Portnoy's Complaint/The Catcher in the Rye

902 Words4 Pages
Portnoy’s Complaint/The Catcher in the Rye Research Paper Outline Thesis These authors portray the live of two innocent boys, who constantly find themselves disenchanted with American and religious values, and engulfed in a constant struggle to escape the meaninglessness of life. I. Overview of the American society in the 1950’s • Creation of suburbia Because of the new babies, homes were needed for the bigger families. Therefore many families moved to the Suburbs; this migration is known as the development of Suburbia. To house the new families, mass-production of houses occurred, a technique developed by William J. Levitt. This method was effective, but created a monotonous landscape.http://intranet.dalton.org/ms/8th/students/decades99/Muffins1950/Pages/sc.html • Baby Boom - The dramatic increase, commonly known as the baby boom, had ramifications throughout country, some good, some bad. Family life in the 1950’s was focused on the children, and giving them the best possibilities. number of children increased by 11.2 m illion 0A http://intranet.dalton.org/ms/8th/students/decades99/Muffins1950/Pages/sc.html • Bomb Scare/ Red Scare/ Cold War/ Arms Race • Youth Rebellion (beatniks, hippies) anti-materialistic lifestyle… Roots of Rebellion: the Cold War Conformity Culture leads to a backlash revolt among the youth who seek individuality through rebellion http://www.stegen.k1 2.mo.us/tchrpges/sghs/mruch/The1950s.htm -Non-Conformity Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye portrays Holden as a character who views conformity as evil. Conformist is a word associated with people who dismiss their own ideas and opinions and act the way most others do. In doing so, they believe others will respect them more because they are more like the majority of the population. http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/3747.html
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