Compare/Contrast #1 Holden and Florentino

To answer your question Sasha, yes I have found at least one similarity between these characters. As I was reading your first compare and contrast post, I started thinking about the protagonists and Antagonists of each story. I then realized that the antagonists in both stories were the protagonists themselves. 

In Catcher in the Rye, Holden’s antagonists are himself and the “phonies” that he always mentions. Holden is his own enemy because he does not open up to other people and meet with them normally. He is making himself get expelled at multiple schools because of his unwillingness to apply himself in school and invest in the future. He only got into a depressive mode because he chose to feel sorry for himself when he was failing. He held himself in and the only time he felt happy was when he stopped being his own enemy and looked at his sister from a different perspective.

In Comparison, in Love in the Time of Cholera, Florentino was also his own enemy as he had no real enemies. He was defeating himself for not being able to find a stable relationship. Throughout the whole book he was criticizing himself, like holden, for not going on and finding a new partner. In Holden’s case he really wanted to go out with Jane, but he just couldn’t even call her. In Florentino’s case he wanted to be with Fermina so bad that he would not let go and he made himself feel bad for doing so. Florentino also criticized himself for sleeping with so many women because he knew that it was wrong, but he still kept doing it.


Sasha, What similarities can you find between the two characters even thought they are so different?