Through the Eyes of a Teenager: The Way from Conflict to Compromise with the Society

The aim of this article is to research some similar features in the representation of the teenage characters in the novels by three American authors: C. McCullers, J.D. Salinger and T. Capote. The novels that we are to analyse feature some characters that start with misunderstanding the people around them and the motivation of their acts. But for some reasons they start feeling that their perception of a problem is too radicalised and the better way for dealing with others is trying to find some kind of a compromise. It may be a psychological compromise, as a matter of accepting the other’s freedom of self-determination, or a social compromise in a manner of finding the way of social interaction. But each time finding a compromise is depicted as an act that takes a certain effort, leading to inner transformation of a character. For achieving the goals of our research, we are using a combination of motif analysis, comparative method and hermeneutical method of text interpretation. The characters of their novels The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by Carson McCullers, The Catcher in the Rye (1945-1946) by Jerome David Salinger and Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) by Truman Capote have a certain degree of similarity that goes far beyond their teen age.