Catcher In The Rye Symbolism Essay

1177 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The catcher in the rye theme essays

His parents return home while he is still in the house. Holden asks Phoebe for money and she gives him all her Christmas money. This made him break down in tears and he could not stop. Again he mentions the word “edge”. “I was still sitting on the edge of the bed…” (193) He was still on the edge of an emotional breakdown… The red hunting hat plays an important symbolic part in the novel. For Holden it symbolises protection. Before he leaves he gave it to Phoebe. Suddenly he did not mind his parents seeing him - he is standing on the edge of surrendering. “I figured if they caught me, they caught me. I almost wished they did, in a way.” (194) Holden becomes obsessed with the idea of innocence, especially when it relates to children. He feels compelled to One morning when he was walking up Fifth Avenue he starts to feel as he will not make it to the other side of the street. “I thought I’d just go down, down, down…….”. He then starts talking to Allie and ask him to protect him from going down and disappear. He thanks Allie when he reaches the other side of the street safely. By this time it is quite clear that Holden does not think clearly anymore and is emotionally in a very deep and dark place. He decides to just say goodbye to Phoebe and hitchhike to a sunny and pretty place where nobody knows him. He will also pretend that he cannot hear or speak and he will marry a deaf-mute woman as well. “If we had any children, we’d hide them somewhere”, thus protect them and their innocence from the evil world and the cruelty of adulthood. The Asian Social Science Journal did an analysis on the adolescent problems in The Catcher in the Rye and their conclusion is as follows: “Holden 's enemy is the adult world and the cruelty and artificiality. I see this to be Holden physically at war with the adult world. He is the protector and even the leader of the army of the youth, fighting to preserve their

Show More
Related

  • Socratic Seminar Questions For Catcher In The Rye

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Universal Theme Question: Why does Holden cling to the innocence of children, a theme in this book, so deeply?

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Symbolism

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules”( Salinger 12). The Catcher in the Rye is a coming- of- age novel by J.D Salinger, in which Holden Caulfield, the teenage protagonist is unable to play by the rules. His life has been full of very lonely experiences, great trauma and the pain of the loss of his innocence. He is an unusual sixteen year-old boy, who has been expelled from a private school because of academic failure. “Holden’s central goal is to resist the process of maturity itself” (Sparknotes). In The Catcher in the Rye, the catcher’s mitt is a symbol of Holden’s loss of innocence and is portrayed by Holden Caulfield and throughout the book. The symbol of the catcher's mitt is a recurring point that develops throughout the story.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Symbolism

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Holden's brother died when he was growing up and throughout his life he has always been getting kicked out of school. Later, he then goes to New York for a couple of days so that he doesn't have to go home early and explain to his parents that he got kicked out. He then goes to his sister Phoebe's school to give her a letter and finds something inappropriate written on the wall and scrubs it out. At the end of the book, Holden and his sister Phoebe go to the carousel.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Summary

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    He tries to convince her to run away with him to live in a cabin. She tells him to pursue an education and he gets upset and hurts her feelings. He makes another unsuccessful call to Jane. Later that night he sneaks into his family apartment to visit his beloved sister Phoebe. He tells her that he got kicked out of Pencey and she gets upset that he doesn’t like anything. He says there is one thing he would like to do. He would like to be “the catcher in the rye,” catching little children before they fell off a cliff. Holden then sneaks away, going to Mr. Antolini’s house, a man he respects because when a boy from his school jumped out from his dorm, he was the one to pick him up. While he’s sleeping on his couch he wakes up to his teacher touching his head. Disturbed, he leaves immediately. The next day Phoebe tries to run away with him, but he won’t let her. She gets upset and he takes her to the zoo. The story ends with him watching his sister ride the carousel. It makes him very happy. In this book, I feel as though a theme is that Holden is so judgmental about everyone else, yet he never criticizes himself. He thinks he is better than everyone else. Also, I think he tries to create strong relationships, but, like in his date with Sally and at Mr. Antolini’s

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Catcher In The Rye

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    He changes his mind when he sees Phoebe carrying suitcase, wearing his hat on her head (Salinger 252). She wants to run away with him, and he realises he can't go. She already lost one brother to cancer, and another moved to the opposite end of the country. She can't lose another because of him. Salinger includes this to show how the world could begin to change if everyone started listening, processing, respecting the struggles of others. Holden, an unreliable narrator, represents everyone. Each individual on this earth has a part of Holden in them. The phonies symbolise various evils, and Phoebe represents the catalyst. Everyone deals with the phonies, but Phoebe still runs in that red hunting hat. She tries to draw nearer to the people running away. No, the bias and selfishness will never stop, but she might catch up if everyone works

    Read More

  • The Innocence of Childhood in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin with, Holden’s love for the innocence and purity of childhood makes him very hesitant to transition into an adult life. Generally, he finds children to be straightforward, easygoing, and simply pure in every way. This is because they always say what they mean, and never try to set a false façade for...

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Catcher In The Rye

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    The phobia of growing old is prominent in society today. There are many reasons citizens fear leaving childhood, such as embracing the responsibilities of adulthood, giving up fantasy to accept reality, feeling one’s aloneness, and living life anxiously awaiting death. These terrors not only occur in society, but also appear in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. These ideas are thought by Holden Caulfield, the main character, who believes as one grows older they lose innocence and become “phony.” An initial reading of the book The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, suggests that the text focuses on the theme of vanishing and transitioning to maturity, and that he is concerned with its effect on the loss of innocence. The author

    Read More

  • Holden Caulfield Flaws

    1629 Words  | 4 Pages

    Holden in this novel is upset by the fact that growing up inevitably leads to growing out of being a kid and growing out of not being optimistic and pure in his eyes. This is expressed in the metaphor the novel is named. “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 do not 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.” (Salinger. 93) this is a metaphor for Holden wanting to be a protector of innocence keeping the kids from falling into the troubles of adulthood. He sees his innocence as already ruined and he does not want that for any of the other kids. Before becoming the catcher in the rye for others, Holden is looking for a catcher of his own to protect him from the harmful and dreariness of the adult world. He has looked for this in several places throughout his life his father, Mr. Antolini, and Mr. Spencer. His father has failed to be this because he is the one who sent Holden to these many failures of

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Symbolism Analysis

    625 Words  | 2 Pages

    All throughout our life, things come along that mean something to us. I’m not talking about people. I’m talking about symbols; objects that are used to represent something about ourselves. Symbols are everywhere in literature. In particular, symbols are in a book called The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This book is about Holden, a sixteen-year-old prep school student who, after getting kicked out of four schools and pretty much failed at life, runs away to find himself, and what his purpose is in life. His brother, Allie, dies of leukemia, and his most prized possession is his baseball mitt. This is not an ordinary baseball mitt. This mitt means something to Holden, and it really contributes to the message of the story. Allie's mitt contributes a lot to the novel because it’s represents innocence, it represents goodness, and represents what it means to be a catcher in the rye.

    Read More

  • Holden Caulfield Transformation

    608 Words  | 2 Pages

    He depicts a mental image of a field of rye filled with happy, smiling children dancing, prancing, and running towards the edge of a cliff unknowingly. Holden wants to be there to catch every single child. Stating that this was all he wanted in his future seemed metaphorical for growing up. In Holden’s mind, growing up was like falling off the cliff, falling into adulthood, falling into becoming “phony” people, with “phony” jobs, and “phony” attitudes. He wants to save all the children from enduring this. Holden views growing up with negative connotations, and behaved the way he did because of tribulation of loss he suffered as a child. His childhood, though not terrible, was hard for him. He remembered Allie positively, before he was “phony.” Allie never got the chance to grow up, but Holden didn’t want

    Read More

  • Symbols and Symbolism in Catcher in the Rye

    463 Words  | 1 Pages

    to find out what will happen to the ducks, he is really finding out about

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Symbolism

    328 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the Catcher in the Rye, Salinger uses imagery and symbolism to show Holden’s movement from a naive, immature and idealistic teenager to a more experienced and mature adult. By looking at specific symbols such as; the snowball incident, meeting with Mr. Antolini, and sitting on the bench at the carousel, Holden’s journey to adulthood and attitude change is shown.

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Theme Essay

    464 Words  | 1 Pages

    Holden’s little sister Phoebe could see that he turned his back on school after Holden sneaked in her room early for holiday break. “You did get kicked out!” His old teacher and good friend Mr. Antolini saw that he had a tendency to turn his back on the world too. “…I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause.” Holden finally realizes too that turning his back on people isn’t good. “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Symbolism

    496 Words  | 1 Pages

    Holden is a seventeen year old dealing with life in a tuberculosis rest home and he is writing about everything that has happened to him. Holden is scared to grow up, he does not like adults like how he likes children because he thinks that some adults are phonies,”I was in the rye and their was nobody else but a whole bunch of kids and him and he had to catch the kids from going off the cliff… I was the catcher in the rye.” The catcher in the rye has a lot of symbolism like Holden’s red hunting hat which represents that he is attracted to unusual stuff. “Is The catcher in the rye relevant to teenagers today?”, I say yes because the Catcher in the Rye discusses how Holden does not want to grow up at all to stay a kid so he won’t end up a phony

    Read More

  • Catcher In The Rye Narrative Essay

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Catcher in the Rye holds many symbols, many of them relating to Holden. One is his red hunting hat. It symbolizes Holden’s individuality as one of a kind. The red also resembles Allie and Phoebe’s hair which is connected to youth and innocence. However, Holden also avoids showing it to people he knows. This reflects his underlying desire for attention and fear of being rejected for his true self. Another is the carrousel and Phoebe’s attempt to reach the gold rings. This symbolizes the act of reaching for one’s desire or goal despite the danger of it all. This ultimately changes Holden’s protective and naive view of

    Read More

More about Catcher In The Rye Symbolism Essay

Open Document