Conformity And Consensus In John Up, Run, And Catcher In The
Novels have been used to tell the story of events in history. The novel can partly or completely explore the story on the social conditions or events related to certain points in history, the time it is written notwithstanding. The authors of such novels tend to blend their imagination and creativity with the historical facts of the time their work of art allude to. The mastery of the social and historical events related to the particular time period is important in a bid to accurately portray the attitudes, ideas, tendencies as well as the themes of the time. This is also important to merge the narrative, in all aspects, into the thematic material. Successful works of art have an important role to play in appealing to the emotions of the audience as well as reveal an important understanding of the specified time period. This essay uses two novels to discuss the notions of conformity and consensus in the material abundance of 1950s America. Specifically, Rabbit, Run (John Updike, 1960) and Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger, 1951), are the novels that are used in this paper to discuss the theme of conformity versus dissent.
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During the 1950s, America began to witness an end to the vision of democracy of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Democracy as an idea of freedom and freedom for an individual to invent and create oneself was being challenged by the need to conform to the American societal values, such as education (like in Catcher in the Rye) and marriage (like in Rabbit, Run). It was becoming very hard for the Americans to discover their own values independent of those established by the society. A culture of consumption, and therefore that of conformity had almost taken root in the society at the time (LaFeber, Polenberg and Woloch, 2013). However, this does not mean that there was no dissent among the members of the society as it is the case with the two novels. On the other hand, those who dissented to the values would suffer some
consequences.
Rabbit Run tells the story of Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom, a 26-year-old who struggles to flee from the constraints characterizing his life. He has a wife, Janice and a two-year-old son, Nelson. Janice is currently seven months pregnant, and she is always drinking. ‘Rabbit’ is convinced that there is something amiss in his life and that his marriage is already corrupt. He was a star basketball player in high school and is therefore not satisfied with a middle-class family life. He feels that the only way to escape is to move away from town. However, he wanders and comes back to his hometown, but rather that going to his family, he goes to see Marty Tothero, his basketball coach in high school. In the process, he meets Ruth a prostitute and moves in with her. He gets Ruth pregnant, but he has to return home when his wife is about to give birth. Rebecca June Angstrom is born, but things never work between the wife and husband and he flees again. Janice, due to stress, accidentally drowns the baby, causing Rabbit so much guilt. He agrees to divorce Janice to marry Ruth, who is not evidently pregnant. However, he does not fulfil his promise, and again runs.
The Catcher in the Rye is a novel narrated by the main character, Holden Caulfield, who is only 16. He begins by making it clear that he does not want the book to become a story of his life. The teenager is irresponsible and immature and suspended from yet another school, Pencey Prep School. His life is also shown to be a mess and he ends up escaping from his home town to New York. In New York, he has contacts with prostitutes, but is not able to have any sexual relationship with them. He is so troubled that he is contemplating suicide. The only person Holden loves and has a good relationship with is his younger sister, Phoebe. She is the reason he decides to go back home. It is also phoebe who stops him from running away again and he decides to remain in the city.
While the two novels have characters that have an age difference of ten years, they share one thing in common. The two embodies personalities constrained by the demands of life in the 1950s America. Rabbit is a man-child who is experiencing a struggle between thought and instinct, self and society, and so is Holden. For Rabbbit, the society expects him to perform his family duty, which is evidently not fulfilling to him, and instead he chooses sexual gratification. At the age of 26, the society, in the 1950s, expected a man to be married and settled in performing his family duty. This is what would be considered conformity (LaFeber, Polenberg and Woloch, 2013). However, he emerges as someone who has chosen a path of dissent. While his flight from his family portrays a zigzag of evasion, he continues to hold on to the belief that he is on the correct path. After all, from the perspective of freedom and invention of a self, he was seeking self-discovery and salvation from his constraining life.
Similarly, in the case of Holden, the society in the 1950 expected a 16 year old boy to have access to education for a better future and to achieve the American dream. It was the objective of the society that its youth would get the necessary education (LaFeber, Polenberg and Woloch, 2013). This is the reason his parent would continue paying for private school education for their son, who would always mess up. He got himself suspended from four private schools and felt that the answer was in escaping, just like Rabbit. Probably, for Holden, the answer in inventing as self was founded on something else that was not private school education, probably playing football. However, the society did not allow him a choice and this is the reason why he escapes. In his own narration, Holden feels that there are many other children who are constrained by the societal demands put forth by adults and he develops a desire to free them. He envisages himself as protecting thousands of children playing in a big rye field. This lifts his spirit, just by thinking about the possibility of finding himself and achieving freedom for children.
The 1950s America is revealed in the two novels to have had serious demands to conform to the social norms and a form of dissent that resulted from the inability to conform to these norms. The two characters, Rabbit and Holden are typical models of what resulted from the pressures the society placed on its people. It is clear evidence of efforts to find oneself and invent an individuality, regardless of what the society might desire.
During the 1950s, America began to witness an end to the vision of democracy of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Democracy as an idea of freedom and freedom for an individual to invent and create oneself was being challenged by the need to conform to the American societal values, such as education (like in Catcher in the Rye) and marriage (like in Rabbit, Run). It was becoming very hard for the Americans to discover their own values independent of those established by the society. A culture of consumption, and therefore that of conformity had almost taken root in the society at the time (LaFeber, Polenberg and Woloch, 2013). However, this does not mean that there was no dissent among the members of the society as it is the case with the two novels. On the other hand, those who dissented to the values would suffer some
consequences.
Rabbit Run tells the story of Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom, a 26-year-old who struggles to flee from the constraints characterizing his life. He has a wife, Janice and a two-year-old son, Nelson. Janice is currently seven months pregnant, and she is always drinking. ‘Rabbit’ is convinced that there is something amiss in his life and that his marriage is already corrupt. He was a star basketball player in high school and is therefore not satisfied with a middle-class family life. He feels that the only way to escape is to move away from town. However, he wanders and comes back to his hometown, but rather that going to his family, he goes to see Marty Tothero, his basketball coach in high school. In the process, he meets Ruth a prostitute and moves in with her. He gets Ruth pregnant, but he has to return home when his wife is about to give birth. Rebecca June Angstrom is born, but things never work between the wife and husband and he flees again. Janice, due to stress, accidentally drowns the baby, causing Rabbit so much guilt. He agrees to divorce Janice to marry Ruth, who is not evidently pregnant. However, he does not fulfil his promise, and again runs.
The Catcher in the Rye is a novel narrated by the main character, Holden Caulfield, who is only 16. He begins by making it clear that he does not want the book to become a story of his life. The teenager is irresponsible and immature and suspended from yet another school, Pencey Prep School. His life is also shown to be a mess and he ends up escaping from his home town to New York. In New York, he has contacts with prostitutes, but is not able to have any sexual relationship with them. He is so troubled that he is contemplating suicide. The only person Holden loves and has a good relationship with is his younger sister, Phoebe. She is the reason he decides to go back home. It is also phoebe who stops him from running away again and he decides to remain in the city.
While the two novels have characters that have an age difference of ten years, they share one thing in common. The two embodies personalities constrained by the demands of life in the 1950s America. Rabbit is a man-child who is experiencing a struggle between thought and instinct, self and society, and so is Holden. For Rabbbit, the society expects him to perform his family duty, which is evidently not fulfilling to him, and instead he chooses sexual gratification. At the age of 26, the society, in the 1950s, expected a man to be married and settled in performing his family duty. This is what would be considered conformity (LaFeber, Polenberg and Woloch, 2013). However, he emerges as someone who has chosen a path of dissent. While his flight from his family portrays a zigzag of evasion, he continues to hold on to the belief that he is on the correct path. After all, from the perspective of freedom and invention of a self, he was seeking self-discovery and salvation from his constraining life.
Similarly, in the case of Holden, the society in the 1950 expected a 16 year old boy to have access to education for a better future and to achieve the American dream. It was the objective of the society that its youth would get the necessary education (LaFeber, Polenberg and Woloch, 2013). This is the reason his parent would continue paying for private school education for their son, who would always mess up. He got himself suspended from four private schools and felt that the answer was in escaping, just like Rabbit. Probably, for Holden, the answer in inventing as self was founded on something else that was not private school education, probably playing football. However, the society did not allow him a choice and this is the reason why he escapes. In his own narration, Holden feels that there are many other children who are constrained by the societal demands put forth by adults and he develops a desire to free them. He envisages himself as protecting thousands of children playing in a big rye field. This lifts his spirit, just by thinking about the possibility of finding himself and achieving freedom for children.
The 1950s America is revealed in the two novels to have had serious demands to conform to the social norms and a form of dissent that resulted from the inability to conform to these norms. The two characters, Rabbit and Holden are typical models of what resulted from the pressures the society placed on its people. It is clear evidence of efforts to find oneself and invent an individuality, regardless of what the society might desire.