"Parental Voids at the Cause of Adolescent Struggles".
Adolescence can be a very trying time in an individual's life; it is a time in which people search and struggle to understand themselves and the world that surrounds them. Three prime examples of adolescent struggles are in the characters Ellen Foster, from the novel Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons; Holden Caulfield, from the novel Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger; and Gordie from the movie Stand by Me. Each of these children has conflicts with their parents. For Ellen, she experiences grief due to her mother's death, and her father's abusive behavior. Holden has problems accepting adulthood; this is why he does not like adults and therefore isn't close with his parents. Gordie experiences neglect from his parents, who discourage and under- appreciate his amazing knack for writing. Each of these young peoples" issues are centered around their dysfunctional relationships with their parents. The difficulties, which young people often experience in trying to understand themselves, are intensified by the severity of the relationship void between themselves and their parents. .
At the beginning of the three stories, Ellen Foster, Catcher in the Rye, and Stand by Me, the characters Ellen, Holden, and Gordie, were all comparatively at the same place in terms of the relationships they had with their parents. Signs of the neglect that these youths experienced were shown in moments such as when Ellen's mother was in the hospital and Ellen had to care for herself; making her own dinner every night. Her distain towards her father after such actions of abandonment were brought forth in words such as, "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy." (P. 1) Ellen then went on to explain the slow, torturous, ways in which so hoped to do so. For example, setting loose a poisonous spider in his bed while he was sleeping. This quote exemplifies the dislike, which placed such distance in Ellen's relationship with her father.