Fighting Fate and Rewriting Destiny - Essay Example

Fighting Fate and Rewriting Destiny Throughout life, we realize that many of the realities we come to face are very harsh. You can never know what to expect and because of this, you never know what you’ll end up being happy with. Many of us face unhappiness at different points in our life; it is how we deal with this unhappiness that makes a difference. While some accept this unhappiness and move forward, others dwell on it and try to fight it. Two characters who do this are Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and Blanche DuBois of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.

Instead of dealing with the harsh realities of life, these two characters chose to live in alternate realities to avoid coming to grips with the truth. The characters Blanche DuBois and Holden Caulfield parallel each other in many important ways. First off, it is important to note the fragile mental state of each character. At the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, we learn that Holden is telling his story from a mental institution. While a specific mental illness is not mentioned, it becomes clear throughout the novel that Holden is out of touch with reality.

Likewise, Blanche DuBois is going through the deterioration of her mental state throughout A Streetcar Named Desire. Both are also going through hard times, which may actually worsen these fragile mental states. In Holden’s case, he has been kicked out of yet another school and doesn’t know how to tell his parents of his most recent failure. In Blanche’s case, she is forced to move in with her sister, Stella, and her sister’s husband, Stanley after she suffers through financial hardship and the ruination of her reputation in her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi.

Both these situations put these characters face to face with harsh realities, the consequences of avoidable actions. In the face of the difficulties they struggle through, both Blanche and Holden opt to turn to their respective fantasy worlds, where they are can control their own fate. Blanche lives in a world where she can be an aristocrat living in luxury without a care in the world. She refuses to believe that her life is what it has become. She refuses to accept her role in her ex-husband’s suicide, how her affair with a student cost her her job, and that she has lost her family’s estate due to financial issues.

It appears that Blanche believes that if she lies and says she leads the life she actually wants to lead, that she will eventually make her dream come true. Blanche admits this later in the play, when she says “I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic… I don't tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!” (Williams, 117). Holden also tries to lead a different life than the one he realistically must face. Simply put, Holden fears change.

The idea of growing up and becoming a “phony” adult terrifies him. He is, instead, infatuated with the innocence and simplicity in childhood. He yearns for things to stay the same, without complication. We see this best when Holden wanders the Museum of Natural History, examining the various exhibits and focusing on that of the Eskimos. He remarked “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish…Nobody’d be different.

The only thing that would be different would be you.” (Salinger, 217-218). Here, we see the life Holden aspires for. He wants to be frozen in time, untouched by the outside world and able to exist consistently for as long as humanly possible. The reality is that both Blanche and Holden were trying to fight their respective destinies. No matter how many lies Blanche told, the life she made up for herself would not be the life she actually led. Likewise, Holden could not forever be a part of the innocence of childhood that he so adored.

He, too, would have to grow up and be complicated. It is the belief that one can fight fate and rewrite their destiny that links Holden Caulfield and Blanche DuBois. Works Cited Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown, & Co. 1999. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York. Penguin. 1975.