Symbol and The Catcher in the Rye

1. Symbol and The Catcher in the Rye Given what we now know about holden’s character, what could some of these recurring icons and quotes symbolize?

2. Symbol Definition • Asymbol is a word or object that stands for another word or object. The object or word can be seen with the eye or not visible. For example a dove stands for Peace. The dove can be seen and peace cannot. The word is from the Greek word symbolom. All language is symbolizing one thing or another. However when we read the book of Genesis it talked about a few symbols. In the story of Adam and Eve when Eve ate the apple, the apple stood for sin.

3. Holden’s hunting hat… “I saw it in the window of this sports store when we got out of the subway, just after I noticed I’d lost all the goddam foils” (17) He tells Ackley: “This is a people shooting hat…I shoot people in this hat” (22)

4. Holden’s hunting hat… “I saw it in the window of this sports store when we got out of the subway, just after I noticed I’d lost all the goddam foils” (17) He tells Ackley: “This is a people shooting hat…I shoot people in this hat” (22) Strong Response: “It could be a symbol of his lies and hiding behind his lies to keep himself from getting hurt. The red color also suggests he may be trying to capture the innocence of his two red-headed younger siblings.”

5. Hair Color… “The one side of my head – the right side – is full of millions of gray hairs. I’ve had them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve” (9) “People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair” (38) “She has this sort of red hair, a little bit like Allie’s was…” (67).

6. Hair Color… Strong response: “Grey hair shows he can no longer be carefree and he wishes he could be calm and kind like his red-haired siblings.” “The one side of my head – the right side – is full of millions of gray hairs. I’ve had them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I was only about twelve” (9) “People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie never did, and he had very red hair” (38) “She has this sort of red hair, a little bit like Allie’s was…” (67).

7. The ducks in the pond in Central Park… • Thinks of them while Spencer lectures him: • “The funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while I shot the bull…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). • Asks the cab driver: • “The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves – go south or something?” • “How the hell should I know?” • (82)

8. The ducks in the pond in Central Park… • Thinks of them while Spencer lectures him: • “The funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while I shot the bull…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). • Asks the cab driver: • “The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves – go south or something?” • “How the hell should I know?” • (82) Strong response: “The ducks (and children) are growing up by themselves.” Strong response: “Ducks stand for childhood and naiveté. He wonders if someone will tell him when it’s time to really be an adult.”

9. Where the sidewalk ends… • “The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming…that song, ‘If a body catch a body coming through the rye’…It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed anymore” (115). • “Anyway, I kept walking and walking up Fifth Avenue, without any tie on or anything. Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I came to the end of a block and steped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street. I thougth I’d just go down, down, down, and nobody’d ever see me again…Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him, ‘Allie please don’t let me disappear….And then when I’d reach the other side of the street without disappearing I’d thank him.” (197-198).

10. Strong Response: “Allie is his guide in life. The end of the sidewalk stands for his sanity. Every time he reaches it he needs Allie.” Where the sidewalk ends… • “The kid was swell. He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole time he kept singing and humming…that song, ‘If a body catch a body coming through the rye’…It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed anymore” (115). • “Anyway, I kept walking and walking up Fifth Avenue, without any tie on or anything. Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I came to the end of a block and steped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street. I thougth I’d just go down, down, down, and nobody’d ever see me again…Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie. I’d say to him, ‘Allie please don’t let me disappear….And then when I’d reach the other side of the street without disappearing I’d thank him.” (197-198). Strong Response: “The end of the sidewalk is adulthood and all that comes with it. The child singing the song is just over the edge, but he’s still safe... … Holden doesn’t feel safe even near the edge though.”

11. The cliff… • “ 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 don’t’ look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them” (173).

12. The cliff… • “ 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 don’t’ look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them” (173). Strong Response: “The cliff is adulthood. Holden does not want children to suffer it – nor does he want to suffer it himself.” Strong Response: “There is a lot of falling in the book. Falling is always a terrifying way to learn something more about yourself – maybe the hard, but necessary way.”

13. Kings in the Back Row “She wouldn’t move any of her kings. What she’d do, when she’d get a king, she wouldn’t move it. She’d just leave it in the back row. She’d get them all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row” (32-33). “I remember this one afternoon. It was the only time old Jane and I ever got close to necking, even…we were playing checkers…all of a sudden this booze hound her mother was married to came out on the porch and asked Jane if there were any cigarettes in the house…[she] wouldn’t answer him…Then all of a sudden, this tear plopped down on the checkerboard…boy, I can still see it” (78).

14. Strong Response: “Jane is very protective of herself. The kings represent her virginity and how she is cautious about relationships.” Kings in the Back Row “She wouldn’t move any of her kings. What she’d do, when she’d get a king, she wouldn’t move it. She’d just leave it in the back row. She’d get them all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row” (32-33). “I remember this one afternoon. It was the only time old Jane and I ever got close to necking, even…we were playing checkers…all of a sudden this booze hound her mother was married to came out on the porch and asked Jane if there were any cigarettes in the house…[she] wouldn’t answer him…Then all of a sudden, this tear plopped down on the checkerboard…boy, I can still see it” (78).

15. “Sunny” and Phoebe Phoebe - Latinized form of the Greek name Φοιβη (Phoibe), which meant "bright, pure" from Greek φοιβος (phoibos). In Greek mythology Phoibe was a Titan associated with the moon. From Phoebe scene: • When he wakes her: “She put her arms around my neck and all. She’s very affectionate. I mean she’s quite affectionate, for a child. Sometimes she’s even too affectionate. I sort of gave her a kiss” (161). • He thinks about Allie when she asks him what he likes • She gives him her Christmas money, and she gives him more than he asks for • Holden starts crying From Sunny scene: • Keeps noticing how young she is and how she tries to be physical with him when he wants to talk • She takes his money, makes him give her more • Ends with him thinking about Allie all night • Then, he gets beaten up by Maurice and cries

16. “Sunny” and Phoebe Phoebe - Latinized form of the Greek name Φοιβη (Phoibe), which meant "bright, pure" from Greek φοιβος (phoibos). In Greek mythology Phoibe was a Titan associated with the moon. From Phoebe scene: • When he wakes her: “She put her arms around my neck and all. She’s very affectionate. I mean she’s quite affectionate, for a child. Sometimes she’s even too affectionate. I sort of gave her a kiss” (161). • He thinks about Allie when she asks him what he likes • She gives him her Christmas money, and she gives him more than he asks for • Holden starts crying From Sunny scene: • Keeps noticing how young she is and how she tries to be physical with him when he wants to talk • She takes his money, makes him give her more • Ends with him thinking about Allie all night • Then, he gets beaten up by Maurice and cries Strong response: “Holden has an unhealthy relationship with his sister. It’s physical. The episode symbolizes his fear of girls and being physical with them.” Strong response: “Phoebe seems to be the only light in his life, and the only thing he has left.”

17. The Carrousel and The Gold Ring “That’s one nice thing about carrousels, they always play the same songs” (210). “I watched her go around and around. There were only about five or six other kids on the ride, and the song the carrousel was playing was ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.’ It was playing it very jazzy and funny. All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them” (211).

18. The Carrousel and The Gold Ring Strong Response: “The carousel represents safety because it is familiar and moves while staying in place while the gold ring represents taking risks because it is dangerous to reach it. It could also represent marriage which is the adulthood Holden fears.” “That’s one nice thing about carrousels, they always play the same songs” (210). “I watched her go around and around. There were only about five or six other kids on the ride, and the song the carrousel was playing was ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.’ It was playing it very jazzy and funny. All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them” (211).