The Use of Symbolism within Salinger’s The Catcher in the ...

The Catcher in the Rye, a novel authored by J. G. Salinger, is placed around the 1954s. It is narrated by Holden Caulfield, and follows his three-day quest in New York after flunking out of Pencey Prepare.

The story centers around Holden, a 17 year-old protagonist, and the move from blameless childhood in to phony adult life. Considered a coming-of-age book, it works with complex concerns of identification, belonging, death, and hysteria. Salinger uses symbolism inside the text to share these themes to the visitor. Symbolism can be described as way of adding depth and meaning into a story, when conveying a complex idea that could be understood and recognized in a variety of ways. In doing this, Salinger uses meaning throughout the whole text of The Catcher in the Rye.

Salinger makes Holden’s red hunting hat an important symbol inside the story. However , Holden only wears the hat at specific moments or occasions throughout the textual content. Holden dons his “old hunting loath, [when] composing the composition” (Salinger 37) to connect with Allie as a result of that reality the loath is the shade red “and [Allie] had very reddish hair” (Salinger 38); as he “took a peek… in the mirror” (Salinger 45) acting tough after Stradlater had punched him in the face; when giving Pencey Prepare yelling “Sleep tight, en este momento morons! ‘ (Salinger 52) to make “sure that he can be refused. Protected simply by the reddish colored hat” (Bloom 90-91).

Although he “really got a bang from the hat” (Salinger 27), he can embarrassed or lack self-confidence to wear it in public, just like on the teach, at the tavern, and in the hotel main receiving area. The hat symbolizes his uniqueness and who this individual wants to end up being. He admits it is “very corny” (Salinger 18) and comments about its uncommon appearance, nevertheless he wears it, he can be insular, unique, and tough. Just like he is ashamed to wear the hat in public places, he is uncertain of who this individual really is or who this individual wants to be.

He would wear the hat in times if he desires to be different from everybody around him and “wears [it] back on his brain in disobedient of style and good fashion” (Kallen 38); he decides to not have on the cap when he chooses to be section of the norm. While the story improvements, Holden relates to accept his real personal. He has on the hunting hat with an increase of confidence as he walks the streets of New York.

This individual “didn’t give a damn just how [he] looked” (Salinger 88) and becomes a little bit more accepting of his uniqueness coming from everyone about him, just like the hat is definitely uniquely diverse and sticks out. In the last chapters of the novel, Phoebe “reached into [his] coat pocket and had taken out [the] red hunting hat and put it upon [his] head” (Salinger 212). This represents that your woman accepts Holden for how he is. The red hunting hat is at a symbolize Holden’s identity and have absolutely the problems that Holden has to find out who he can.

When asked, by Phoebe, who Holden wants to be, Holden replies the heurter in the rye. He imagines “all these types of little kids playing a lot of game with this big field of rye… and [he is] located on the edge of some crazy cliff… [he] have to capture everybody if they commence to go over the cliff… [he would] just be the heurter in the rye” (Salinger 173). The children around the cliff is a symbol of childhood and adulthood would equivalent to falling off the cliff. Instead of recognizing that adulthood scares him, Holden invents this dream where adulthood is a world of phonies, superficiality, and hypocrisy that is corresponding to death, whereas childhood is known as a world of chasteness, curiosity, and honesty.

With this dream, he withstands adulthood and its process by wanting to try to escape and reside in a cottage near the woods, he is “caught between the sides of childhood fantasies and adult responsibility” (Kallen 52). In this imagination, he photographs himself since the catcher in the rye. Holden seems as though this individual needs to be the catcher in the rye due to death of Allie and James Fortress. “Holden provides the ‘crazy’ idea that he should have saved Allie, and that in the future he will conserve children mistreated by adults” (Bloom 97).

He seems guilty to get Allie, “the brother who died before the temptations of adulthood” (Bloom 33). “Allie’s death continually haunt Holden. As if your life froze during the time of Allie’s death” (Kallen 55-56), Holden says he “sometimes… act like [he is] regarding thirteen” (Salinger 9) when in fact he could be actually 17. He even now feels that he would have prevented Allie’s death, and holds the of the heurter in the rye this way, “he has to hide Allie prior to he can make the transition in adulthood” (Bloom 87). If the death of James Castle occurred, Holden was getting a shower; this individual quickly “put on [his] bathrobe and [he] went downstairs” (Salinger 170), yet misses the incident. Holden finds these signs that say “fuck you” “that drove [him] crazy” (Salinger 201).

He finds all of them on the walls of Phoebe’s school, inside the stairway and the once-sacred tombs from the mummies. These places advise Holden of his child years and are the places that he feels comfortable and secure in. This kind of symbolizes how easily every thing can become damaged by vulgarities.

It is most likely the fact that vandalism were done by kids, but Holden still photo “some perverty bum” (Salinger 201) as the ones in charge of the criminal behaviour. This displays how much Holden believes children are innocent and pure. Holden then imagines “how Phoebe and all the other tiny kids might see it, and how they’d speculate what the hell it meant, and then finally some filthy kid could tell them… and maybe even stress about it” (Salinger 201) and decides to erase this.

After seeing a “fuck you” scratched into the wall, this individual finally relates to the conclusion that it must be helpless because there are too many symptoms. The symptoms symbolizes just how there are many items that children are exposed to which gives them the ability to go coming from childhood to adulthood. Holden’s conclusion about these “fuck you” signs signifies that you can not avoid adulthood and the points that one must take in the transition among childhood and adulthood. In the last chapters of The Catcher in the Rye, Phoebe is using the carousel and is longing for the precious metal ring; Holden watches from a distance. He says “the thing with kids can be, if they need to grab to get the rare metal ring, you must let them undertake it, and not say anything.

If they fall off, they decline, but it’s bad in the event you say anything to them” (Salinger 211). “He realizes, just like Phoebe, that kids will always grow up and have risks, struggling life’s morsure as they mature” (Kallen 57). Here Holden accepts that growing up is necessary and accepts the very fact that you can not protect a child from that; it is better to simply accept it. Though they may get hurt in the process, it is best for them to knowledge it automatically rather than to become told they will; growing up is something a child must experience for themselves.

The platinum ring is a symbol of the necessity of developing up, that Holden concerns accept and he leaves “the aimless quest [for the gold ring] towards the child” (Kallen 58). To summarize, the use of symbolism is significantly used in The Catcher in the Rye. Holden’s red hunting hat represents Holden’s uniqueness that allows him to be totally different from the people around him. His image of the catcher in the rye plus the cliff symbolizes playful childhood and deathly adulthood and just how Holden really wants to protect the childhood of younger children. The “fuck you” signs be a symbol that represents the many exposures to adulthood that children are confronted with.

The rare metal ring is at a represents adulthood and the process of growing up, and Holden accepts that it can be necessary to grow up. These symbols stand for the acknowledgement that Holden has. The acceptance of his uniqueness, adulthood, as well as the possibilities and processes of growing up.

These instances of symbolism is definitely greatly investigated within Salinger’s The Baseball catchers in the Rye.

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