Compare Oliver Twist and The Catcher in the Rye exploring how the authors portray the main characters and the dangers they face. How do their narrative styles differ?

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Compare Oliver Twist and The Catcher in the Rye exploring how the authors portray the main characters and the dangers they face. How do their narrative styles differ?

Oliver Twist was written by Charles Dickens and published between 1837 and 1838 in a monthly magazine called “Bentleys Miscellany”. It was published in parts of 3 or 4 chapters every month. It was written about a poor, 9-year-old boy who has to survive in a harsh, Victorian England. Using Oliver Charles Dickens often criticises Victorian society, especially the poor laws. Oliver also has to survive losing his innocence on the mean streets of London and this is where the first similarity with the Catcher in the Rye comes in. Written by J.D Salinger and published between 1945 and 1946 the book is about a 16-year-old boy who is stuck between childhood innocence and adult corruption. All through the book he can’t stop thinking about how children start innocent but as they see more of the world, they lose that innocence to adulthood.

In Dickens’ book Oliver is portrayed as the young, innocent little boy caught up in the dark underbelly of Victorian London. He has to try and simply stay alive in the book at times such as when he is shot and when he has to walk to London with almost no food. He never comes to be corrupted himself though and really only used as a tool to look around at the kind of society the poor had to live in. He really represents all poor people of the time, and is merely pointing out all the things wrong with they way people viewed the poor and also some of the laws that were made to “help” them. He may also be used to look at the way moral values in Victorian times were changing by using his innocence to show how they are struggling to stay good with the huge changes going on around them.

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Because of this Oliver is really quite a 2D character with no real depth. He is simply at the mercy of fate and can’t control what is going on around him. Victorian novels were often like this as they were great believers in fate, this may explain Olivers blandness.

This is in stark contrast to Holden Caufield, a very confused 16 year old. Holden is a much, much deeper character than Oliver. He is constantly thinking for himself and doing his own thing and rarely does another lead him. Holden, like Oliver has to travel into the mean city ...

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