Is It Time to Fly Away? The transition from childhood to adulthood presents one of life’s most drastic changes. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, wrestles to grow as a person throughout the novel. Holden at sixteen, is two years from what society considers adulthood, yet he struggles to grasp maturity. He regresses, and acts more childlike as his journey unfolds. Although Holden has reached adulthood physically, Salinger represents Holden’s fear of becoming an adult emotionally through the metaphor of the Central Park ducks. Holden’s concerns about the well-being of the ducks during the wintertime symbolizes his fear of a disappearing childhood. Towards the end of the novel, Holden asks a cab driver, …show more content…
“By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it [the lagoon] gets all frozen over?” (Salinger 60). The frozen lagoon represents his current state, stuck between childhood and adulthood. However, despite this fear of being stuck, Holden continues to cling to his childhood as a protective mechanism. For example, Holden’s tells Stradlater: Yeah.
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. (Salinger 31-32) Holden’s detailed memories further proves how he clings to his past. In fact, Holden’s recollections occurred when Stradlater spoke of Jane in a sexual sense; it seemed Holden adhered to the memory of playing checkers with Jane to avoid seeing her in this new, adult way. Holden ponders a critical question; who, if anyone, will take care of him as an adult? Holden, thinking about the ducks during a difficult situation says, “I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them [the ducks] away to a zoo something. Or if they just flew away” (Salinger 13). Here, the ducks are a metaphor for Holden’s independence, because they are flying away without the help of the zoo keeper, who symbolizes the adult whose job it is to take care of the child. Holden’s need for an adult to take care of him appears at other points in the novel as well. Old Spencer, Holden’s history teacher, flunked him for his mediocre work. Holden, feeling betrayed, responds angrily, “Grand. There’s a word I really hate. It’s a phony” (Salinger 9). Holden once more lapses into a childish state, telling the reader what he dislikes about Old Spencer when his former teacher demands that Holden take responsibility for his …show more content…
life. Holden deflects this responsibility by focusing on unrelated, negative qualities about Old Spencer, thereby rejecting the plea to embrace adulthood. Holden wants definitive answers, which simply do not exist, about what this new phase of life may bring.
For example, Holden says, “I was wondering if it [the lagoon] would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go” (Salinger 13). Throughout Salinger’s novel, Holden asks himself and many others questions about the ducks. These questions never get answered, and each time he asks, his frustration increases. From this behavior, Holden demonstrates his incapacity to live with uncertainty. Later, Holden informs the reader, “For one thing, I figured I ought to get some breakfast. I wasn’t hungry at all, but I figured I ought to at least eat something” (Salinger 196). Holden’s lack of initiative shows his refusal to act like an adult. Holden’s “inner child” still has a strong hold on him despite his outward, physical adult
appearance. Through his journey to find purpose, Holden struggles to understand his place in the adult world. He fails in this challenge until the end of the novel when Holden finally gets help and considers returning to school. Previously, Holden viewed his failures as something to run away from rather than to accept and change. At this point, Salinger raises an interesting question: what happens to one’s childhood when one becomes an adult? Perhaps he asks this question because Holden lost so much of his childhood when his younger brother died. In this way, Salinger wants the reader to understand that Holden does not make decisions due to a lack of morals but rather out of fear. Therefore, Holden’s journey in The Catcher in the Rye symbolizes the necessity to accept and adapt to life’s inevitable transitions, and the potential consequences of living in fear of change.
Holden wants to be told that someone helps the ducks and the fish through the winter. Holden wants help during his teenage years, but his mother is still grieving over the death of his brother so she is, “nervous as hell” (206). Holden needs to open up to his parents the same way the fish open their pores for nature to provide for
Holden twice inquired about the “disappearing” ducks in Central Park. When the pond is frozen in the winter, where would the ducks go? This symbolizes that Holden is curious about his own mortality which was affected him by his brother’s death. So he came here to look for answers, but he didn’t find any duck. “I nearly fell in, but I couldn’t find any…Boy, I was still shivering like a bastard… I thought I probably get pneumonia and die.” (154)
Since Holden was isolated from his family, in order to not get hurt again he tries to find hypocrisy in people to stop himself from trusting others. Holden feels isolated after being sent to a boarding school that “was full of phonies” by his parents (Salinger 90). Salinger’s message to the audience with this quote is that when
Immaturity of Holden in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden, cannot accept that he must move out of childhood and into adulthood. One of Holden’s most important major problems is his lack of maturity.
When Holden attempts to make connections with other people in the city but is unsuccessful, Salinger shows that he focuses too much on what society expects from him rather than what he wants. While Holden walks through the city and pond in the park, he notices ducks. He later takes a cab and while talking with Horwitz the cab driver Holden asks him,
At several points during the course of the novel, Holden asks as to what happens to the ducks who are normally on a pond in Central Park, when winter comes and the water freezes. On page 60, Holden asks, "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?
J. D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye explores the ambiguity of the adult world Holden must eventually learn to accept. Throughout the novel, Holden resists the society grownups represent, coloring his childlike dreams with innocence and naivety. He only wants to protect those he loves, but he cannot do it the way he desires. As he watches Phoebe on the carousel, he begins to understand certain aspects of truth. He writes:
It is made evident that Holden is enamored with Jane Gallagher, and this first manifests itself when Holden talks about her to Stradlater. “I used to play checkers with her,” Holden recounts. “ ‘She’d get [her kings] 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.’ Stradlater didn’t say anything. That kind of stuff doesn’t interest most people” (41). In a world where almost everything is so “goddam depressing,” thinking about Jane’s minor traits actually makes Holden happy, even if it is the kind of stuff that does not interest most people. It allows him to channel his childhood, where he was oblivious to the phoniness around him. However, this silly nostalgia cannot get across to Stradlater, who is more interested in Jane as a sexual being than trivialities such as her checker tactics or struggles with ballet. This physical interest eventually becomes the root of their brawl in their dorm. Although Holden’s interrogative mood agitates Stradlater, Holden is only showing his genuine care for Jane. Unlike Stradlaer, Holden has enough sense to know that Jane, being the humble, intelligent girl she is, deserves to be treated right. So, even though Holden lets his anger get the better of him and eventually start a fight, he has reason to do
Holden tries to preserve his own innocence, and the innocence of others by not letting go of childhood memories and through his desire to suspend time. Holden views the adult world as corrupt and full of phonies. He admires childhood because of how it is free of corruption, and untouched by the adult world. IN order to preserve his own innocence Holden often attaches himself to childhood memories. The Museum of NAtural History is one of Holden’s favourite places . He mentions that his grade one teacher Miss. Aigletinger used to take his class there every saturday. While writing about the museum he says, “The best thing, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was” (121). This shows how Holden wants to preserve his innocence because he expresses how he likes how everything stayed the
Holden’s first interaction in New York comes after his realization that he is completely alone and enters a cab. He attempts to make a connection with the driver, Horwitz. Holden asks the cab driver “By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?”(Salinger 60). Holden when referring to the ducks is covering up his insecurity on how he will end up. Holden before he is anything else is a kid and often it is forgotten because of his very pessimistic view of the world. This moment
Part of the irony in Holden’s story is that physically, he looks mature, but mentally, he is still very much a child: “I act quite young for my age, sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeen now … I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair ” (9). There is no middle ground, adolescence, for Holden. He can only be an adult, physically, or a child, mentally. Holden’s history teacher, Mr. Spencer, tries to appeal to him by using a metaphor: “Life is a game, boy.
Holden does not do well in school because he longs for his disappearing childhood and cannot accept the fact that one day he is going to have to stop “act[ing] like [he is] about thirteen.” (Salinger, 15) Holden couldn’t handle the transition between his childhood without pain or struggle and his teenage life with the burden of responsibility, and that eventually created an uncertainty of the future which led to much suffering for
From Holden’s point of view, she is a possible victim of sexual abuse. Salinger writes, “‘... all I ever saw him do was booze all the time... and run around the goddam house, naked. With Jane around, and all’” (37). One of Jane’s coping methods for her stepfather’s sexual intrusion and emotional abuse is to always keep her kings in the back row during chess. In this way, she is subconsciously protecting both herself and her emotions. To Holden, Jane Gallagher’s youth involves her conflict with her
On a few occasions, when the innocence of one dear to him or his own innocence is threatened, Holden looks to his anger and aggression to solve problems. The most notable account being when Stradlater discusses with Holden the events of the night he had just spent with Jane Gallagher, Holden’s childhood friend. Holden becomes enraged during the encounter and tells the reader, “[...] I tried to sock him, with all my might […]” (Salinger 43). Holden has a perfect image of Jane kept from his childhood memories made with her, memories from when they were both considered pure and innocent. When he hears of the actions Stradlater and Jane performed, he begins to lose that innocent image of her, forcing him to act out of aggression, his only way he can really express his thoughts. This aggression not only prevents Holden from fully maturing, it also leaves him with a feeling of utter depression and isolation: “People who express too much anger often end up feeling alone and distant from others because their sullen, hostile, or sarcastic behavior can make people turn away from them” (Scheingold 1). Holden feels compelled to protect the innocent image he has of the people he cares deepest for and keep them from reaching a high level of maturity or
Holden’s travel through the city enables him to interact with various types of people. He connects with his younger sister, Phoebe, amidst his attempt to also save her from adulthood. Phoebe is the only person in Holden’s family with whom he has sustained a relationship; he lacks authority from his parents in his life because he hardly spends time with them because. Holden constructs bonds with the ducks in the Central Park lagoon as well as the Natural History Museum. His need to be the catcher in the rye formulates false identities that he believes to be true. Vanishing from reality, he views Allie as an aide. The climax of Holden’s mental breakdown occurs when he is strolling through the city, “I'd say to him, ‘Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie.’ And then when I'd reach the other side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him” (Salinger 198). Holden exhibits his aloneness and love for his brother. At the end of his journey, with the help of his sister, Phoebe, Holden appears to