Opposing Characters In Rebel Without A Cause And Catcher In The Rue
In the society we live in, it’s difficult for people to take responsibility and to accept the thing that they do, when they do bad things, it’s difficult to admit it. The film Rebel Without a Cause, directed by Nicholas Ray, highlights teenager Jim Stark while the novel by JD Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye shows how Holden Caulfield struggling with his problems.
Some people have a difficult time accepting their actions, they have different ways to deal with it in both stories; Holden is a perfect example of how people run away from their problem without taking responsibility and blame others while Jim shows people how he wants to take responsible for what he did. In the novel, Holden is always struggling with his own problems. For example, on the subway, Holden loses his team’s foils, and instead of accepting that he made a mistake, he says, “I had to keep getting up to look at this map so know where to get off. ” Here, Holden shows that he’s immature, not taking responsible and blames something else. Holden finds difficulty to take responsible because he doesn’t want to face the thing he did. In addition, when Holden is back in New York because he’s flunking out of Pencey Prep, he refuses to go home and confront his parents about it in fear of consequences that will result. Holden shows that he is not be responsible for the fact that he flunked out from his school because of failing classes. Holden scared to face the consequences because he knows that his parents going to be mad at him.
Furthermore, Holden and Phoebe argue in her bedroom about his dad will kill him if his dad knows the truth, Holden said that his dad won’t do anything to him, the worst his dad will do is send him to the military school but he will be away, he’ll probably be in Colorado on this ranch. Holden, trying to run away from his problem, he won’t take any responsibility because he’s acting younger than his age, and he isn’t mature yet. Holden should’ve known that the thing he did is wrong and must be responsible for it. Thus, Holden should be responsible for his problem, facing them and not blame anything or anyone else, he will be more mature, and will not be the “phony” that he always blame other people. Throughout the film, Jim shows the viewers that he’s a mature person, and wants to take responsibility for what he did. For example, after he got home from the accident, he told his parents, “I'm in terrible trouble. ” Here, Jim shows that he telling the truth that he just got in an accident and wants to face it. Jim is not scared of the consequence because he’s telling the truth.
In addition, when Jim and his parents in the room, Jim’s mom said that they are moving so Jim couldn’t get in any trouble but Jim doesn’t want it, he wants to go to the police and confess everything. Jim really wants to be responsible for his actions while his parents trying to help him run away from it. Jim wants to face it because he doesn’t want to go around and pretending he’s tough. Furthermore, when Plato holds a gun and hiding in the museum, the police are gathered in front of the museum, convincing Plato to come out while Jim trying to sneak out of the situation with Judy, Jim knows that Plato in danger, he runs back to the museum and helps Plato. Jim was about to run away from it but he thought that he should take responsibility, so he runs back to helps his friend. Jim isn’t only taking responsibility for the things he did, he also taking care of people he knows because he is thinking for people around him not just about himself. Thus, Jim is mature, he is not hiding under his parents’ shadow anymore, he wants to fit in the society and facing his own problems not running away from it anymore.
The Catcher in the Rye and Rebel Without a Cause are two good stories, they shows the two opposing characters. Holden is an immature boy, he always run away from his problems, and blame other people that they are “phony” but he can’t see his own phoniness. Jim is not really mature, he always get in troubles but the mature thing about him is that he knows he is wrong and wants to take responsibility for it. People don’t want to admit the things they did wrong because everyone wants to be right but in reality people should admit their actions to be able to fix it. In my opinion, nobody is perfect, people have mistakes, have done something wrong but if they can face it and fix their mistakes, that’s a good thing. It’s hard to accepting your mistakes and fix it but when you finally fix it, you will feel so much better.
