Symbols In Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye follows the journey of a young boy, Holden Caulfield, from adolescence to adulthood. There are a number of symbols that Salinger uses to help to portray the various stages that Holden goes through as he matures into adulthood. The snowball incident, his sense of fulfillment when at the museum, and his run in with a pimp, are all representations of how Holden is deeply obsessed with innocence thoughts and how reluctant he is to give them up.

Salinger uses specific motifs and symbols to illustrate Holden’s naive and unrealistic view of the world. A great example of this is when he believes he can be the catcher in the rye. By doing so he imagines he is able to maintain all the innocence within society. Holden

Once made and ready to throw he begins to seek out targets but then comes to realize the unbenounced innocence and beauty of the recent snowfall and decides to not throw it. He continues with, “But I changed my mind. The car looked so nice and white. Then I started to throw it at a hydrant, but that looked too nice and white too.” (Salinger, 36). This gives us an understanding of Holden’s train of thoughts when dealing with pristine and innocent objects in the world, the world in which he thinks to be “corrupt”. To a teenage boy a snowball would mostly be associated with snowball fights, but to Holden it is a solely a white ball made out of snow that has not one thing to do with violence and or negativity. This is why he then shelters the snowball and continues to carry it with him on his walk, eventually trying to take it on the bus with him. His plan to save the snowball from the corruptness of the world is stopped when the bus driver tells him he cannot take the snowball on the bus. “The bus driver opened the doors and made me throw it out. I wasn’t going to chuck it at anybody, but he wouldn’t believe me. People never believe you." (36). The bus driver in this scene is Holden’s wake up call into the real world and also symbolizes that “corruption”, or “loss of innocence” is inevitable and is bound to take place at some

One wakeup call to Holden would be when he refuses to pay the full amount of $10 to the pimp, Maurice for Holden’s time spent with Sonny. There are many ways Holden could of dealt with this situation, he could of paid him the full amount after being told to, he also could of tried to maturely persuade Maurice to letting his debt slide. After refusing to pay, the situation takes a violent turn. Instead of handling that situation like an adult would, Holden decides to say, “I don't owe you five bucks, I said. If you rough me up, I'll yell like hell. I'll wake up everybody in the hotel. The police and all” (102). Holden’s disclosed plan to everte the possible next predicament is to yell. Yell loud so that everyone in the hotel would be able to hear him. This is definitely something you would hear coming out of an 11 year old, but not so much an overconfident teenager fighting with a pimp. It was an extremely childish way of attacking the situation and got him roughed up. On the contrary it served the readers a good example of how naive and stubborn he is to the real world. A change in the way that Holden is acting is when he decides to not go on the carousel with Phoebe, but to sit on the bench and watch. This shows a very distinct line between adolescence and adulthood. On top of that a symbol that