Parallelism Between Catcher in The Rye and Blackboy

The Parallelism between Black Boy (Part One and Two) and Catcher in the Rye

            The stories Black Boy (Part one and two) and Catcher in the Rye have many similarities which are recognized throughout each of the novels. Some of these similarities are simple and small such as the main characters’ opinions toward God, their desire to read, and their problems toward teachers—though the problems directly towards teaching were different. However, there is one similarity that stood out among the others in these three novels. The main similarity that made these three novels similar is each of the characters’ situation in which they individually have no true friends. Although the desire for friends is completely different from each other characters’ opinion, the recognizable truth is their lack of friends is what makes each of these novels parallel to each other.

            Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a novel that is filled with chapters in which the main character, Holden, tries to find someone to talk to, to listen to, and to respond to. He recognizes his lack of friends and tries desperately to talk to someone. He tries talking to a prostitute, an egocentric intellect, a cab driver, a group of random and egotistical girls, and many other types of people just to find some kind of companion who is there that could have an interesting and intellectual conversation with him. Often in the novel, there are examples that show his desire for friends, but some examples are hidden deeper than others. “She was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls, if you hold hands with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or else they think they have to keep moving their hands all the time, as if they were afraid they’d bore you or something. Jane was different. We’d get into a goddam movie or something, and right away we’d start holding hands, and we won’t quiet till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.” (Salinger 79) Holden tries to protect himself in that quote by saying “you” instead of “I” because putting himself back in that situation with Jane is too painful for him to handle partly because he is remembering the feeling of innocence he had when he played and held hands with Jane and partly because he’s remembering the feeling of intimacy with a person which he no longer has. It is too painful to remember that feeling so therefore he doesn’t say “I” but has to say that it happened to “you” to avoid any more sadness.

            Black Boy (Part one) was written by Richard Wright and was written as an autobiography. Throughout the novel, Richard is, also, without even one true friend. His situation is different in that he is always moving to a different location and can not keep up any sort of relationship outside of the family. Richard goes to school in his earlier years but before he gets a chance to make friends, he ends up getting into fights with other children. There was one occurrence in the story when he was a part of a gang, but unfortunately, they were nothing compared to true friends, and Richard knew it too. Even before school was a part of his life, he was lonely and needed a friend to help him get by the hunger and fear that was a major part of his life when he was young. “My mother arrived one afternoon with the news that we were going to live with her sister in Elaine, Arkansas, and that en route we would visit Granny, who had moved from Natchez to Jackson, Mississippi. As the words fell from my mother’s lips, a long and heavy anxiety fell from me. Excited, I rushed about and gathered my ragged clothes. I was leaving the hated home, hunger, fear, leaving the days that had been as dark and lonely as death.” (Wright 36) Using a very descriptive simile, Wright confronts the reader by describing his dreadful situation of being without a friend and how it has made him eager to start anew in a place where, he thinks, his expectations will be fulfilled.

            The second part of Black Boy is an extension of part one. Part one explains and describes Wright’s life in Chicago as an adult. Many things change as the story progresses such as his occupation, his contributions to the Communist party, and his life as an citizen (he moved from being in a city where he was spat at because of his race, to a city where race was not as big of a deal). Although there were many changes throughout the novel, one thing that doesn’t change is his loneliness. In Black Boy, co-workers are included but they are not friends by any means. Joining the Communist party may have been a plea for friends in a way as well. If so, it backfired because after he began working on a project with another African American member named Ross, he is accused by many other members for working for the police. Slowly, he begins to lose the trust and any possible relationship with others in the Party by working on the project. By quitting the group, he wishes to be rid of all the people of the party that ever hated him so he could start anew and one day make a friend. “I turned to the Negro Communist who had invited me into the ranks. I did not want public violence. I looked at my friend. He turned his eyes away. He was afraid. I did not know what to do. ‘You asked me to march here,’ I said to him. He did not answer. ‘Tell him that you did invite me,’ I said pulling on his sleeve. ‘I’m asking you for the last time to get out of our ranks!’ Cy Perry shouted.” (Wright 380) Richard did not have a true friend to stand by him and for the first time, he was afraid to be without one.

            Catcher in the Rye, Black Boy (Part one), and Black Boy (Part two) were all parallel to each other through many different ways and experiences that occurred in their lives pertaining to the need for a friend. In each novel, the need for a friend was either the reason or one of the main reasons that led the main character to despair. Wright and Salinger both portrayed concise descriptions of loneliness throughout their novels that sent a plea for friendship and an ache for a companion. The characters from all three novels were aware of their individual loneliness and in the end, they each became regretful of how they lived their lives without any true friends.