Free Catcher In The Rye Essays: Finding Holden's Identity

Finding Holden's Identity Many young people find themselves searching for their identity and most adolescents would be confused on what to do with their life. In J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield tends to be an outcast from society and is constantly searching for his identity. Salinger uses three symbols in the novel to convey the theme that many young people find themselves searching for their identity. This theme is represented in the red hat Holden wears, the ducks in the frozen lagoon, and the suitcases that the nuns carry.
Throughout the novel, Holden wears a very outlandish red hunting hat. He always mentions when he is wearing the hat and when he is not. Holden would wear this hat because it “really

Whether he thinks about it or asks someone else, he is always curious about the question. When holden is talking with Mr. Spencer, he wonders “where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over” (13). At this part of the novel Holden knows that he is going to leave Pencey Prep and that he yet again failed another school. The ducks in this passage allude to Holden, and the frozen lagoon is an allegory for his life and the world around him. Holden thinks about the ducks because he is stranded in life, and cannot find his own identity. When Holden left Pencey Prep for New York, he repeatedly asks many people where the ducks go when the lagoon freezes over. Holden has again introduced the topic of where the ducks go in the winter. When Horwitz is asked about the ducks he says, “If you was a fish, Mother Nature’d take care of you, wouldn't she? Right? You don’t think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya?” (83). Horwitz suddenly brings up discussion about the fish because he views them as normal people is society. He says that “Mother Nature’d take care of” them. However, Horwitz does not talk about the ducks because they are outcasts in society. Holden still has not figured out his identity and being compared to fish make him question who he is. It is revealed that Holden has many likes and dislikes. He likes his red hat, but he cannot stand phony

Holden digresses to being roommates with Dick Slagle and claims that “It’s really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs” (108). The suitcases in this passage allude to the social class of people, and the nicer the suitcase the better in life you are. Holden does not want to be compared with someone who has a worse suitcase because he has not found his identity, and is not confident in who he is. Even though Holden hates the way suitcases define people when the nuns are seen with cheap suitcases, he says, “It sounds terrible to say, but I can even get to hate somebody, Just by looking at them, if the have a cheap suitcase with them” (109). Holden does not like the fact that people have different suitcases because he wants to fit into society. He wants to be similar to the people around him but also wants to be an outcast in society. Holden is not confident of his own identity and is still searching for one to grasp on