Examples Of Figurative Language In Catcher In The Rye

One of the primary topics in The Catcher in the Rye is the protagonist, Holden, and his curious, conflicted relationship with adolescence and adulthood. It is a momentous reason for why the novel is so popular amongst teenagers and young adults. The targeted audience can relate to his teen angst and rebellion towards a structured society. Author J. D. Salinger uses figurative language and literary devices to demonstrate Holden’s adolescent development. For instance, Salinger uses symbolism to convey Holden’s emotions and reality while growing up in an urban environment. Salinger also illustrates Holden’s physical and emotional changes through various descriptions of him. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield’s means of coping with adolescence

inevitably began to collapse because of his conflicted grasp of adulthood.
Holden struggles to find stability of passing from childhood and adolescence to adulthood because of his misunderstanding of his development.

The novel describes how at seventeen years old, Holden had already grown six and a half inches since the year prior, along with having “quite a bit” of gray hair. He is not pleased by this however, and claims that his growth was the reason why he “practically got [tuberculosis]” and had to get checkups at a hospital. Being an unreliable narrator, it is likely that Holden got a cold and exaggerated its severity, and is at least under some form of psychiatric evaluation. This line is a foreshadow to the last events of the story where it is discovered that Holden is finally sent to a rest home to recover. Even more, it is suggested that Holden’s body is producing the sex hormone testosterone because of his excessive desire to have sex. Generally, the only way adolescents like Holden can crave for this activity is if their bodies are producing this hormone. In addition, later in the book Holden says “I looked exactly like the guy in the article with lousy hormones” (Salinger 254), which proves that he is indeed

developing.
At the same token, Holden also undergoes many emotional changes that clashes with him growing up, and he turns to lying in order to avoid having an emotional breakdown. Holden is caught between childish quirk of thinking his lies are impressive and the fundamental knowledge that it is not the right thing to do. Resorting to running away from problems, this action reflects Holden’s inner feelings and emotions. He has discovered and familiarized himself with his emotions, but is not at a stage where he can control it. Literary critic Robert Bennett states that Holden snapping at Stradlater for making sexual advances to Jane displays “[his] rather obvious childlike innocence” (Novels for Students).
He desires to have an intimate relationship and future with someone, which is a sign of maturity.

He has a crush on a character named Jane but does not have the courage to tell her. Sally Hayes’ rejection of Holden drifts him more towards mental breakdown at the unconscious level (Engel 44). The pimp Maurice and his prostitute Sunny’s brutal treatment and dismissal of Holden destroys his “man-of-the-world” image of himself, and leads him to reject the adolescent world. His coping with depression also contributes towards this rejection as he is grieving the loss of his brother Allie. Holden really admired him, so as a result he becomes unwilling to see other children grow

up.
At a social level, Holden transforms himself to a great extent. He feels pressured by society at large and hates the ideal image of being a sophisticated adult, which pushes him to wanting sex and drugs. With not being on speaking terms with his family, Holden has no real support system to help him make good decisions; he wants to retain the childness of his own. This is why he becomes a “catcher in the rye,” one who catches the children from falling off a cliff while they are running down the fields of rye. It shows that he is shielding their innocence and exposure from the real world (Novels for Students). Holden additionally perceives the society of adults as being a part of “phonies”, a term he uses immensely throughout the book.
Editor Diane Telgen describes the order of the novel being a “stream of consciousness”, meaning the sequence in which Holden thinks of each event (Novels for Students). J. D. Salinger uses language that is more comparable to a ten year old than sixteen year old, which demonstrates Holden’s unwillingness to grow up. He refuses to join the “phony”, or hypocritical adult world that he undeniably despises. His desperate conversation with Carl Luce addresses this reluctance appropriately as Luce expresses annoyance at his immaturity. Luce, as a character, is moving into adulthood; Holden, on the other hand, is still trapped in his childhood naïveté.
In the moral sense, Holden is reluctantly developing into an adult. A great deal of religious idealism is used by Salinger in the story to demonstrate these changes. Holden is learning that he cannot use people. In an literary analysis by Steve Engel, he compares Holden with God’s characteristics:
More important [than Holden’s deteriorating man-of-the-world image] is our learning at this point of the nature and degree of Holden’s sexual and religious idealism. He cannot use people. Like Christ, Holden has the ability to find pity and compassion to be stronger in him than self-will; unlike Christ, he is unable to find anything in himself approximating to the love of God, anything that can make of this pity and compassion a positive force (Engel 44).
Holden is depressed to the point of contemplating suicide and because he cannot live up to his Christian ideal, he instead imitates “Legion”, a term used for demons, in the Bible because it was the only character he can relate with.
Holden does not have much of an idea of religion, but he does practice moral values. He is very rebellious and it is shown when he is kicked out of school and accuses the school of being at fault. He exclaims “Sleep tight, ya morons!” (Salinger 52) as he parts Pencey Prep. Not only is this an example of his rebellion, it also demonstrates his rejection of the adolescent world. (Elden 44) Having witnessed the trauma of his dead brother Allie, he becomes very angry and depressed. He decides to break the windows in his garage and is thus threatened with being psychoanalyzed. Instead of giving Holden the attention he needs with this struggle, his family’s only solution is turning to mental health professionals, a clue of his evident disintegration with adolescence. He views the world as to be unfair and simply not in his favor. The symbol of Allie’s baseball mitt reminds Holden that children are at first pure and not infected with the phoniness of the adult world.
Analogous to his development, the symbolism behind Holden’s struggle is also apparent throughout the novel. Holden orders a scotch and soda next to frozen daiquiris for himself in a bar. Although it may be glanced over by the reader, this symbolizes Holden’s immaturity and maturity. By having an alcoholic beverage like scotch being drank with a soda, it is a juxtaposition of Holden pretending to be mature when in reality, he is not yet fully mature enough. Holden’s red hat is an object that is referenced many times in the novel; it is a symbol of Holden’s attachment to childhood. A red hat is not something a proper adult would wear, and additionally is a symbol for Holden’s protection of innocence from adulthood. Holden’s rampant efforts at communication are seen throughout the story as well. He finds it difficult to communicate and feels isolated primarily because he feels as if people simply do not understand him. Author Hans Bungert explains the reason for this is because Holden and “the various representatives of a society... inhabit quite separate worlds” (Contemporary Literary Criticism). This is why he frequently uses the phone booth; resorting to this as a way of communication between himself and society.
The carousel is a dimensional symbol within the story. First, it symbolizes his relationship with his younger sister Phoebe. She is one of the very few things that brings joy to Holden. When Phoebe is riding the carousel, she reaches for a golden ring. This makes Holden accept the fact that he cannot do anything that will prevent Phoebe, or any other children, from eventually becoming adults. He also recognizes that growing up is painful yet inevitable, and he himself must grow up as well. At this moment, his connection with childhood is now breaking down. As equally important, the carousel symbolizes youth, innocence, and childhood memories. “That’s the nice things about carousels, they always play the same thing” (Salinger 210). The consistency of the carousel shows that Holden does not want things to change, nor can he reconcile with the the thought of growing up. He wishes for his life to be like a carousel, meaning to always do the same thing and not moving anywhere.
Above all, Holden’s final subsidences with adolescence and the transition to adulthood can be explained through a number of examples from the novel. The ducks in Central Park display Holden’s dislike of responsibilities that came with being an adult. He always wants to know what happened to the ducks, similar to him curious of knowing what will happen to him when he becomes an adult. The Museum of Natural History interests Holden because “everything stayed right where it was” (Salinger 121), just like how he wants his childhood to stay where it was. Moreover, Holden’s flight from Mr. Antolini’s house results in him suffering an emotional breakdown. Holden’s quest for an innocent adult is lost, Antolini fails to be Holden’s “catcher in the rye” (Novels for Students). In brief, Holden finally decides to return home towards the last chapters of the novel. This action shows that he has matured since he did not run away from problems like he normally did. In the last chapter, it is discovered that Holden finally is sent to a rest home to recover from his emotional breakdown. Holden realizes that he needs help to tackle this issue, with this being the most damning piece of evidence that he is finally growing up into an adult.
All in all, Holden’s ability to navigate adolescence successfully began to break down in The Catcher in the Rye. This complicated development period can be attributed to his physical, emotional, social, and moral changes that he undergoes in the novel. Holden Caulfield is a dynamic character for this sole reason. The symbolism and style of writing that J.D. Salinger uses in the novel assists with the sole purpose of illustrating Holden’s loose understanding of adulthood. His eventual breakdown forces him into a mental hospital and resting home to recover from the intricacies and complexities in which he went through. The central idea of the book is the apprehension between adolescence and adulthood, which was the development trajectory. Every change in life that Holden threw himself into inescapably caused his utmost mental breakdown and demise of retaining childhood. In conclusion, Holden engaged in the specific thing he was so desperately trying to avoid: he grew up.