A Comparison of Coincidence Through the Characters of Donnie Darko from the Movie, Donnie Darko and Holden Caulfield from the Novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
One of the most endlessly interesting events in human life is that of a coincidence. When two entities represent a coincidence, the intrigue that ensues can be boundless. The comparisons that can be made between Donnie Darko from the movie Donnie Darko and Holden Caulfield from The Catcher and the Rve by J.D. Salinger may easily be described as such. The comparisons that can be made between the two are surprisingly many, despite their complete lack of actual connection.
Donnie Darko and Holden Caulfield both deal with a typical amount of teenage stress. They both struggle with sexual tension and are confused with their purpose in life. Holden Caulfield consistently throughout the book shows his lack of understanding towards the opposite sex, especially when he describes his various past interactions with both Jane Gallagher and Sally Hayes. Donnie shows very similar desire and confusion when he admits to his therapist that he thinks consistently about women. Both of these characters have ideal girlfriends though in Holden's case, the ideal girlfriend is never actually met in the book, While Donnie's significantly impacts his growth and is a main character that is met in the movie. Their parents both don't understand how to deal with the child in both Donnie and Holden's cases. Holden's parents constantly send him away from home in hopes that he will have a marvelous revelation and start trying in school, while Donnie's parents hire a therapist to figure out their son for them, and they blindly follow the therapist's orders to simply give Donnie more and more medication despite his worsening signs of schizophrenia.
They both find phoniness in the world around them and absolutely despise it. For Donnie it was Mr. Cunningham and for Holden it was everything that interacted with him. These however are not the major similarities between them. These aspects simply allow for the unfolding of the true meaning behind both the movie and the book. Each character lacks a purpose in life. Donnie expresses that he doesn't know what he wants to be and neither does Holden. They both seek out that purpose (though unknowingly) through means of lots of mischief of many kinds. It is only until an event in both the movie and the book that they finally find that purpose. It is debatable when each one of them finds this purpose as the true persona within them is made unknown to the reader (though through different means).
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Donnie Darko and Holden Caulfield are both very troubled teens without the proper help they desire to really aid them. Holden wanders and attempts to find social interaction and fulfill his desire for a partner, He simply lacks a purpose and because of this is acceptant of death. Donnie however does not know what he wants to become (as far as a profession goes) and accepts himself as a social outcast. This is evident by him talking to his mother and feeling sorry that she has to deal with her son being a "weirdo". The interesting thing about this lack of purpose that the characters feel is that of how they find that purpose and is the most evident difference between the two masterpieces. This difference is that of the quote Mr. Antolini gave to Holden.
The quote stated that "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one". This is the quote that has some of the most impactful meaning in The Catcher in the Rye. This basically states that one should not die nobly but instead live humbly. The conclusion that each character reaches about how to carry out their actions is exactly opposite despite their easily identifiably similarities. Where Holden starts out feeling acceptive of his desire for death, which is evident by his mentioning in the park that his only reason for not committing suicide would be because he would look gory in his death. Donnie however does the exact opposite. He starts out feeling that death is something to be feared, but eventually he reaches the opposite conclusion and is acceptive of dying. Though the conclusion they reach is different they both find a much higher sense of maturity at the end. The impulsiveness is still intact. They still are teenagers with emotional flaws, but they reach a conclusion about death and reach a conclusion about what they need to do with their lives. This conclusion that each character reaches shows a very similar pathway. Both of them eventually find someone to help them with their problem along the way, though it wasn't necessarily their intent to use them to fix their own psychological problems. Phoebe and Mr. Antolini are this for Holden, while Gretchen is that for Donnie.
The characters are also portrayed in a less biased form due to the story not being told from the perspective of the main character. Holden skews the things that he informs the reader about due to his own disgust with the things around him, which makes more characters from the book dislikeable. Despite this both Donnie Darko and The Catcher and the Rye portray society interestingly. Donnie Darko calls out the people of the world to follow false idols by making out Mr. Cunningham to be very fake and the cult-like followers are nothing but laughable in the movie. Donnie's discontent towards this goes along with the theme from The Catcher in the Rye which is that of Salinger's discontent with society.
The amount of comparisons that are possible within these two works of literature is quite vast. It is absolutely amazing that these works had virtually no connection to one another and yet contained such alike but standalone characters. Holden Caulfield and Donnie Darko's similarities can easily be considered a phenomenon of great intrigue. The power held within these two legendary works is as vast as the likeness between Holden Caulfield and Donnie Darko.
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A Comparison of Coincidence Through the Characters of Donnie Darko from the Movie, Donnie Darko and Holden Caulfield from the Novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. (2023, Feb 25). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/a-comparison-of-coincidence-through-the-characters-of-donnie-darko-from-the-movie-donnie-darko-and-holden-caulfield-from-the-novel-the-catcher-in-the-rye-by-j-d-salinger/
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