Catcher In The Rye Love Analysis

One of the largest struggles the human race faces is love; everyone wants a piece of it but doesn’t know what it truly is. In Krista Tippett's interview with Michelle Alexander, Alexander introduces the following ideas: “I’m not talking about the romantic love, or the idealized version of love, but that the simple act of caring for one another,” “human beings struggling to love and find our way, making mistakes, but still yearning for a deeper connection,” “what I found is that there’s love to be found. There’s joy there. There’s suffering. There’s redemption”. In Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher and Catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger, these ideas relate directly to the main characters Dillon and Holden and the journey of love they both
Dillon experiences Michelle Alexander’s ideas about love through his journey of realising that love, in fact, isn’t always ideal and that it takes time and healing when loving someone broken. Dillon is a young adult who witnesses his brother’s suicide and feels responsible for it occurring. Finding true love in Jen ⎯ a young abuse victim⎯ is how he tries to replace the guilt he is filled with. By getting advice from others about his strange love with Jen he discovers the same ideas Alexander and Tippett discuss. “If the two of you ever decide to have a real relationship, don’t try to do it without help. You can’t repair that kind of damage without a lot of therapy,” (Crutcher, 228). After receiving this advice,
Holden is also a young adult who fails out of highschool on various occasions and is forced to be on his own for awhile. While on his own he searches for what he feels he is missing in his life: love. He searches for what he’s missing within women he doesn’t know because they’re easier to talk to. Holden needs a legitimate deep connection with someone in order to truly know what love is, so he looks within a random girl at the bar. “She knocked me out. I mean it. I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are,” (Salinger) Holden looks for true love in any woman he encounters and therefore he easily catches feelings for anyone attractive without really having a deep connection with them. In this case, Holden needs to hear Alexander’s idea of having to care about someone to love them in order to find the real love he wants. The connection that sex creates is what Holden expected was keeping him from knowing what love was. “I mean she did it so sudden and all. I know you're supposed to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress over their head, but I didn't. Sexy was about the last thing I was