Catcher In The Rye Symbolism

From the beginning of the book the reader can interpret that Holden is a person who seemingly likes to be detached from society. He isolates himself from the football game and instead decides to stand in solitude upon a hill, looking down at all those below him. As he strives to find a goodbye to Pencey Academy, one can see that this is not a new experience for him, as he divulges the details of his mobile past, jumping from one school to the next.

The novel begins with sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield who is recounting two days back in December in the form of a long flashback. Holden has been expelled numerous times, his most recent, Pencey Prep. After getting into a fight with his roommate, Stradlater, Holden leaves school before he must return home on Wednesday to confront his family of his expulsion. Once he enters the train heading to New York he meets the mother of one his classmates from Pencey. Holden then misleads his classmates mother into believing that her son is popular among the students who attend Pencey. When he arrives in New York he encounters strangers dancing in a hotel, a prostitute, nuns, an old girlfriend, and his younger sister Phoebe. While Holden’s journey continues

During Holden’s conversation with Horowitz, Horowitz talks a lot about the fish in the lagoon, which symbolize adults, and make Holden feel different, more desperate and like he doesn’t belong anywhere. In the course of the conversation, Horowitz keeps saying that the fish “don’t go no place” (92) because the lagoon is “their nature” (92) and Mother Nature takes care of them. Holden is not satisfied with Horowitz’s argument and he says that “the fish is different” (92) and that he is “talking about the ducks” (92). Holden seems to compare the fish to adults, in contrast to the ducks who he compares to himself, and he completely rejects everything Horwitz says about the fish instead of trying to apply it to himself. The fact that Holden can’t

In this passage of the book, Holden is thinking scientifically. This supports the fact that he is smart after all, even though he his failing most of his classes. Often times, a teenager wants something so bad, they come up with crazy and somewhat stupid ideas and plans to help them obtain that something. Maybe this is because he does not want to try or maybe he wants to fit in with others who would not accept him if he was smart. In this metaphor, he is comparing himself the ducks in Central Park when the lagoon freezes over. What Holden is really saying is the fact that he would not know where to go if he stays living in a place full of phonies and rude people. The ducks cannot swim in ice and he will not stay in a school full of fakes.

When people grow up for some it is painless while for others it is difficult. J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye is a book about a boy named Holden who is scared to grow up, he tries to hold on to his childhood for as long as he can. Growing up is something that Holden fears as seen throughout the story. Salinger revels Holden’s fear of change through The Museum of Natural History, Little Shirley Beans Record, and the ducks in Central Park.

That's one nice thing about carousels, they always play the same songs.” (pg. 189) The carousel that Holden used to visit as a child still played the same song giving him hope that if the carrousel didn’t have to change over a such a long period time maybe he didn’t have to as well. By Salinger describing the young mind frame of Holden it is seen how his obsession with his world not changing can cause him to alienate himself as he feels as though if he is alone, he can control the way his own world works.

But [he] didn’t see any ducks around. [He] walked all around the whole damn lake - [he] damn near fell in once, in fact - but [he] didn’t see a single duck” (200). As we discussed earlier, the ducks represent teenagers, not quite adults, who live around lakes, which symbolizes life, who can fly away when the lake freezes over, or in other words, when life gets tough. At this moment, the lake is partly frozen over, telling us that Holden’s life is hard right now, but it’s not at it’s worst point. However, his reality is that he is all alone- everyone left him when life started to get hard.

In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, a rebellious teenager, runs away from school and goes on a journey where he reflects on himself and his ideals. Holden often notices that it is snowing in the beginning of the book, but towards the end of the story, the weather shifts into rain. The development of snow and rain throughout the book parallels the change of Holden’s mentality towards the preservation of innocence and moving on from the death of his brother.

People need to read Catcher in the Rye at least once before they die. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a book that takes the reader inside the head of Holden Caulfield, a depressed sixteen-year-old, who enters a strange series of adventures in New York City. Holden writes his story from a mental hospital in California, about how he was expelled from a fancy prep school, his experiences after spending a few days in NYC. The book has had critical success since its publication in 1951, selling sixty-five million total copies, after a splendid review from the New York Times. Catcher in the Rye is a great novel because of its subtle symbolism, amazing portrayal of Holden Caulfield and ends on a higher note than most people realize.

The four moments Holden considers the ducks at Central Park- the two taxi rides, when he goes to Central Park, and at Mr. Spencer’s exhibit the specific stages and development of Holden towards maturity.

Holden, the main character, encounters many moments where he doesn’t know where to go or what to do next. To aid him in his decision making, Holden resides with the ducks of Central Park. These ducks are a powerful symbol that the author utilizes in his novel to describe Holden’s journey toward maturity. Furthermore, Holden ponders whether the ducks are taken away and put into a zoo to be cared for when the pond freezes at Central Park or if they are abandoned to fly away and fend for themselves. Holden revisits the question of the ducks when he doesn’t know if he should return to his parents or learn to live on his own. Constantly, each time the ducks appear in the story, Holden’s maturity becomes augmented. For example, “I stopped having a conversation with him, if he was going to get so damn touchy about it. But he started it up again himself. He turned all the way around again, and

In Chapter 2, as Holden talks to his teacher he thinks, "I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them all away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away". Holden wanting to protect the innocence of the ducks in Central Park shows a lot about his age. It represents the curiosity of youth and wanting to encounter the mysteries in life.

This symbolizes him holding on to his past, not wanting things to change. As Holden meets with all of his old friends, he claims many of them to have become phonies. All of his friends have grown up, and Holden is left behind, and still acts like a child. "[Holden's] central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence" (Bloom 22). As everyone around changes he just wants to stay the same, young and sheltered.

Holden’s visit to the lagoon in Central Park was a turning point for him and it helped him let go a little from his constant worry and need to find himself a place. After Holden leaves the Wicker bar he is drunk and crying and is “feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (169), he barely has any money left, he doesn’t know where he is supposed to go or “where [he] [is] going to sleep yet” (170). Holden decides to go to the lagoon in Central Park because he thinks that he might find a solution for all of his problems by finally finding out how the ducks deal with their problem. Holden has a hard time finding the lagoon in the park even though he “used to rollerskate there all the time and ride [his] bike when [he] was a kid” (170). This relates

The ducks are first brought to the reader’s attention while Holden is visiting his teacher, Mr. Spencer, regarding his removal from Pencey. While conversing with Mr. Spencer, however, Holden’s mind drifts elsewhere. His mind drifts back to New York as he wonders to himself if the lagoon in Central Park is frozen over, and if so, where do the ducks go? A direct parallel can be drawn from the ducks in the lagoon to Holden’s present situation. He is mandated to leave Pencey, but has no idea where he belongs after leaving. Just like the ducks in the lagoon, “Holden is essentially homeless, frozen out” (Trowbridge par. 1). Holden’s life has not been filled with an abundance of stability and now what little he had is gone, albeit due to faults of his own, and he sees an unsure and hazy future. Holden inquires about the state of the ducks to the driver of the first cab he catches in New York, and the driver believes that he is kidding. Later on, he asks another cab driver if somebody came around “in a truck or something to take them away” or if they flew away “by themselves” (Salinger 81-82). Knowing what happens to these ducks, knowing that they are safe and secure even though the lagoon is frozen would provide Holden with a sense of comfort about his current state of affairs. What seems to be a ridiculous and meaningless question to the