Symbolism In The Catcher By F. Salinger

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.

Innocence is a key part of a child’s life as the child has not yet experienced the cruelty, violence and immorality of the adult world. In the text The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, as a result of Holden’s fear of the adult world, this leads to his desire to protect innocence, ultimately leading to his mental breakdown. The novel shows a teenage boy’s desire to protect innocence which leads to his mental instability in attempting to deal with a world that clashes with his ideals. He only finds interest in children's innocence because they have yet not entered the phony adult world. The museum of natural history, which is unchanging, shows Holden’s desire to protect and preserve the innocence of children. Holden attempts to erase profanities

In J.D.Salinger’s novel, Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, the main character of the novel, is a walking paradox who desires to hold onto his innocence and ,in his mind, thinks that people who lose their innocence will either turn into a “phony” or a “jerk”. During his journey towards trying to preserve his innocence Holden affected his desire to hold on to his innocence through his action, such as his experience with a prostitute named Sunny, his interaction with Sunny shows him that most of the world of adults is just an illusion. Another person who affects Holden desire is his 10 year-old sister Phoebe Caulfield, his interaction with his sister phoebe shows how it’s ok to lose your innocence because with the loss of that innocence you

A major theme of the novel "Catcher in the Rye" is the expression of Loss of Innocence. This is theme is shown through out the novel numerous times. One example of the theme is when Holden stated, "I thought how Phoebe and all the other kids would see it, and how they woner what the hell it meant."(Salinger 201). This quote represents Holden's desire to protect children. Holden is frustrated by his inability to act and to keep little kids fro losing their innocence. It is very difficult to prevent young people from all the terrible things that they can face while growing up. As soon as children go to school and become part of the society they start to learn and see things that they have never seen before, and because they are still young they

In Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy who has been kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep. He is now back in New York City, wandering about since he didn’t tell his parents about his expulsion. Through his journey, Holden discovers the many hardships of adulthood, one of them being the loss of innocence. J.D Salinger uses tone to develop the theme that innocence is short-lived.

Holden uses innocence to describe the kids surrounding him. Phoebe and Allie stand out as examples. “‘I like Allie,’ I said. ‘And I like doing what I’m doing right now. Sitting here with you, and talking and thinking about stuff, and ---’” (Salinger, 171). In Holden’s mind, only children are innocent in this world. Children don’t have sexual desire; they are not fake. However, Allie’s death due to leukaemia destroys his belief in childhood innocence. He thinks that pure kids never die, but his brother’s death goes against his thoughts. To be able to deal with his sadness logically, he always thinks that his brother will come back just like the ducks in Central Park. Holden protects his belief in childhood innocence through the hope that the ducks will eventually return. What’s more, he also mentions he wishes to be the catcher in the rye in his conversation with Phoebe. He imagines children running around in a rye field. He says he would like to catch children before they fall from the end of the cliff. This is symbolism for Holden trying to protect childhood innocence from adulthood

In 1951 J.D. Salinger writes The Catcher in the Rye. This book tells a tail about a 16 year old boy who is afraid of changing. Holden Caulfield has yet again for the fourth time been expelled from school. For failing his classes except for english. He leaves Pencey Prep 3 days early and sets out on an adventure to find himself. Holden travels to New York and rents a hotel only to make a mistake and have a prostitute over. Maurice you delivered her to him comes back to the room to get Holden to pay up the rest of the money. Back talking results in Holden getting beat up. Maurice leaves after he gets the money, whist list Holden starts to cry. Later in the book Holden meets nuns and has a conversation with them that he enjoys. After his day with the nuns Holden meets up with his brother's ex-girlfriend Sally. Only their date doesn't last long as Holden tells her "you give me a royal pain in the ass" (Salinger 148) resulting in Sally crying and the date ending. Fast forward he meets with his sister Phoebe and tells what happened. As Holden is going through a rough time he gets checked into a mental institution. In The Catcher in the Rye Salinger uses 3 symbols to describe Holden's feelings. The 3 symbols that explain Holden's feelings, Holden's red hunting hat, the ducks in the lagoon, and Allie's baseball mitt. The three symbols represent Holden's fear of changing from a child and becoming an adult. Which he calls "phony".

Holden Caufield emphasizes on the loss of innocence in children. He feels that once they lose their innocence, they will soon turn into phonies like everyone else. The loss of innocence is very common in the development in human existence. It is caused by many factors. Past a certain age, children are either forced or led unintentionally into a pathway of corruption. A child is also known to lose their innocence by desires, fantasies, and attention. But once they lose their innocence, they tend to desire to go back and pretend to be young again. In the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden discusses the importance of innocence in children's lives. He feels that once a child loses his/her innocence, he/she will soon be leaded to a

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, transitions from childhood to adulthood. The death of Holden’s little brother signifies the beginning his loss of innocence and growth of maturity. As he enters adulthood, Holden views society differently from his peers by characterizing most of his peers and adults he meets as “phonies.” Thus, Holden takes the impossible challenge of preserving the innocence in children because he wants to prevent children from experiencing the corruption in society. The Catcher In The Rye embodies Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of children and reveals the inevitability of and the necessity of encountering the harsh realities of life.

In the Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, there are many items of symbolism. The symbolism in the story keeps Holden sain. Some items of symbolism are Holden's’ brothers baseball mit, the schools Holden gets kicked out of, and the carousels gold rings. The baseball mit and the carousels’ gold rings are positive representation of symbolism, whereas the schools, are negative.

A baseball mitt, a red hat, a museum, and ducks are obviously completely different objects, but in The Catcher in the Rye, from 1951, they are closely related. Not only are they all cases of symbolism, but they all connect to the main character’s brother. Holden, the main character, perpetually dwells on the death of his brother Allie and these four figures are representations of his inability to mature, and also his feelings on death and his own life. However, one more symbol, perhaps the most significant one, is Holden’s vision for himself as a catcher in a field of rye. . In the novel, J.D. Salinger uses symbolism to give us deeper insight into the reminiscent feelings and depression of Holden. The symbols represent far more than just

Salinger uses the characterization of Holden Caulfield to send a message regarding the problems children face growing up, such as struggling to find one’s identity and failure to properly interact with other people, can create a permanent effect on their life making a connection to the real world, and everyone in it, nearly impossible.

Many novels cannot be fully understood and appreciated if only read for face value, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is no exception. The abundant use of symbolism in Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is of such significance that it “proclaims itself in the very title of the novel” (Trowbridge par. 1). If the symbolism in this novel is studied closely, there should be no astonishment in learning that The Catcher in the Rye took approximately ten years to write and was originally twice its present length. J.D. Salinger uses copious amounts

Holden in The Catcher in the Rye loses his innocence at an early age; the author, J.D. Salinger uses symbolism to show the idea that innocence is something that will be lost and cannot be preserved.

They both agree there is room to protect the innocence from certain evil forces of society. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be” (191 Salinger). Holden wants to protect the innocence of young children, at their young ages when there is nobody ’big’ around. Caulfield understands that kids at such young ages can be completely ruined, due to detrimental encounters. Holden also realizes that there is a chance for the abundance of young children later in their lives. For now the children are young and society is too harsh for them.