Adolescence in "The Catcher in the Rye" and "Vernon God Little" - A comparison

The term “adolescence” describes the phase of life between late childhood and adulthood. It contains not only the physical maturation but particularly the psychological and mental development from a child to an autonomous, responsible adult. Also literature has ever and anon created adolescent protagonists who have to deal with typical problems of coming of age. A prime example for such a novel of initiation is “The Catcher in the Rye”. This novel nearly fulfils all aspects a novel of initiation has to deal with. Although “The Catcher in the Rye” was published sixty years ago, it still finds general approval to people all over the world. Another very successful novel of initiation is DBC Pierre‟s “Vernon God Little” which was written in 2003 and won the Man Booker Prize in the same year. The Daily Mail described the 15-year old protagonist Vernon Gregory Little as “one of the most engaging narrators since Catcher in the Rye ́s Holden Caulfield”1 and Sam Sifton from the New York Times says that Vernon Gregory Little is a “Holden Caulfield on Ritalin”2. There is no doubt that these two novels have considerable similarities: In both novels, the main character is a male adolescent who tells his story as a first person narrator. Both stories have their sets in the United States and both deal with issues concerning adolescence. I want to research which further similarities these two books have, in particular concerning adolescence. Therefore I am going to take a deeper look into typical issues these two adolescents have to deal with. First of all, I am going to give a short overview about the plot to the reader so the reader understands further issues of my work. Then, I will examine typical signs for adolescence like external and internal conflicts and language use of the protagonists of “Vernon God Little” and “The Catcher in the Rye” as well as the historical context of these two books. I am going to examine all these aspects in order to find out how the two novels explore the problems associated with adolescence and the narrators‟ messages regarding society.