Love is defined as, “an intense feeling of deep affection.” By this definition, love is characterized as a feeling, however, others believe love is more of a choice. In society, people are obsessed with the idea of love or possibly for some the idea of no love. In the novel Catcher in the Rye love is deemed impossible, but forever desired. Throughout the novel, Holden desires the affection of a multitude of things including Jane Gallagher, Allie, and his sister, but is never able to obtain them due to his trapped mental state, highlighting in society people’s yearn for love that is not feasible because people always desire something when they are in a mindset that makes it unattainable.
Jane Gallagher is a continual object of Holden’s affection …show more content…
Another object of Holden’s affection that is unachievable is his deceased brother, Allie. In the novel Holden only describes Allie in the best ways with complete admiration and at one point confesses, “ I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie”. This highlights that Holden craves to be with Allie, however he knows that this is not possible because Allie has passed away. Holden never accepted his death and also never moved on in a healthy way and as a result he is unable to get out of his own mind. Similar to many people when he feels particularly depressed and empty his mind travels to something he thinks he needs but will never be able to have, which is especially dangerous. In the world of Holden and others everyone is stuck in many ways, such as “you can’t go back to childhood… but you can’t grow up either”. When an individual does not love themselves the cage of their mind does not allow them to move forward and develop healthy feelings of love, and they are unable to go backwards to possibly a happier time and the treacherous result is yearning for an unfeasible …show more content…
For Holden that something is his sister, Phoebe. Holden has a deep love and desire for affection from Pheobe like he does with many other things, however, Phoebe 's personality causes the love to be distinctive from the love of Jane or Allie. The relationship between Phoebe and Holden is arguably the most complicated of all of Holden’s relationships. Holden speaks of Phoebe like a goddess describing her as, “so pretty and smart” as well as “nice” and there is even repetition with Holden continuously stating, “you’d like her”. The admiration Holden has with Phoebe is not uncommon, as he has talked similarly of other characters. Also similar to these other relationships, Holden is not able to be satisfied with his connection to Phoebe for many reasons including she is still a child living in his parents house, so throughout the novel he is not able to call her as much as he wishes, which is usually when he is feeling particularly low, and he does not love himself enough to truly love her. Different from these other relationships, even though Phoebe is a child she is able to understand Holden better than anyone else and in most instances she has a stronger grasp on the world than Holden. This is expressed when Holden secretly visits her at their home one night and she learns that he got kicked out of another school. Holden
Jane Gallagher is a continual object of Holden’s affection …show more content…
Another object of Holden’s affection that is unachievable is his deceased brother, Allie. In the novel Holden only describes Allie in the best ways with complete admiration and at one point confesses, “ I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie”. This highlights that Holden craves to be with Allie, however he knows that this is not possible because Allie has passed away. Holden never accepted his death and also never moved on in a healthy way and as a result he is unable to get out of his own mind. Similar to many people when he feels particularly depressed and empty his mind travels to something he thinks he needs but will never be able to have, which is especially dangerous. In the world of Holden and others everyone is stuck in many ways, such as “you can’t go back to childhood… but you can’t grow up either”. When an individual does not love themselves the cage of their mind does not allow them to move forward and develop healthy feelings of love, and they are unable to go backwards to possibly a happier time and the treacherous result is yearning for an unfeasible …show more content…
For Holden that something is his sister, Phoebe. Holden has a deep love and desire for affection from Pheobe like he does with many other things, however, Phoebe 's personality causes the love to be distinctive from the love of Jane or Allie. The relationship between Phoebe and Holden is arguably the most complicated of all of Holden’s relationships. Holden speaks of Phoebe like a goddess describing her as, “so pretty and smart” as well as “nice” and there is even repetition with Holden continuously stating, “you’d like her”. The admiration Holden has with Phoebe is not uncommon, as he has talked similarly of other characters. Also similar to these other relationships, Holden is not able to be satisfied with his connection to Phoebe for many reasons including she is still a child living in his parents house, so throughout the novel he is not able to call her as much as he wishes, which is usually when he is feeling particularly low, and he does not love himself enough to truly love her. Different from these other relationships, even though Phoebe is a child she is able to understand Holden better than anyone else and in most instances she has a stronger grasp on the world than Holden. This is expressed when Holden secretly visits her at their home one night and she learns that he got kicked out of another school. Holden