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, a teenager named Holden has just been kicked out of yet another school. He is having a hard time figuring out what to do with his life, as most teenagers do. However, in his case, he decides to just abandon his life and try something new. He leaves his sheltered boys school, and tries to live on his own in a hotel in New York for a few days before winter break begins and he has to go home to mom and dad. Holden talks about how phony all the people around him are, and how he does not want to be like them. With this, Holden has decided for himself that he does not want to grow up, and join society like every other human on Earth, but rather make his own living without the help of education and his parents. Like in the Ted Talk by Tavi Gevinson, he is just trying to figure his life out. He has not had the easiest life, and does not want a rule book, because that would make him a phony. He, like most teenagers believes that he knows better and is better than other people. He believes himself to be more mature, even though he wants to remain a child. He has a constant battle throughout the book of this theme of "coming of age". He wants to grow up, but does not want to join the phony adult world. He wants to stay a kid, but does not want to be treated like one. He is stuck in this netherworld of, "Should I or Shouldn't I?" and can not seem to find the answer.
This book and Ted Talk are very much relatable to the teens of today's society. Being one myself, I have a unique opportunity to see how different people react and handle the struggles they are dealing with. As people who are so young and have not experienced a lot in life, we believe every little inconvenience is going o be the end of our days. A broken nail is the apocalypse for some people. What we do in these vital years of our lives is what shapes us into adults. We are toughened up, molded, and battered until we are what people want us to be. Giving a book with a troubled character struggling to grasp the whole growing up thing, or even introducing young women to a magazine that can show them that the world is not as simple as it is depicted on TV, can save the future leaders of the world from being carbon copies of our predecessors. We will be unique, intelligent, and creative; but most importantly we will be ourselves. |