The Ultimate Need for Connection: A Comparative Exploring the Relationship Between Tender and Remains of the Day Chelsea Smith College

Connection is a concept that nearly all creatures within our world desperately crave in their lives. This is showcased through dogs, cats, penguins, lions and most certainly human beings. While some individuals may showcase more closed off, reserved ways of living, the standard “American Dream” focuses on finding a spouse, buying a home, and spending the rest of your life in routine with your significant other. We often see this presented in literature’s main characters, a true Romeo and Juliet tale showcasing the undying love of two individuals - but sometimes we are faced with a much different presentation of connection. Within both Tender and Remains of the Day, main characters Catherine and Mr. Stevens exhibit a driving need for personal connection within their daily lives, exhibited in drastically unconventional ways. Physical connection leads to happiness, one which Goleman writes about within his text stating, “…happiness is an increased activity in a brain center that inhibits negative feelings and fosters an increase in available energy, and a quieting of those that generate worrisome thought” (Goleman 6). To begin, Catherine showcases her need for connection much more publicly and unapologetically in comparison with...