The Tribes of Palos Verdes, and The Catcher in the Rye both have characters that struggle in similar difficult situations with varying degrees of success. How successful someone is when dealing with their problems shows how strong they are. Strong willed people can often overcome obstacles others would struggle with. They make the correct choices even if they are sometimes difficult. Weak willed people often choose the paths with immediate gratification, but poor futures. Jim and Holden fall into the latter category when it comes to dealing with their mental illnesses. Here, Holden talks to his dead brother, “I’d reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him. Then it would start all over again as soon as I got to the…show more content… Everyone has activities they love. Sometimes people will do anything to partake in them. They will forgo everything else for their activity. This is certainly the case for Medina who prioritizes surfing above everything else. On her surfing Comer says, “So as not to be a 'lame chick', to resist the anxiety one is forever 'just a girl', Medina trains hard, cross trains, surfs everyday, pushes herself into bigger and bigger surf (Comer).” While this attitude is beneficial to surfing it hinders relations with her mother and the girls at school. Medina lives in a society where women have to be perfect. Because she isn’t, she gets picked on by girls at school and berated by her mother. She doesn’t even want to be the stereotypical woman that exists everywhere around her. The key difference between Medina and all the other women in her life is that she cares more about her personal happiness than pleasing others. This is why surfing is so important to her. It is what makes her most happy, not winning over a boy or being the it-girl of the school. It is why surfing creates the biggest rift between her and the women of the town. They can’t understand the joy it brings her. This is the difference between her, Holden and Jim. Medina betters her life through focusing on what makes her happy. Though this begs the question, isn’t it beneficial for Medina to separate herself from the crazy women of Palos Verdes? Maybe Medina problems that aren’t even a result
