Persuasive Writing Assignment Essay

Rebellion is when one refuses to accept authority. The transition of childhood into adulthood is most often represented by actions of rebellious nature. The average teen is always looking for away to escape conformity. Two pieces of work that express a common theme of rebellion and conformity are, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and the movie Conspiracy Theory starting Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. Both pieces express this common theme of rebellious and conformity in a society that simply won’t allow it. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye the main character, Holden Caulfield, goes through many hardships in trying to search for his place in society. Holden rebels throughout the whole book against rules, schools, and people that he encountered. An example of Holden’s external conflict with conformity was on his date with Sally. At the end of their date, Holden shares a dream of running away with her to escape the normalcy in everyday society, â€Å"I have about a hundred and eighty bucks in the bank. I can take it out when it opens in the morning, and then I could go down and get this guy’s car. No kidding. We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out,† (Page 132). How the movie Conspiracy Theory is related to The Catcher in the Rye, is that the movie’s main character Jerry Fletcher is a New York City Taxi driver who is always telling people that a list events trigged in the world are done by Government conspiracies but he never seems to get anywhere with his theories. However one of the conspiracies comes true and the CIA is trying to shut Jerry up before he does anymore damage. Now the reason why these two are connected is because, in both cases each character are trying to achieve being different and don’t want to be tied down by what other people tell them to do. In Jerry’s case he is trying to tell the truth about these theories to the general public and try to raise awareness about it before it’s too late. In Holden’s case, he feels that he needs to escape this sort of normalcy that exists in his society. The example of running away and living in the country has everything to do with conformity. The external conflict that both characters face have to do with making sure they don’t fall into the trap that society has set out of them and to try and achieve the impossible in a impossible world. Both Jerry and Holden always fee that they are being alienated in society and both are trying to find a purpose in life.