The Catcher In The Rye: Themes And Symbols Essay, Research Paper

The Catcher in the Rye: Themes and Symbols

The theme that the world has an outward appearance that seems fair and perfect

but really they’re as Holden put it “phonies.” This is shown countless amount of

times in his journey through New York and even before he left. The setting is in

the 1950’s; so I’m pretty sure that he didn’t encounter any transvestites,

lesbians, or anything that extreme of phoniest. Or on the other hand he could

have liked them for being as Elmemson said a “none conformist.” But I doubt it,

he seemed to like kids more than anything. And his job, as he felt, was to

protect them in their innocents; of which I will talk about in my second theme.

The first example that stands out in my mind is the scene with Stradlater in the

“can.” If you remember Stradlater was getting ready for his other date while

Holden watched him. “Stradlater was a secret slob” in public he always looked

good and got all the girls but in fact he was a slob. His razor that made him

look so good was “rusty as hell and full on lather and hair and crap.” This

proves that he is a slob to “never clean it or anything.” If you think about it

that’s even worst than Old Ackley. At least Ackley knew that he had a problem,

that he need to do something about his face; but Stradlater thought that he was

a great guy. He actually thought that there was nothing wrong with never washing

his razor. I think that what mad, Holden so made Stradlater was perpetrating in

other word being “phony” every time he went out all GQ after using that filthy

razor. Another instance is when he calls that girl in New York, Faith Cavendish,

that Eddie Birdsell had brought to a dance at Princeton. Anyway he called her

and she almost went off until Holden drooped Eddie’s name. Then all of a sudden

“she was getting friendly as hell.” The same person said “if you think I enjoy

bein’ woke up in the middle-” was “getting an english accent all of a sudden.” I

think Holden caught her with her fa?ade down. When she first picked up the phone

she was mad as anybody else would be in her shoes. But as soon as she processed

“Eddie Birdsell from Princeton” she became so amicable. She most of thought that

a friend of Eddie, from Princeton, most have been rich or at lest well off.

Faith was all ready to hook up with him for a date until she asked “Where ya

callin’ from? Where ya at now, anyways?” And “in a phone booth” was the wrong

answer. When he said that she new he had no money and from that point on she had

no time to meet up any more. This is a good example of the phoniest that Holden

will talk about all through book.

Oh and one I almost missed it is a little before the conversation with Faith it

is a very important event. When J.D. Salinger had Holden look about of the

window I think it was a big simile, of which I think about more in theme number

3, of the theme of the book. I’m sure Holden didn’t ride all the way to New York

to pick a run down hotel. So I take it when he drove up it probably looked good

on the outside. He even “took it off [referring to the red hunting hat] before I

checked inI didn’t want to look like a screwball or something.” So we can assume

it was nice, or at lest on the outside. Salinger even throw Holden foreshadowed

a little in the line “I didn’t know then that the goddam hotel was full of

perverts and morons.” The first guy he saw out his room window “took out all

these women’s clothes, and put them on.” Then he started walking around like a

women, smoking a cigarette, and looking in the mirror. And now I guest I have to

take back my sentence about transvestites in the opening paragraph. Second he

saw a couple squiring water and “they were in hysterics the whole time,” a

little strange. You see the outside of the hotel represents what society is or

tries to be, all nice and neat. And the people acting silly in the rooms are

what we a really like. Im not saying we are all perverts but we all have two

different personalities; one outside and one inside closed doors.

Since I’m will into the second page and it’s past my bed time or at lest it

feels like it is this is the last one for this theme. The one I had in mind is

the one the date he had with Sally. From the jump she was phony. Holden had

already talked to her dad and told him how it was, but she still asked how it

was. Holden when call her “quite a little phony,” she even sounded phony through

the book with lines like “I’d love to grand.” And when they got through with the

play on the Lunts it didn’t get any better. They ran into this guy that Sally

knew and both of their phoniest began to shine. “You’ve though that they hadn’t

seen each other for twenty years” they probably even hugged and kissed checks

and all. And the funny thing is that “they probably met each other only once.”

And from that point on they went on a quest to outname the other. “They both

kept thinking of places as fast as they could” trying to get the upper-hand in a

game of illusion. They both were trying to, I guest, show they are more popular

than the other by making it seem like they known all these places and people,

when in actuality they were two big phonies.

The next Theme of this story that I want to talk about is the significance of

the novel’s title. First of all I have to say why the book was entitle as it was

“The Catcher in the Rye.” The title of the book is a mystery all the way until

chapter 21 when he sneaked back home to see Phoebe. When Phoebe fronted him

about getting kicked out of school again saying “you don’t like anything” Holden

was forced to come up with something he would enjoy to be or do. After minutes

of pondering Holden said “I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” He just

wanted to save the little innocent kids from falling. The kids I think represent

the innocents of the young just playing and when they fall off the cliff they

discover the world. He wants to protect them and keep them pure will. All

through the story Salinger used Holden as the catcher on the rye to protect or

try to protect the innocents of kids.

The biggest and most memorial of this protection is when he went to Phoebe

elementary school to talk to her before he had to leave. Anyway he saw the word

fuck you on the hall walls and “it drove him dam near crazy.” He couldn’t stand

the idea that Phoebe or her friend had seen that on the wall. If they saw it

they would wonder and eventually “some dirty kid would tell them” and they would

know the cruel the world thus falling in the rye. As his duty as the catcher in

the rye Holden tried to erase the first one that was on the walls, but later

said “it’s hopeless anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t

rub out even half the fuck you signs in the world. Its impossible.” Now I think

the word tragedy goes right there. If the job that Holden is set out to do is

inevitable then it’s a tragedy. Salinger illustrates a full blown tragedy with a

15 year old boy; it sounds a lot like the classic we read last year Romeo and

Juliet. A young boy, even the same age, is placed in a no win situation.

The next one I just thought about is the time Holden got a snow ball off the

window cell. This has nothing to go with protecting but it is about purity.

Holden got some show from off the window pan and he “started to throw it” but

after looking out at the scene he decides not to. He said he stared it throw it

at a car and fire hydrogen but they looked “too nice and white.” Holden is

consumed with finding and protecting purity, and when he found something pure he

didn”t want to disturb it. But it’s strange how he used the words “nice and

white,” I know that the snow was white but is there something more there. White

is often associated with pure and even holiness. He may be comparing it to a

holy site; because he does ask Ackley about joining later in the book. You never

know. Theme number three is going to be a discussing about Salinger and his

symbolism. Salinger is a master of the subtle symbolism. He lays his symbols so

subtle that most of the time they’re not even found or addressed even by a

commentary over the book. I really enjoyed reading and rereading this book to

find embedding symbols. I think that’s what made it so good. A very important

character that is referred to all throgh the story by Holden is Allie. Allie is

Holder’s younger brother who died of leukemia when he was just thirteen. Holden

loved his brother more than anything and when he died he punched out all the

windows in the garage. He said that “my hand still hurts me once in a while.”

This is symbolic of the love he had and still has for his little brother; he

even quotes latter that “you don’t stop loving someone because they die” proving

that he still cares for him. He may even think he had something to do with his

death or he caused it. Sometimes little kids think stuff like that. Holden also

says that ” I can’t make a real fist any more-not a tight one.” If his fist

represents his love for his brother or his heart than maybe he can’t love again.

When he meet up with Sally he said he felt like marring her than he discards it

by saying “I don’t even like her much.” Holden is afraid to love again because

of the way his heart and fist was broken by Allie.

Another symbol is his own sister Phoebe. First you must understand that Phoebe

came from the Greek word meaning Sun. Holden is lost in the world and feels that

everything is “phony.” Phoebe is his symbol of hope in the world. All Holden

needs is hope. Just as the sun comes out and shines it’s beautiful color and

truth to the world to nurrshish and feed the plant; so did Phoebe come with her

innocent hands saving Holden from the world. “The first thing I did when I got

off at Penn station, I went into this phone booth.” Holden first started to call

his brother but then he thought of his sitter Phoebe, then he whet on about her

and how she wouldn’t mind being woke up. All through the book he will think

about call and eventually sneak home just to see her. This shows he sees her as

his only light in this world of phonies hint the name Phoebe Greek for sun. I

read a very interesting point in a book review about The Catcher in the Rye that

explains the Holden behavior all through the book. In short it said his

activities “describes a developing nervous breakdown.” And if you think of the

symptoms you would a agree. Unexplained depression, show countless time in the

story as “I felt depressed as hell.” And the why that Salinger keep using the

world depressed, not bad or mellow but depressed he may have been hinting at it.

Impulsive spending, that is obvious through the fact he only had “3 dollars and

some change” after just 2 days in New York. Erratic behavior, example is Holden

just jumping up and put Stradlater in a “half Nelson.” All of this is prior to

his eventual