Heidi Chu ’19
The eternal struggle of human existence is to form viable relationships. In J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield struggles with forming relationships with other people, because he constantly fights with them over who is superior. In war, humans are relentless in their efforts to come out on top. Nobody wants to lose and to feel inferior, which is why neither side is willing to surrender and give up on the struggle, no matter how fruitless the endeavor. Relationships serve as wars of attrition, where one person gains from the weakening of the other. Working through steady erosion, people hope that wearing down the other person will cause them to slowly be annihilated and eventually capitulate. It may be done through a series of open battles where the other person is gradually exhausted or through multiple covert actions that slip in, causing limited mayhem time and time again. Holden’s relationships are the same, constantly spoiled, because the other person feels they must consistently put him down in order to make themselves feel superior. Thus, he turns to children, whose inexperience guarantees his superiority. He is desperate to build a relationship where he can feel equal without surrendering himself. In Catcher in the Rye, Salinger suggests that a viable relationship depends on the perceived equality in that relationship; thus, the majority of relationships fail, because individuals are inherently driven to feel superior. Continue reading “Wars of Attrition: The Futility of Relationships in Catcher in the Rye” →