Essay/Term paper: The catcher in the rye: themes and symbols

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Catcher in the Rye

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 faÿade 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