Teenage protagonists Esther Greenwood, from Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, and Holden Caulfield, from JD Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye both struggle to forge and maintain normal relationships with others. Although both characters are virgins, they share a concern about sex and losing their virginity, and react almost identically to their first sexual encounters. The characterization of Esther and Holden results in recurring themes in both novels, namely the inability to meet the expectations of others, the inability to interact with others in educational, personal, social and familial environments, and the resulting isolation, despite live in one of the largest cities in the world: New York City. Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, feels out of place among the other young women she lives with in New York City. Her best friend is Doreen, but Esther says that even if she "...looks at her and listens to what she says...deep down," she, "...would have absolutely nothing to do with her." This shows Esther's inability to interact with girls her age, as she is unable to relate to or trust the person she is closest to outside of the group. Esther shows distrust in people, such as her boyfriend Buddy Willard and Doreen, who she believes live "double lives". These people meet social standards on a superficial level and appear to conform according to the dictates of society, but in reality it turns out that there is a double standard, different for men than for women. Esther rejects this double standard, saying she “couldn't bear the idea that a woman must have a single pure life and a man can have a double life... middle of paper... .g Sir Laurence Olivier would have been beautiful, except that Olivier "knew he was good, and that ruins everything." Holden says he can't focus on what the character is saying because he "has to keep worrying about whether he's going to do something false every minute." The timeless quest of teenagers to find their place in the world and the inner turmoil attributed to maturing into a young adult is the premise for many acclaimed films and novels. Holden Caulfield, from JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and Esther Greenwood from Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar both lack the ability to interact with other people in a normal way and fail to meet the expectations of others, particularly their families . Works Cited Plath , Silvia. The bell jar. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999. Print.Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.