Catcher In The Rye Quote Analysis
Trials of Life: The Analytical Understanding of Loss of Innocence in Catcher in the Rye “When you lose someone you love, you die too, and you wait around for your body to catch up.” John Scalzi. This quote relates back to Catcher in the Rye because after Holden loses his brother Allie, he dies a little bit inside and like the quote says, he is waiting for his body to catch up to death of his brother Allie. The story takes place in Manhattan and is about a young boy named Holden Caulfield, it is about the learning experience that takes place and how an immature child tried to come to terms with multiple problems. In J.D. Salinger’s bildungsroman, Catcher in the Rye, Salinger utilizes the symbols, the red hunting hat; Allie’s catching mitt,
…show more content…
and the ducks in central park to portray the theme that it is impossible to preserve natural innocence.
Salinger utilizes the symbol of the red hunting hat to portray Holden’s loss of innocence and travel into adulthood. Firstly, when Holden is first mentioning the hat, “It only cost me a buck. I wore it, I swung the old peak way round to the back-very corny, I’ll admit but I liked it that way.” (17) Holden is talking about how he bought the hat and just wears it to express his own personality and recognizes that he likes to wear it in different ways. When he is explaining why he purchased the hat, he is trying to make people understand, he is constantly looking for acceptance from his peers and others, yet at the same time he tries to push people away by wearing the hat. This helps show that Holden is on his path to trying to figure out how he can stop the inevitable loss of innocence. Secondly, while walking down the street in the cold Manhattan weather, “My ears were nice and warm, though. That hat I bought had earlaps in it. And I put them on-I didn’t give a damn how I looked. Nobody was around anyway.” (53) As Holden is walking down the street, all he cares about is what he is feeling at that moment, just trying to stay warm and comfortable not caring about what others think. One can infer here that Holden doesn’t care too much about what others think, while this could be a façade to what he really feels inside, he tries to portray himself not caring about what others think and just wants to be happy. This continues to portray his path down the loss of innocence because as he starts to realize other people’s thoughts matter, he understands that he must give a little for the acceptance of others. Finally, towards the end of the novel when Holden angers Phoebe, “She wouldn’t answer me. All she did was, she took off my red hunting hat-the one I gave her- and practically chucked it right in my face. Then she turned her back on me again. It nearly killed me.” (207) Phoebe is angered by Holden’s immaturity and his lack of caring for others and crushes Holden’s last spirits toward innocence. With ties to the last person in the world crumbling, Holden begins to finally question his stance on life and must decide whether or not he is going to try and salvage the last relationship or completely isolate himself. Holden realizes that by his sisters actions and her disregard of the hunting hat, that he must grow up and this starts a chain reaction within him that could be a cause of his breakdown but it is unknown, Holden finally comes to terms with this loss of innocence and realizes that there is nothing that he can do to stop it.
Allie’s catching mitt is also used in the portrayal of the loss of innocence in Holden and the characters around him. We are first shown the mitt when Holden is doing the composition on the catchers Mitt, “...He had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere…he wrote them on it so that he’d have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up to bat. He’s dead now.” (39) This is the first time the reader sees Holden tear up and let some of his emotions get the best of him, he is talking of his dead brother Allie who meant a lot to him. One can infer that this was one of the more important relationships that Holden had and the loss of this relationship causes Holden to feel a series of symptoms and change the way he interacts with people. With the death of his brother Allie, Holden experiences for the first time, the lost of a loved one, one of the few people that he makes attachments with and this causes him to try and preserve the innocence within other children and even adults that he meets on his journey. The next time we see the glove, Holden is recollecting his past memories of Jane, “She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever showed Allie’s baseball mitt too, with all the poems written on it.” (77) Jane was another person who Holden allowed himself to get close to; he shows this by showing Jane his brother’s mitt. Holden is trying to get Jane close to him so that he can have someone in his life that is pure and cares about him, by showing her the mitt; he is revealing a part of him that no one outside of his family knows about. He sees the innocence in Jane and wants to try and preserve it; he wants to get close to Jane to keep her out of the adult world and not allow her to be corrupted by the world around her. The final time the glove is mentioned, Holden is having a flashback on when D.B. wants to prove a point, ““He made Allie go get his baseball mitt and then asked him who was the best war poet, Rupert Brooke or Emily Dickenson. Allie said Emily Dickenson” (140) This is one of the only times we see Allie alive and the whole family, besides Phoebe, together. Allie’s innocence is portrayed through the glove, when D.B. asks him which WWII author was better, one that was in the war or one that never saw a day in the war, Allie answers with the latter. This can be interpreted as Allie seeing how the other author was not corrupted in the war and her work was more pure. By using Allie’s mitt to portray innocence, the author uses flashbacks to show the reader how Holden idolizes this glove because of the innocence it emits to him.
Salinger also uses the ducks in Central Park to portray the uneasiness that Holden feels about his future and his possible journey to his loss of innocence.
He first thinks of the ducks while still at Pencey Prep, “I was thinking about the Lagoon in Central Park…I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go.” (13) Holden’s insecurity over the future is symbolized through the ducks in Central Park and his plight of preserving innocence. Holden’s curiosity over these ducks is odd, he doesn’t seem to care much over the people in his life yet he is very headstrong when it comes to the ducks and their future. Secondly, when he is drunk walking through the park, “So what I did, I started walking over to the park. I figured I’d go by that little lake and see what the hell the ducks were doing, see if they were around or not.” (153) In his drunken stupor, Holden decides to go and see what happens to the ducks in Central Park. It exemplifies that Holden is uncertain of his future and in this drunken state may subconsciously realizes that him and the ducks are more closely related than what he actually thought. Holden is worried about his future and may be subconsciously worried about his own loss of innocence and the journey he has been on shows that he is trying to lose the last of his innocence while at the same time keep it preserved in the others around him. Finally when he arrives at the lake, “What it was, it was partly frozen and partly not frozen. But I didn’t see any ducks around. I walked all around the whole damn lake-I damn near fell in once, in fact-but I didn’t see a single duck…but I couldn’t find any.” (154) Holden finally sees his future; whether he realizes or not, his symbolic future is laid right in front of him if he continues on the same path that he is on. Salinger uses the ducks to portray Holden’s journey toward his loss of innocence by showing Holden’s search for the ducks during the winter time.
If Holden continues on his path of pushing himself away by trying to push people away, he will end up being the only duck left in the half frozen lake while the people who care about him are gone and may not come back. The ducks are a great example of Salinger’s literary device usage of symbolism to help exemplify the ducks as Holden’s personality and possible future.
Holden is a great literary character who shows the reader that the search for innocence is a long and winding road that takes one on a journey that ends in sorrow or realization for change. When Holden realizes that the end of innocence is inevitable, he weeps, but these are tears of joy that he comes to accept the terms of growing up and maturing. Everyday teenagers are facing similar trials within their everyday lives. When one is maturing, trials are thrown in the way and it is up to the person whether or not they choose to overcome the difficulties. It is part of human nature to mature and lose innocence, it is up to the person whether they buy into the system or they rebel against it.
and the ducks in central park to portray the theme that it is impossible to preserve natural innocence.
Salinger utilizes the symbol of the red hunting hat to portray Holden’s loss of innocence and travel into adulthood. Firstly, when Holden is first mentioning the hat, “It only cost me a buck. I wore it, I swung the old peak way round to the back-very corny, I’ll admit but I liked it that way.” (17) Holden is talking about how he bought the hat and just wears it to express his own personality and recognizes that he likes to wear it in different ways. When he is explaining why he purchased the hat, he is trying to make people understand, he is constantly looking for acceptance from his peers and others, yet at the same time he tries to push people away by wearing the hat. This helps show that Holden is on his path to trying to figure out how he can stop the inevitable loss of innocence. Secondly, while walking down the street in the cold Manhattan weather, “My ears were nice and warm, though. That hat I bought had earlaps in it. And I put them on-I didn’t give a damn how I looked. Nobody was around anyway.” (53) As Holden is walking down the street, all he cares about is what he is feeling at that moment, just trying to stay warm and comfortable not caring about what others think. One can infer here that Holden doesn’t care too much about what others think, while this could be a façade to what he really feels inside, he tries to portray himself not caring about what others think and just wants to be happy. This continues to portray his path down the loss of innocence because as he starts to realize other people’s thoughts matter, he understands that he must give a little for the acceptance of others. Finally, towards the end of the novel when Holden angers Phoebe, “She wouldn’t answer me. All she did was, she took off my red hunting hat-the one I gave her- and practically chucked it right in my face. Then she turned her back on me again. It nearly killed me.” (207) Phoebe is angered by Holden’s immaturity and his lack of caring for others and crushes Holden’s last spirits toward innocence. With ties to the last person in the world crumbling, Holden begins to finally question his stance on life and must decide whether or not he is going to try and salvage the last relationship or completely isolate himself. Holden realizes that by his sisters actions and her disregard of the hunting hat, that he must grow up and this starts a chain reaction within him that could be a cause of his breakdown but it is unknown, Holden finally comes to terms with this loss of innocence and realizes that there is nothing that he can do to stop it.
Allie’s catching mitt is also used in the portrayal of the loss of innocence in Holden and the characters around him. We are first shown the mitt when Holden is doing the composition on the catchers Mitt, “...He had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere…he wrote them on it so that he’d have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up to bat. He’s dead now.” (39) This is the first time the reader sees Holden tear up and let some of his emotions get the best of him, he is talking of his dead brother Allie who meant a lot to him. One can infer that this was one of the more important relationships that Holden had and the loss of this relationship causes Holden to feel a series of symptoms and change the way he interacts with people. With the death of his brother Allie, Holden experiences for the first time, the lost of a loved one, one of the few people that he makes attachments with and this causes him to try and preserve the innocence within other children and even adults that he meets on his journey. The next time we see the glove, Holden is recollecting his past memories of Jane, “She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever showed Allie’s baseball mitt too, with all the poems written on it.” (77) Jane was another person who Holden allowed himself to get close to; he shows this by showing Jane his brother’s mitt. Holden is trying to get Jane close to him so that he can have someone in his life that is pure and cares about him, by showing her the mitt; he is revealing a part of him that no one outside of his family knows about. He sees the innocence in Jane and wants to try and preserve it; he wants to get close to Jane to keep her out of the adult world and not allow her to be corrupted by the world around her. The final time the glove is mentioned, Holden is having a flashback on when D.B. wants to prove a point, ““He made Allie go get his baseball mitt and then asked him who was the best war poet, Rupert Brooke or Emily Dickenson. Allie said Emily Dickenson” (140) This is one of the only times we see Allie alive and the whole family, besides Phoebe, together. Allie’s innocence is portrayed through the glove, when D.B. asks him which WWII author was better, one that was in the war or one that never saw a day in the war, Allie answers with the latter. This can be interpreted as Allie seeing how the other author was not corrupted in the war and her work was more pure. By using Allie’s mitt to portray innocence, the author uses flashbacks to show the reader how Holden idolizes this glove because of the innocence it emits to him.
Salinger also uses the ducks in Central Park to portray the uneasiness that Holden feels about his future and his possible journey to his loss of innocence.
He first thinks of the ducks while still at Pencey Prep, “I was thinking about the Lagoon in Central Park…I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go.” (13) Holden’s insecurity over the future is symbolized through the ducks in Central Park and his plight of preserving innocence. Holden’s curiosity over these ducks is odd, he doesn’t seem to care much over the people in his life yet he is very headstrong when it comes to the ducks and their future. Secondly, when he is drunk walking through the park, “So what I did, I started walking over to the park. I figured I’d go by that little lake and see what the hell the ducks were doing, see if they were around or not.” (153) In his drunken stupor, Holden decides to go and see what happens to the ducks in Central Park. It exemplifies that Holden is uncertain of his future and in this drunken state may subconsciously realizes that him and the ducks are more closely related than what he actually thought. Holden is worried about his future and may be subconsciously worried about his own loss of innocence and the journey he has been on shows that he is trying to lose the last of his innocence while at the same time keep it preserved in the others around him. Finally when he arrives at the lake, “What it was, it was partly frozen and partly not frozen. But I didn’t see any ducks around. I walked all around the whole damn lake-I damn near fell in once, in fact-but I didn’t see a single duck…but I couldn’t find any.” (154) Holden finally sees his future; whether he realizes or not, his symbolic future is laid right in front of him if he continues on the same path that he is on. Salinger uses the ducks to portray Holden’s journey toward his loss of innocence by showing Holden’s search for the ducks during the winter time.
If Holden continues on his path of pushing himself away by trying to push people away, he will end up being the only duck left in the half frozen lake while the people who care about him are gone and may not come back. The ducks are a great example of Salinger’s literary device usage of symbolism to help exemplify the ducks as Holden’s personality and possible future.
Holden is a great literary character who shows the reader that the search for innocence is a long and winding road that takes one on a journey that ends in sorrow or realization for change. When Holden realizes that the end of innocence is inevitable, he weeps, but these are tears of joy that he comes to accept the terms of growing up and maturing. Everyday teenagers are facing similar trials within their everyday lives. When one is maturing, trials are thrown in the way and it is up to the person whether or not they choose to overcome the difficulties. It is part of human nature to mature and lose innocence, it is up to the person whether they buy into the system or they rebel against it.