Catcher_in_the_Rye

Emily Shinn English 10H Period 2 Mrs. Farmer 11/1/10 J.D. Salinger’s book The Catcher in the Rye, uses symbolism to show what is going on with Holden Caulfield throughout the book. Holden is a typical teenager struggling with growing up. Salinger uses symbolism like the ducks leaving for the winter, the perfect, clean snow, and the never changing museum to help us see what is important to Holden and how things are affecting the stability of his mind. Salinger used the ducks as a symbol for Holden’s desire to have his brother Allie back. The ducks first appear in chapter 9 when Holden asks a cab driver if he knows where the ducks in the lagoon, by Central Park, go when it gets frozen over. Then in Chapter 12 he asks another cab driver the same thing. Neither of the cab drivers know, and they both find the question to be quite odd. Holden wonders about the ducks so much because he wishes that he could just leave when things got hard, and he wishes that things returned like the ducks do. He wants things to go back to how they used to be. He wants to go back to before his brother Allie died, to before when he was still innocent, back to when he was a child. Holden even got to the point where he tries to get Sally Hayes to run away with him. He asked her, “How would you like to get the hell out of here' … I have about a hundred and eighty bucks in the bank.” (132) That also shows us that he really isn’t thinking through what he is saying. Holden just wants to get away from becoming an adult, to go back to before he started growing up, or just run away from it, and not have to deal with adulthood. Holden would have loved to be one of the ducks and be able to live with them. Another way that Salinger used symbolism is with the snow. When Holden is waiting for Ackley to get ready in chapter 5, he opens his bedroom window and made a snowball with the snow that had fallen. He had made the snowball with the intention of throwing it at something. He was first going to throw it at a car that was parked outside, but “the car looked so nice and white” that he didn’t want to disturb the snow. Then he thought of throwing the snowball at a hydrant but that also looked too nice and white. To Holden the clean white snow represents purity and innocence. He becomes somewhat obsessed with innocence and the need to hold on to it. His focus on innocence is shown in many ways throughout the book. For example, when Holden repeatedly worries about Jane keeping her “kings in the back row”, and his dream job of being the catcher in the rye and saving kids from falling away from their innocence show how he wishes people would not have to grow up and lose their innocence. Holden would love to be able to get his innocence back and keep others from losing theirs. In addition to the ducks and the snow, Salinger uses the museum as a symbol of Holden’s fear of change. While Holden was walking through New York, he ends up at the museum of Natural History. Holden thought the best thing “in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was” (119) and that there were glass cases to protect everything. He liked that so much because he cannot handle change, and there are things in his life he wishes he could have put into glass cases to protect, like his brother Allie. If Holden could have put Allie in a glass case then maybe he would not have died. And if Allie had not died Holden would not be so confused about life, and therefore might be able to handle change better. But Allie’s unexpected death made Holden afraid of change. Since he is afraid of change the museum is a comfort to him because it never changes; he always knows what to expect. Holden decided not to go into the museum because he is afraid that maybe it did change. Later in the book Holden goes back to the museum and he decides to go in. The fact that he decided to go in, shows that he is starting to be able to accept change. He is starting to mature into an adult. There were many things in Holden Caulfield’s life that changed him, for the better or the worse. Some of which were wanting to run away, wanting to keep his innocence and not being able to handle change. In a way everyone wishes at some point in their lives that they would run away, get their innocence back, or to keep things from changing. But in reality that cannot happen and unfortunately that is what troubled Holden the most.