A Separate Peace Vs Elie

Mickey Mouse Has Grown Up a Cow
Everyone needs a guiding light in the distance to show the way, but occasionally that light disappears. For some, that light is faith, family, or friends but once they are gone it comes down to personal choices, even if they have to be made blindly. Similar choices are seen in Elie Wiesel’s Night, JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, and John Knowles A Separate Peace. Elie, Holden, and Gene have to make decisions about their lives and how they are going to live them. The choices offered to them, however, are not always win or lose. The line separating good and bad, right and wrong, and love and hate is changing from black and white to gray. The decision between compassion for others and self-preservation
He faces the decision of either putting himself at risk of death by showing compassion for others, especially his father, or just surviving and having a part of his soul die. He is in the midst of a catch-22, a situation that will end badly no matter what, that he does not realize he cannot win. All of the protagonists face this problem and all of them are looking for the answer but no one is answering them. Elie needs someone to blame for the things that are happening. When his question, “What are You, my God?...How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of all the cowardice, this decay, and this misery?” (Wiesel 66) goes unanswered, he throws the blame at God for leaving him in the dark. Elie cannot comprehend why God is letting all of these people suffer, and he loses faith in Him because of it. He becomes angry at God's silence during the horrible things he is dealing with in his life. Elie needs some kind of guidance to help him to make the right decision but he isn't receiving
He could not understand how God could take away the life of such an innocent child. He felt “like praying or something, when [he] was in bed, but [he] couldn't do it.” (Salinger 99). Holden concerns himself with the innocence of children , as his fight for them is his ultimate battle. He tries to preserve childhood innocence but it is a fight that he cannot win, and characters like Mr. Antolini recognize that Holden is “riding for some kind of terrible fall. But [he doesn't] honestly know what kind”(186). This leads him to the same question that Elie faces. He doesn't know whether or not to keep fighting for the innocence or to he give up. This question deeply affects Holden and he debates with himself about it throughout The Catcher in the Rye. They all look for the correct answer, but they don't realize that there is none. Holden cares about the innocence of the children so much that it takes a serious toll on him and “how [he] got sick and all” (213). He can't continue to care so much or else it will bring his downfall. Even though he cannot win, Holden continues his fight. Despite being told he will fail he refuses to give up. The compassion is such a weight on him and he doesn't know how to take care of it. He is in the midst of his decision between compassion and survival and it is unanswerable to him. Is it worth going on caring even though he can never win,