Catcher In The Rye Symbolism Essay

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His parents return home while he is still in the house. Holden asks Phoebe for money and she gives him all her Christmas money. This made him break down in tears and he could not stop. Again he mentions the word “edge”. “I was still sitting on the edge of the bed…” (193) He was still on the edge of an emotional breakdown… The red hunting hat plays an important symbolic part in the novel. For Holden it symbolises protection. Before he leaves he gave it to Phoebe. Suddenly he did not mind his parents seeing him - he is standing on the edge of surrendering. “I figured if they caught me, they caught me. I almost wished they did, in a way.” (194)
Holden becomes obsessed with the idea of innocence, especially when it relates to children. He feels compelled to
One morning when he was walking up Fifth Avenue he starts to feel as he will not make it to the other side of the street. “I thought I’d just go down, down, down…….”. He then starts talking to Allie and ask him to protect him from going down and disappear. He thanks Allie when he reaches the other side of the street safely. By this time it is quite clear that Holden does not think clearly anymore and is emotionally in a very deep and dark place. He decides to just say goodbye to Phoebe and hitchhike to a sunny and pretty place where nobody knows him. He will also pretend that he cannot hear or speak and he will marry a deaf-mute woman as well. “If we had any children, we’d hide them somewhere”, thus protect them and their innocence from the evil world and the cruelty of adulthood. The Asian Social Science Journal did an analysis on the adolescent problems in The Catcher in the Rye and their conclusion is as follows: “Holden 's enemy is the adult world and the cruelty and artificiality. I see this to be Holden physically at war with the adult world. He is the protector and even the leader of the army of the youth, fighting to preserve their

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