Comparative_Study_of_Texts

Comparative Study Of Texts Catcher In The Rye and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Write an essay where you discuss how both John Hughes and J.D. Salinger use language and medium to convey the issues that affect their protagonists in their respective societies. Both ‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger and ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ by John Hughes are texts that discuss key issues about two different time zones. Through the use of language and medium, John Hughes and J.D. Salinger have portrayed issues that surround their central characters, and at the same time entertained their audiences. This use of language and medium is key to engaging their audience and showing us the issues that affected their respective protagonists in that time period. ‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger, is set just after the Second World War, in New York America. The story is a fictional tale revolving around the protagonist, Holden Caulfield and his journey from Pency Prep through to a hospital bed, where it seems he is recounting his story from. His story isn’t straight forward, but full of constant flashbacks and prior experiences. The second text, ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ by John Hughes, is set around the mid 80’s, in Chicago America. This movie covers basically the same issues as ‘Catcher in the Rye’, but through a different medium, and with use of different language techniques. We are taken through a day with Ferris Bueller, where he skips a day of school to hang out with his friends in the city of Chicago. It starts with him putting on a ‘sick’ performance for his parents, and ends with him putting on performance for his parents where he pretends to be ‘recuperating’. Materialism is a value represented in both texts that has been illustrated to its fullest by the use of its language and medium. We see this issue through the eyes of Holden and what his take is on it. Salinger’s character Holden has been made to be quite a chatty person, who actually has a lot to say on various things, and Salinger uses the form of a book to completely illustrate his character to the best of his ability. When Holden meets the nuns and starts having a chat, they believe he is quite nice and good company ‘You’re a very sweet boy’, ‘We’ve enjoyed talking to you so much’, but throughout their whole chat Holden kept thinking about their non-leather suitcases, ‘I hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases’ and their small breakfasts ‘I hate it if…somebody else is only eating toast and coffee’. In this short passage Salinger has shown us people judge others on materialistic possessions and the quality of their belongings, the materialistic need of people has been especially highlighted by the use of nuns in this passage, who are not meant to have extremely valuable possessions, but are still not exempt from a materialistic judgment. We learn quite a bit about Holden when he goes to visit Mr. Spencer. When Mrs. Spencer answers the door, before he says any greeting he tells the reader ‘They don’t have a maid or anything…They didn’t have too much dough’. Salinger has portrayed the materialistic values of the upper class society in 50’s America by showing us that people believe that because of the absence of a certain luxury, that they are instantly poorer than you. In the first example had this been in a different medium such as a movie, it would’ve been difficult for Holden to detail his distaste for cheap suitcases as well as the personal embarrassment he feels when eating more than others, also in the second example it would’ve been hard to even portray the concept of materialism without Holden’s commentary in the book. Hughes in the appropriated text ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ breaks the fourth wall so that Ferris can at certain points narrate the movie as Holden does the text. When Ferris has to go pick up Sloane in the Ferrari he blames it on Cameron ‘if you hadn’t told him to come out with her we wouldn’t have to use your dad’s car’, secretly Ferris wants to drive the Ferrari instead of the ‘Shitbox’ Cameron owns, which we notice by his constant glances at the camera. Hughes has broken the fourth wall here to demonstrate to the audience that in today’s modern day society we are willing to lie and manipulate others, even our supposed closest of friends so that we can get better and more aesthetically pleasing goods. When Cameron tells Ferris that he didn’t like the day, he instantly has a look of shock on his face and announces that ‘You’ve seen the tallest building, priceless works of art, eaten at the best restaurant’. Hughes has portrayed Ferris as being a very materialistic person, who if told something is very expensive, will believe it is extremely valuable. This is a reflection on today’s modern society, where more expensive is seen to be better. Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren and Nike are some of the most expensive brands in the world, and because of this it is seen as more valuable. Hughes has shown us how we should appreciate things for what they are, and that the most expensive isn’t always the best. Both composers have incorporated materialism in their texts to help create their character; in ‘Catcher In The Rye’ Holden has been portrayed as being quite materialistically orientated, judging those aesthetically, and in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ Ferris is seen as manipulative and opportunistic of those around him The education system is another value that benefits from the composers choice of medium and language. In ‘Catcher In The Rye’ Holden is portrayed as a character who sees the schooling system negatively and has a general contempt for it. ‘They kicked me out’, ‘I’ve left school and places’ and ‘This is about the fourth school’, all show how careless Holden is with school, Salinger has specifically used the word ‘about’ to show that even Holden isn’t sure about how many schools he has gone to, and just reinforces the idea that he just does not care about his education. Stradlater asks Holden to ‘do me a big favour'’ the favour being he writes a descriptive essay for him, with the incentive of payment. Salinger shows us that even at the grass root levels, there is a form of corruption, and that money and bribery in general can get you anywhere you want. Salinger is in fact using the school system as a microcosm of normal American life, full of people who fail, succeed, cheat and play fair. Ferris is in a slightly different situation as he is in the public system as opposed to Holden’s’ private system. ‘It’s a bit childish and stupid, but so is high school’, ‘I need to graduate so I can get into college’ Hughes has portrayed Ferris as being manipulative of everyone and everything e.g. Cameron as a right hand man, parents as a source of materialistic goods and school as a stepping stone to college. ‘Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, Bueller’ is a highly famous quote from the movie. Hughes has shown that the American education is boring and monotonous and needs people like Ferris so that other students look forward to going to school. In both texts the composers have portrayed the education system, but in slightly different ways. In ‘Catcher In The Rye’ the education is seen as unconquerable unless you can buy your way, while in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ it is portrayed as a system that should be twisted and manipulated so that you can get the most out of it, as by itself it accomplishes nothing. Both of the texts ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ have used their specific types of language and medium to their fullest extent so that issues surrounding their protagonists and their time period are easily understandable for the audience.