Holden is criticizing phoniness while Charlie becomes phony through the book. In The Catcher In The Rye, Holden mainly talks about how people are phony, how they become phony and how this affects their education, desire of learning, approach next to the girls and behavior next to people. However, in The Perks of Being a Wallflower Charlie becomes an example for the message of The Catcher in The Rye with the change in his educational thoughts and behaviors.
“An inferiority complex is a lack of self-worth, a doubt and uncertainty, and feelings of not measuring up to standards. It is often subconscious, and is thought to drive afflicted individuals to overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme …show more content…
Holden does not want to memorize anything and he does not want to learn anything without any reason. He likes to inquire about every topic he will learn. However, opposite to Holden, Charlie does everything that people wants and he never inquires about the reason behind learning those things. Holden says: “You ought to go to a boys' school sometime. Try it sometime. It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day.”(Salinger 131) As Holden says, he thinks that people just learn things to go to an Ivy League College. Whereas Charlie says: “He [Bill] also said that I should use the vocabulary words that I learn in class like ‘corpulent’ and ‘jaundice’(Chbosky 16).” then a few sentences after, he says: “So, what’s the point of using words nobody else knows or can say comfortably? I just don’t understand that.” (Chbosky 16) After two pages, even though he still can’t find the reason behind using these words, he says: “And my Aunt Helen was ‘corpulent’. Hey, I did it!”(Chbosky 18) Here it is clear that Charlie’s behaviors changes according to people and he just imitates and accepts them without …show more content…
At the beginning of the Catcher, Charlie says the famous words that everyone knows, “I just need to know that someone out there listens and doesn’t try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist” (Chbosky 1). In this quote Charlie wants to show that there is someone still doesn’t want to just use the people with him/her. But after 119 pages and loss of innocence, Charlie starts to date with Mary Elizabeth. “I didn’t like Mary Elizabeth” (Chbosky 215). It’s clear that he does not have any feelings to her. He just uses her to get Sam. “But after I said yes, and Mary Elizabeth announced to the group, I wanted Sam to be jealous”. On the other hand Holden says, “I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all” (Salinger 62). And here you can see that Charlie again becomes an example for the person that Holden describes in a bad