Critical Lens Essay-Jane Eyre and Catcher in the Rye.
Critical Lens Revision-Love is Required for Growth
“Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love” This quote from Reinhold Niebuhr tells of a human incapability to accomplish a deed of any sort without the assistance of love. In The Catcher in the Rye; Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little Brown and Company, 1991 and Jane
Eyre ; Bronte, Charlotte. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, INC. 1847, both young individuals are faced with numerous obstacles in an attempt to mature. Eventually, the characters both come to realizations that they need love in order to grow and mature. In a way, the characters are saved by love. Having both lost their ways, at the depths of depression, they make sufficient connections with loved ones which help them to complete their transformation into maturity. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield is trying to live independently in New York City, desperately trying to make connections with people in order to cure his loneliness. He attempts to make connections but fails to, he proceeds to develop such feelings of isolation and disconnection that he describes himself as disappearing, “After I got across the road, I felt like I was sort of disappearing. I had a fear I would never reach the other side.” This is ironic because he feels disconnected, yet he is surrounded by people in such a popular city such as New York. His loneliness is also suggested when he says "Hey, listen," I said. "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?" He is concerned about the ducks disappearing as well as himself. He eventually reaches his epiphany where he is saved by love once an for all, he reconnects with his younger sister Phoebe whom he was always very fond of.
“Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love” This quote from Reinhold Niebuhr tells of a human incapability to accomplish a deed of any sort without the assistance of love. In The Catcher in the Rye; Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little Brown and Company, 1991 and Jane
Eyre ; Bronte, Charlotte. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, INC. 1847, both young individuals are faced with numerous obstacles in an attempt to mature. Eventually, the characters both come to realizations that they need love in order to grow and mature. In a way, the characters are saved by love. Having both lost their ways, at the depths of depression, they make sufficient connections with loved ones which help them to complete their transformation into maturity. In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield is trying to live independently in New York City, desperately trying to make connections with people in order to cure his loneliness. He attempts to make connections but fails to, he proceeds to develop such feelings of isolation and disconnection that he describes himself as disappearing, “After I got across the road, I felt like I was sort of disappearing. I had a fear I would never reach the other side.” This is ironic because he feels disconnected, yet he is surrounded by people in such a popular city such as New York. His loneliness is also suggested when he says "Hey, listen," I said. "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?" He is concerned about the ducks disappearing as well as himself. He eventually reaches his epiphany where he is saved by love once an for all, he reconnects with his younger sister Phoebe whom he was always very fond of.