J.D. Salinger's TheCatcher in the Rye can be compared to Cervantes' Don Quixote. Both novels feature naive protagonists pining for an ideal world. In Salinger's novel, Holden Caulfield is a sixteen year old who experiences challenging and questionable events in the mid-stage of his adolescence. Holden wants to protect the innocent children like "the catcher in the rye" from the immorality and corruptness of the "phony" adult world. In Cervantes work, Don Quixote is the idealistic protagonist who sets out to transform the world in accordance to his medieval vision. His growing obsession with stories of knighthood and books of...
the novel, he learned to integrate inner goodness without resorting to costumes and a life of fantasy.

In conclusion, the The Catcher in the Rye and Don Quixote present main characters who wish to rebuild society in accordance to their idealistic views. In Salinger's novel, Holden, learning that all children must mature, crosses over a line of innocence to experience. In addition, in Cervantes' novel, Don Quixote fails at the herculean task of rebuilding society. The novel parodied every aspect of knighthood and chivralic romance demonstrating that European society had changed irrevocably since the age of knights and castles.