Throughout J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and Mel Glenn’s Who Killed Mr. Chippendale, characters are in the stage of their lives known as adolescence. Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye’s protagonist, is portrayed by Salinger as a typical adolescent. In addition, Who Killed Mr. Chippendale is a story about high school students shaken by the murder of a teacher. On the contrary, Mike Curry, a student at Tower High, does not appear to be as typical. While these characters share some of the same qualities, Holden surfaces as a typical teenager due to the extreme violence that is demonstrated by Mike Curry.

What is a typical adolescent? Adolescence essentially is portion of life that is connected with the transition period between childhood and adulthood. The term “typical” can be attributed to Holden, as well as Mike Curry from Tower High at times. The word typical is ambiguous because to each individual, a typical adolescent could be portrayed in a different way. A typical adolescent is one, who wants to be independent, gets in a couple fights, uses curse words excessively, interested in sexual activity, and at times acts immature.

Despite the wide generation gap, both Holden and Mike Curry display signs of immaturity through their use of language, and more specifically curse words. In the opening scene Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the reader can tell by Holden’s voice that he is an immature adolescent. When Holden is standing on Thomsen Hill watching the football game, he says, “ You couldn’t see the grandstand too hot, but you could hear them all yelling, deep and terrific on the Pencey side, because practically the whole school except me was there, and scrawny and faggy on the Saxon Hall side” (Salinger 2). This quotation demonstrates Holden’s use of slang words, which solidifies his immaturity. Teens often use this language because they believe it is “cool”. Even the use of these words in 1945, when Salinger published The Catcher in the Rye, are the same today, sixty years later. Holden’s “goddam” voice allows the reader to infer about his immaturity. Holden’s immature ways leads the reader into depicting Holden as a typical adolescent. Analogously, in Glenn’s Who Killed Mr. Chippendale, Mike Curry uses the same type of language. When describing television commercials, he says, “they’re bullshit” (Glenn 45). Much like Holden, Mike Curry uses a curse word in order to be “cool”. Mike Curry could have said that television commercials are phony or fake. These characters’ subtle use of language displayed by both Holden and Mike Curry accentuate their state of adolescence.

While both Holden and Mike Curry partake in violent activities, Holden’s use of violence is at a smaller scale than Mike Curry’s. As a typical adolescent, one is interested by violence and occasionally partakes in low violence activities such as fights, but in Mike Curry’s case, he commits murder. Holden, a typical adolescent in this regard exhibits two specific times where violence is used. While tensions are rising in the dorm room between Stradlater and Holden over Stradlater’s date with Jane, and Holden’s poorly written composition, “ [Holden’s] nose was bleeding all over the place. When [Holden] looked up, old Stradlater was standing practically right on top of [him]” (Salinger 45). This scene is an example of a fight that Holden gets him self into and essentially creates between himself and Stradlater. This type of fight is typical of adolescents due to the low amount of physical damage. Another example of where Holden shows signs of violence is when he gets into a fight with Maurice, the pimp. After Maurice smacks Holden, “ all [he] felt was this terrific punch in [his] stomach” (Salinger 103). In this scene, Holden is again picking a fight, after not giving five dollars to Maurice that he owed for Sunny. Combined with the Stradlater incident, Holden seems to pick fights with others, which points to his adolescence. On the contrast, Mike Curry is involved with a more serious type of violence. At the end of Glenn’s Who Killed Mr. Chippendale, Mike Curry states to Ms. Falcone, the guidance counselor, “I wanna be famous, too, one day. /Maybe like in the movies, one of those guys/who get to climb the outside of building, /or get to shoot hundreds of people” (Glenn 98). In this statement, Mike Curry is essentially confessing that he committed the murder of Mr. Chippendale. The action of murder with a weapon is not considered typical for any adolescent no matter how one defines a typical adolescent. Even though it seems like Mike Curry and Holden are similar, this is one aspect in which they differ.

Despite the differences in violent behavior, both Holden and Mike Curry share the want to be independent, which contributes to being a typical adolescent. Holden’s desire for independence is a characteristic that moves him towards being an adult. Throughout the story, the reader does not meet Holden’s parents because Holden is supposed to be in school, so he is trying to avoid them. The only information that the reader receives is that his parents are “touchy as hell” (Salinger 1). The general plot of the story leans on Holden being independent, because he is wondering around New York City for days. In particular, Holden does not even tell his parents, who are paying for his prep school education, that he was kicked out. This example of independence going to the extreme however. Even though, there is no specific information about Mike Curry and his independence, it can be inferred that he comes from a middle to lower class family, and that he has a job in order to create extra income for his family. This can be inferred because other characters such as, Ahmed Farraj, will “someday return to school” (Glenn 22), because they need to support themselves and their family. The independence of the attendees at Tower High is a reflection on “melting pot” diversity of the town. Both Holden and Mike Curry display the quality of independence, which is an important building block on the road to adulthood.

Even though these characters are generations fifty years apart, the standards for adolescence are the same. Both of these teens are influenced by the surrounding world of adult “phonies”, that tempts them to “fall of the cliff” into adulthood. Given such similarities between Holden and Mike Curry, Holden still emerges as a typical adolescent due to his independence, low amount of violence, and some signs of immaturity.