Comparison between "Catcher in the Rye" and "Rebel without a cause"

When one both reads Catcher in the Rye and sees Rebel Without a Cause, he or she can't help but wonder if the writers, Nicholas Ray and J.D. Salinger, somehow knew each other, or if one writer copied the ideas of the other. Jim Stark and Holden Caulfield, the two main characters of the stories, have so much in common that if they ever met one another, they would immediately become friends. The main …

…misunderstood by both the public and their own families. Although they appear to be rebellious and tough, both have a more sensitive interior. They suffer from alienation from their families and peers, but Jim definitely strives towards acceptance while Holden does not. If Catcher in the Rye had been made into a movie, James Dean would have been the perfect actor to play the part of Holden, since his portrayal of Jim was so precise.