Wealth’s Role on Characters from“Wolf” and “Catcher”

An Analysis of Wealth’s Role on Characters from“Wolf” and “Catcher”

Regardless of the fact of setting against backgrounds from two different eras, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Catcher in the Rye jointly probe into the theme of human’s mentalities deeply affected by a society prioritizing on materialism and possessions of external rights. The Wolf of Wall Street, as one 2013 crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, primarily recalls Jordan Belfort’s career history as a stockbroker through relentlessly accumulating personal wealth and throwing his company into financial deceptions. Relying on the unbound nature of money transactions in Wall Street, the movie centers on Belfort, the protagonist, and his partners’ lavish and compulsive lifestyles as they climb the ladder of prosperity. From the other side, The Catcher in the Rye is a post-World War II literary fiction focusing on the teenage alienation and rebellion greatly influenced by hypocritical and superficial behaviors in the adult world. It is inarguable that “Catcher” and “Wolf” overlap with significant similarities during their portrayals of anti-hero human traits shaped by worldly enjoyments and spiritual vacuum. However, while “Wolf” mainly depicts characters’ bottomless ambitions and addictions to pleasures, “Catcher” explores the commercial age’s adverse effects that erode human’s innocence and isolate souls eager for understandings.

 There is no question that the element of unconventional heroic efforts, which are announced by Belfort and “Catcher”s male character, Holden, as means of confronting mainstream conceptions and stereotypes, is given exceptionally full expressions in both works. In The Wolf of Wall Street, via excessive displays of dirty tricks, money launderings, and aggressive social interactions, examples that illustrate people’s spirits of revolt and inventions are everywhere. The director, Martin Scorsese, remarkably draws experience from his old creations by arranging a horribly motivated and cruel group, which, according to one film critic, are “gangsters with fountain pens (Matt Zoller Seitz December 2013)” that always project themselves as potential millionaires capable of “rule the world.” Brainwashed by Belfort’s training over selling and deceiving techniques, every employee on the boat shares the mentality as an unstoppable senior vice president, a title given to Donnie, who collaborates with Belfort as his founding partner. Belfort, as one most qualified spokesman of the Wall Street fabric loaded with big bucks and keen financial heads, embodies the richest possibilities of violating constraints made by legislations and laws of the United States. At the starting scene, his greeting words that “I gamble like a degenerate, drink like a fish”, and that “three different federal agencies are looking to indict me” unfolds a brain craving for breaking rules of tradition and functioning as a predator of profits. “Wolf”s presentation of an unusual rule-breaker, when translated into the language of The Catcher in the Rye, is what readers are allowed to see in the enigmatic mind of Holden, who is surrounded by anxious beings longing for conformity in society. Without any question, “Catcher”s widespread recognition gained as one literature classic comes from the representation of Holden’s rebellious personality with which teenagers from generations identify. Released in 1951, a time historically referred to as “age of loneliness”, the novel adopts a sarcastic tone to manifest a social condition of impetuous minds and excessive emphasis on material chase and privileges. Through giving odd behaviors largely unacceptable by his teachers and relatives, the teenage protagonist turns to become a brave and inspiring hero who protests against those superficial values and worshippers of rules and powers. His claim that “I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (chapter 22 J.D. Salinger) serves as the most visible example of his call for goodness, honesty, and innocence, which are apparently missing in people he encounters. Besides, Holden’s frequent mentions of his “red hunting hat”, something “with the peak around to the back”(chapter 22 J.D. Salinger), can be seen as a symbolization of his hidden determination to become an independent leader preventing more children from falling into moral deterioration and hypocrisy.

In dealing with commercial society’s impacts on people’s mindsets, a striking difference lies in two extreme depicting angles taken by two works, with “Wolf” stressing excess and addiction, and “Catcher” concentrating on harms and confusions from an acute victim (Eero Helenius May 2014). By taking full advantage of the unique narrative style and DiCaprio’s exuberant acting, Martin Scorsese showcases Belfort’s progression into a swaggering master who ascends himself to the top of the hierarchy and expresses bottomless appetite for not only money but drugs and hookers. Controversial scenes featuring sexual content and displays of decadent activities of indulgence and wastes, which are criticized by some as conscienceless, altogether invites the audience to travel into depths of human’s addiction and compulsion in front of a money-obsessed world. The “pump and dump” method imparted by Belfort to his subordinates, who do their tricks by overstating values of stocks and selling at sky-high profits, perfectly explains the golden surviving rule of many Wall Street exploiters and bankers who make money with money. In a declarative and humorous manner, the film draws its target not at others, but every American citizen who possesses the same addictive quality that could translate into nonstop behaviors in squeezing profits as long as they could avoid severe punishment. One observation that Belfort and his partners are “permanent adolescents (Daniel Palmer 2014)” immersed into a world of cocaine and cash and the fact that no fatal outcome happens to Belfort at the end, indicate the workable nature of similar deeds represented by Stratton Oakmont employees. On the other hand, The Catcher in the Rye, mostly narrating in a calm and ironic tone, reveals a sequence of problems about alienation and depression caused by the corrupt age filled with hypocritical faces and inauthentic situations. In significant episodes, as a 16-year-old teenager from a middle-class family, Holden is seen trying to the build genuine communication with the world through reaching his teacher for life advice, confessing to his sister, and even soliciting a prostitute. Unfortunately, his exposure to groups of people and chains of events that occur on the road prove to be self-destructive efforts spiraling into more severe anguish and loneliness. For example, Holden idea that the industry-oriented Hollywood movies are despicable leads him to compare his brother’s job as a Hollywood writer to “being a prostitute” (chapter 1 J.D. Salinger). Further, his description of the school headmaster as “the phoniest bastard”, who wears “phony smile” in front of parents and makes him so depressed (chapter 1 J.D. Salinger) stands for his aversion to false, pretentious and unrealistic doings. In other words, the increasingly dominant consumerism and corruptive nature of the social environment play as the most powerful enemy that deprives him of life directions, making him eager for emotional intimacy, trust, sincere and pure minds.

With insightful touches on similar topics, “Catcher” and “Wolf” dive deeply into complex consequences of the high pace of economic society on the human psyche. By separately laying focus on an aggressive rule setter and a sufferer whose life is witnessed meeting marginalization, both works succeed in establishing two top “hero” figures whose struggles thoroughly reflect the value system of the audience. Whether in the form of hedonism or utter agony and disappointment at surroundings, “Catcher” and “Wolf” effectively demonstrate tipping points of human’s emotional experience and imaginations, leaving intellectual and spiritual assets for readers to better understand individual and social conflicts.