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The American Quest for Identity: Theme and Form in the Catcher in the Rye, Invisible Man and Slaughterhouse Five



Author(s)

Abdulaziz H. AlAbdullah

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2014.02.001

Kuwait University

American society went through some especially speedy and drastic changes, after the World War II. Its transformation into a significant superpower as well as the horrors of the recent conflict is reflected in specific American novels and in the writing of certain elite novelists. They focus on human loss and a consequent search for identity and problematic belonging in a world of prejudice and hostility. This search for identity and aspiration to conformity with the new change is among of the main features of Salinger’s the Catcher in the Rye, Ellison’s Invisible Man and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. The paper focuses on certain similarities in theme and form which link these three novels and examines the extent of presentation of the style of narration set in motion by all three writers.

identity, theme, form, the Catcher in the Rye, Invisible Man, Slaughterhouse Five