Death and Maturity

1. Death plays an important motif in some stories we read. Do the characters welcome death? Or do they try to escape from it? Or, even, do they try to fight against it? Please use 2 examples to describe how death, or the idea of death, has influenced the characters.

People may encounter the same issue death but react in completely different ways. Its impact on a person's psychological state of mind may be extremely strong (as in Catcher in the Rye), it may be dismissed without any regards (as the death of Tessie Hutchinson in The Lottery), or it may even be embraced by characters as a form of raising emotions to a higher level (as in Porphyria's Lover.)

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden is greatly influenced by Allie's death and mentions it several times explicitly. When he was informed of Allie's death, he responded by hurting his hand, because there was no other way to release the great psychological pain but through physical pain in exchange. This and Phoebe's annoyed remark that Holden never stopped talking about Allie make me believe that Holden never really confronted his fear that Allie was lost to him forever. In response to this anxiety and bewilderment, Holden kept searching for something that would not disappear, something that could be preserved and stayed the same. His interest toward the exhibitions in the museum, his questions about the ducks in Central Park, and his longing for protecting childlike innocence can more or less be traced back to this denial of Allie's death.

In contrast, Porphyria's Lover depicts a woman that the speaker claims to welcome death. Seeing death as an end to "vainer ties" and the sanctuary for ultimate perfection of love, death is not feared or resisted but (to some point) voluntarily sought for. Porphyria's Lover executes her with passion and looks back upon it as euphoric with no regrets, which is (though erratic) more uplifting to read.

These passages restate that death may have varied features when observed from different aspects. This causes people to face and respond to death according to what it means to them.

2. Bildungsroman means "a novel of someone's growth from childhood to maturity." Please compare Holden and the unnamed character in "Araby" and explain how they grow from childhood to maturity successfully or not.

It is difficult to define what it means to grow from childhood