The 1950s were a time of angst, isolation, and confusion in juvenile Americans. Stand by Me, Catcher in the Rye, and Rebel Without a Cause all demonstrate juvenile loss of innocence, division between parents and children, and the spiritual aspect of the American dream during the 1950s.
The 1986 classic Stand by Me follows four teenage boys on an adventure to find a dead body. Gordie Lachance is the main protagonist; he is twelve years old and neglected by his parents, who are still mourning the death of Gordie’s older brother, Denny. Gordie’s three friends include Chris Chambers, who comes from a bad family and is destined to turn out bad, Teddy Duchamp, who has an abusive father, and Vern Tessio, whose brother was the first to find the dead body.
When the four boys make a plan to go searching for the dead body, Chris, Teddy, and Vern are excited, but Gordie does not share his friend’s enthusiasm. For Gordie, finding the dead body is a way to finally come to terms with his brother’s death; for the other three boys, it is a way to prove themselves to the adults in their lives. One scene that demonstrates Gordie’s isolation at home occurs when he continuously asks his mother where his canteen is; she ignores him, continuing to do laundry, not even realizing that he is speaking to her. When Gordie finds his canteen in his brother’s room, he has a flashback to a touching moment between him and Denny. The flashback is abruptly halted when Gordie’s father walks in and asks him “Why can’t you have friends like Denny did?” He then describes Gordie’s friends as being “a thief and two feebs.” Gordie’s father, along with the rest of the adults in their lives, believes that Chris, Teddy, and Vern are no good. Gordie’s parents constantly compare him to his older brother Denny and put down his friends, making it harder for him to connect with his parents and easier for him to connect with his friends.
Gordie is a very gifted writer, which is a gift that everyone, except for his brother and Chris, ignores. When Chris encourages Gordie to take college classes so that he can follow his passion for writing, Gordie lashes out on him stating, “I don’t want to be a writer. It’s stupid. It’s a stupid waste of time.” Chris responds, “That’s your dad talking.” Chris notes that Gordie is repressing his American dream because his father does not want him to be a writer. He then states that he wishes he was Gordie’s father because if he were, Gordie would not be considering taking shop courses instead of his college courses. Chris acts as a father figure to Gordie, who finds comfort and solace in his friends following his brother’s death. He resents the idea of taking college courses because he knows that it will isolate him from his friends, leaving him completely alone. When the boys finally make camp for the night and go to bed, Gordie is awoken by a nightmare of his father telling him “it should’ve been you” referring to Denny’s death.
Chris’ American dream is to prove wrong the people that believe he will ultimately end up bad because of his family. When Gordie mentions that Chris could take college courses too, he states that no one would let him because they all think of him as “one of those lowlife Chamber kids.” He then explains how upset he was at being suspended from school. Chris was suspended because he stole the school’s milk money, not because he wanted to, but because he was expected to. When he became guilty and tried returning the money, his teacher used it to buy herself a new suit. He explains to Gordie that even if he tried to tell someone that story, they wouldn’t believe him because he’s nothing more than a kid brother to Eyeball Chambers. Deep down, Chris is a good kid whose dream is to succeed in life. His American dream is to make the adults in his life see him not as a punk, but as the intelligent, caring, boy that he is.
One of the most important scenes in the film occurs when the four boys reach a bridge. They must decide whether to cross the bridge or walk an extra five miles to go around the bridge. This entire film represents the journey of childhood into adulthood, thus making the train tracks a symbol of the journey from one stage of life to another. The bridge, as well as the tracks in general, demonstrate that the path towards adulthood can be adventurous, dangerous, and downright scary. When the boys are about halfway across the tracks, a train comes along, forcing them to run. In this instance, the train symbolizes the trauma that the boys have experienced that have ultimately forced them to grow up quicker than average boys their age.
When the boys get close to finding the body, they again are forced to make a decision regarding the direction they take. They can either walk the train tracks or cross a field into a forest and ultimately decide to walk through the field. By choosing this path rather than the tracks, this shows that the boys desire to make their own destinies rather than follow the path that has already been paved for them by their family members, community members, and society itself. When the boys finally find the dead body, Gordie decides that they will not take credit for finding it, as that is not the way to prove themselves to their community. They report the body anonymously and return back home. Gordie and Chris say goodbye to the other boys and go on to discuss their futures. When Chris states that he is never going to get out of Castle Rock, Gordie tells him, “You can do anything you want, man.” Both boys believe in the American dream and their abilities to capture it. In the end, when Gordie becomes a writer, and Chris becomes a lawyer, both boys captured their American dreams.
J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye depicts the life of Holden Caulfield as he struggles to go from childhood to adulthood and achieve his American dream. Holden Caulfield is a sixteen-year-old boy that has just been expelled from Pencey Prep. He is terrified of growing up and believes the adult world is full of hypocrites and phonies. Like Gordie and Chris, Holden is not in search of the material aspect of the American dream, but the spiritual aspect. We learn that he is uninterested in material wealth in a conversation he has with Sally. He asks her if she ever gets fed up, and then goes on to explain his dislike for living in New York City. He states, “Well I hate it. Boy, do I hate it…I hate living in New York and all. Taxicabs and Madison Avenue buses, with the drivers that yell at you to get out at the rear door, and being introduced to phony guys that call the Lunts angels, and going up and down in elevators when you just want to go outside, and guys fitting your pants all the time at Brooks” (Salinger, 168). Holden acknowledges the phoniness of New York, the adults in it, and their desires for material items such as cars, suitcases, and suits. He then goes on to discuss the phoniness of boy’s schools and how all of the boys stick with members of their communities. What Holden longs in life is acceptance; he feels isolated by everyone that he meets, including his parents who continue to send him off to prep school after prep school where he inevitably gets kicked out.
Like Gordie, Holden was forced to grow up following the death of his brother. He is, just as Gordie was, still coming to terms with the death, and needs something to help him. Holden searches for ducks in the pond in the same way that Gordie searched for the dead body. Several times throughout the novel, Holden comments that his mother had never gotten over Allie’s death, and continues to neglect him just as she had when Allie was sick. This is very similar to Gordie believing he was the “invisible child” to his parents following his brother Denny’s death. Because his brother Allie died at such a young age, Holden feels responsible to be “the catcher in the rye.” He is fascinated by the innocence of children and wishes to protect children from the corruption of adulthood; this is evident when he visits Phoebe at home. Holden watches Phoebe sleep and states that adults look lousy when they sleep, but children look alright. He also states that he could read a child’s notebook all day or night long and finds relief from the outside adult world in Phoebe’s childish things. He informs her that what he desires in life is to “catch” children as they fall from childhood to adulthood, something that Holden wished someone had done for him.
New York City acts as a very important character in this novel. New York City is the largest city in the United States; it is chaotic, bustling, and filled with consumerism and material goods. The character of New York City allows for Holden’s loneliness and confusion about becoming an adult to be enhanced and understood by the reader.
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