From the years 1938 to 1945, while the whole world was preoccupied with World War II, the Nazi Party led by dictator Adolf Hitler planned and executed the killing of nearly six people millions of Jews. This calamity stripped the innocence of those who survived in an inconceivable way. They suffer with enormous guilt simply because they believe they were wrong to survive while their loved ones paid the ultimate price. In recent years, Holocaust survivors have had an “increased risk of attempted suicide” (Barak, Y). For these people, forgetting is a crime, but the memory does not allow them to move. However, there are some survivors who have found a way to look to the future with optimism. Ellie Weisel, Holocaust survivor and writer, summed up these feelings by explaining that: “As I remember, I despair. Since I remember, I have the duty to reject despair." Learning from the past and growing involves a certain end to childhood innocence without which progress towards maturity cannot occur. This enlightenment and the journey from innocence to experience are important themes in both J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and Stephan Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The first chronicles four days in the life of a troubled teenager named Holden Caulfield who is expelled from his preparatory school and spends his time wandering the streets of New York City. The latter is a collection of letters written by a boy, known by the pseudonym Charlie, in which he talks about his deepest feelings regarding his grief-stricken adolescence. Both Chbosky and Salinger explore the behaviors and minds of teenagers trying to find themselves in a world they don't yet fully understand. However, both... in the center of the card... and in Rye. At the end of his journey Charlie shares a story his doctor told him. The story is about an alcoholic father who has two sons. Both sons face the same abuse, but one grows up to be a carpenter who never touches alcohol while the other becomes an alcoholic just like his father. Both boys in this story learned something different from the same experiences. One son wrote his own destiny while the other decided that his future was already written in stone for him. This story reflects the lives of Holden and Charlie and the lives of all individuals. There is not a single person in the world who has not faced difficulties in their life, but not everyone has let these difficulties define their life or will become so. Happiness is not a gift, it is a choice. We must learn from the events of the past and not simply decide to live in the past.