Subject: Flowers for Algernon and CITR
From: Graham Preston (gpreston@mail.com)
Date: Sun Apr 08 2001 - 21:15:26 GMT
Hello all,
I recently (just an hour ago actually) read "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel
Keyes (the novel, not the short story) and, as usual, found myself drawing
parallels to Catcher. (*A digression: I guess that's just a consequence of
being affected by Salinger's works first*) I was especially struck by
"Flowers'" obsession with psychology as a means of explaining all of
Charlie's problems, and how this is in stark contrasts to CITR's
"laissez-faire" attitude to psych e.g. Holden's scene with Lane in the bar.
Perhaps the largest difference between the novels were the characters
Charlie and Holden. Charlie is 32 years old, while Holden is 16. Charlie
is at first a "mentally-retarded" individual, while Holden is quite
intelligent. But as Charlie begins to grow more intelligent he also grows
up emotionally - eventually growing through an emotional adolesence in only
a few months. And in these months he engages in struggles that every
adolescent, Holden included, deals with - sex, alcohol, parents, and - most
of all - love. CITR traces these steps with Holden's adventures and they
match Charlie's misteps almost perfectly: Holden, Sunny the prostiute, and
Maurice the pimp/elevator boy compares well with Charlie's encounter in
Central Park with the preganant lady, and a later throwaway line about
giving a guy 10 bucks to get a girl. Holden's platonic fixation with Jane
versus Charlie's devotion to Alice. And all the events take place in
Manhattan for both stories on the most part.
Anyone else see these connections? Or am I losing my mind? =)
Good luck - Holden would hate this but oh well - on exams people (Writing
and grading)!
Graham
Go Mets!
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Thu May 17 2001 - 17:47:53 GMT