Use Of Symbolism In “The Catcher In The Rye” and “The Great Gatsby” There are many writers like James Joyce, Patrick Kananach and Thomas Moore who use symbolism to convey and support indirect meaning in their writings. J.D. Salinger and F. Scott Fitzgerald both use symbolism in similar ways. In both “The Catcher In The Rye” and “The Great Gatsby”, the authors used symbolism to convey emotions and reality. In “The Catcher In The Rye”, J.D. Salinger uses Holden’s red hunting cap, the exhibits at the Museum of Natural History and “kings in the back row” as symbols whose meanings help tell the story. Holden’s red hunting hat stands for Holden’s disapproval of adult society and phonies. Although, Holden and his hat are out of place in New York, he loves this hat because it demonstrates his difference and independence from other kids his age. He becomes more and more attached to his hat because he feels like a catcher in the rye when he wears the hat. Holden cannot let go of his hat, like he cannot let go of his childhood. The Museum of Natural History is used to signify Holden’s fear of change. Holden enjoys looking at the mummies and the exhibits at the museum because they never change and are frozen in time. Holden realizes that he changes every time he goes back and sees the exhibits, but the exhibits do not change. He wishes that his childhood world would last forever like his exhibits. Salinger also uses the setting of New York City as a symbol. Although H...
While in New York with the fencing team, Holden loses all of their equipment, then buys a red hunting hat. Holden describes the hat as a, “red hunting hat, with one of those very, very, very long peaks… The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around back - very corny, I’ll admit, but I liked it that way.”(Salinger, 24) The hat makes him stand out and seem like a unique person.
As he walked around and looked at displays, he noticed nothing ever changed from the times he visited. The unchanged displays provides constant stability and security for Holden because he fears the unknown. Holden wish that his life could be frozen in time. He doesn’t want to grow up to face the corruptions, the vulgarities, and the unknown in life. “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move… Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”
are always a Marine and you will never let another Marine down.’ Etc. & etc.
The Marine Corps transforms young civilians into a life of values: honor, courage, and commitment. These values are instilled in each recruit as they go through the eleven weeks process of boot camp. According to Marines these values are to the Corps and “comes before self” (p. 55). In American society we work to better ourselves first rather than as a whole.
This book substantially explains the vigorous training platoon 3086 went through in order to earn the title of being a Marine.
military members who share harsh, traumatic, or even funny events obviously become closer through the bond of a mutual experience. This is particularly true for Marine infantry; many Marine are brought up in different areas of the US, with different values, ages, religious and political beliefs. However different we all might look on the outside, the fact that we’ve all been through good times and bad with each other makes us closer than any civilian could understand. After being a Marine, I find that I’m close to, and always will be, than my civilian friends who I’ve known for years. Along with this, Pressfield talks about how, under all the glory and allure of fighting for one’s country exists the real reason that warriors fight; for our brothers in arms. Political beliefs, government stances, and flags go out the window, only to be replaced by concern for the safety and well-being of the men to our left and right. All of these things are reasons why it is difficult for civilians to understand what it’s like to be a warrior. This is perhaps embodied best in our motto, Semper Fidelis; Always Faithful, to our brothers and those who depend on
Holden’s preference of a simplistic lifestyle is evident throughout the novel, but stands out especially when he visits the Museum of Natural History. He explains that. Holden loves this museum because it is still, silent, and always the same, which is a version of life he likes and understands. He fears dealing with conflict, uncertainty, and change, which he thinks comes with being an adult. It
The first symbol shows Holden’s desire for children to embrace their childhood innocence just as he would like to. The second symbol, Phoebe, displays the maturity which Holden refuses to grasp onto. The last symbol, The Museum of Natural History, represents how Holden would like to freeze time. J.D. Salinger's use of symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye develops Holden's character and provides insight as to why he does not want to grow up. The three models, the poem, Phoebe and the Museum of Natural History individually provide the reader an impression of what operates within of Holden's head, yet even when it is not openly
“I was crying and all, I don’t know why, but I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome” (53), Holden says. As humans, we have a hard time belonging in society. This is the same case for Holden Caulfield, the main character from the Catcher in the Rye. The Catcher in the rye, a novel by J.D Salinger, is about Holden, a lost boy in desperate need of help. Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded by the world around him. He continually attempts to try and belong in a world in which he is isolating from. In this novel, Salinger uses symbols such as the red hunting hat, the ducks and Allie’s glove to support the theme, belonging and isolation.
Innocence lies within everyone in at least one point in their lives, but as reality consumes them, that purity begins to vanish slowly as they learn new experiences. In the coming of age novel set in the nineteen-forties, J.D Salinger writes about a sixteen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who stands between a road that separates childhood from adulthood and is confused about which path to take. On a three-day trip in New York away from his family and fellow peers at school, Holden encounters many situations in which lead him to think twice about who he wants to become and how he wants to guide others who are in the same situation he is in. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger utilizes symbolism, vivid imagery, and slangy diction to expose Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of the people that he loves while alienating himself from the adult world he calls “phony.”
Salinger presents the epitome of a young person who is scared to grow up. Salinger utilizes the theme of resistance to grow up to build an obstinate bildungsroman to tell Holden’s story. Holden’s persistence with the ducks in the lagoon show his undying curiosity and youthfulness. His aspiration to be the catcher in the rye present his need to save others from the destruction of innocence. Finally, his love for the unchanging Museum of Natural History show his love for stability. All three symbols work together to form a theme of defiance during Holden’s coming of
Throughout the novel Holden is always talking about being depressed and suicidal, but arguably he just doesn’t want to grow up and become a “phony.” Also, he shies away from interactions from most people because of the complications of life. Salinger used symbols like the red hunting hat, The Museum of Natural History to show Holden’s inner conflicts and fear of growing up. These symbols showed that “Holden is less fortunate, for in a world where phonies vastly outnumber the pure of heart, there are only small moments of stasis...Everything else is a veritable flood tide pushing Holden toward change, toward adulthood, toward responsibility, toward abject phoniness, toward death” (Pinsker). Those moments of stasis being Holden’s escape from reality. First, the red hunting hat allowed Holden to separate himself from the world of phonies and hold onto his brothers lost childhood. Since Holden fears adulthood he puts the hat onto embrace childhood even though he doesn’t like people to see him wearing it. His red “hunting hat really gave [him] quite a lot of protection” (Salinger 233). The hat didn’t only protect him from the rain, but also from the phoniness of the world. Additionally, another reason that furthers Holden’s fear of growing up is the way he view the museum. The museum makes him significantly happy compared to most things because it never changes. He stated,
The USMC’s Core Values, or ethics, are taken very seriously and have been that way since their beginning. These values include honor, courage, and commitment. Honor, which helps guide Marines, states that a Marine should obey the rules and follow them with respect. These rules include not lying or stealing, abide rules given with a level of respect, and respecting those the same way a Marine wishes to be respected. Courage, which helps strengthen a Marine physically, mentally, and morally, helps to guide a Marine though challenges and overcoming their deepest darkest fears. It is the backbone of the USMC and enables a Marine to do what they know is right and being able to make decisions that not everyone can make under stress. Commitment, which is the spirit and determination that the USMC is known for, is the ultimate discipline of individuals in the Corps. It is what drives and inspires a Marine to be faithful to his beloved Corps and country. (Corps, 2014)
There is a yearning from both Gatsby and Holden to control time. Gatsby wants to travel back in time, but can’t. To symbolise this, there is a broken clock that he knocks over. “The clock took this moment to tilt dangerously…he caught it with trembling fingers.” The broken clock is symbolic of the fact the he is stuck in the period five years ago when he and Daisy were in love which signifies his inability to move on from that time. It also represents his nervousness about the present and about how Daisy's attitude toward him may have changed. His inability to go back in time is represented by him knocking over Nick's clock, and symbolises the clumsiness of his attempt to stop time and retrieve the past. In addition, the clock is a symbol of the time that Daisy and Gatsby have lost. Although on one level it is just another awkward incident caused by Gatsby's nervousness, the fact the clock is stopped is significant. In a sense, the clock stopped at a specific point in time, trapped there forever, just as Gatsby's life when he was hit with the realisation that while he could never be with Daisy. Gatsby is, in essence, trapped by his dreams of ideal love with Daisy, just as the clock is trapped in that exact moment when it stopped working. The word “time” is written in the book 450 times, showing that time is important not only to Daisy, but to the overall storyline itself. There are flashbacks throughout the novel, with constant references to Gatsby’s past. The unstructured events the reader sees are representative of his mind – scattered and disorganised due to his overwhelming obsession with the past. Whereas Gatsby yearns to travel back in time but can’t, Holden wishes time would freeze. In The Catcher in the Rye, the museum dis...
Holden is having a tough time to accept it because he had so many good memories and he was Holden’s role model. The museum symbolizes how Holden wants his life to be; a life where things do not change. He does not want it to change like the museum because of his past memories with Allie now gone. In addition, this quote implicitly reveals that Holden has the fear of tremendous and unpredictable change in his life. When he proclaims “Anyways, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of the rye and all.. I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff- I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out of somewhere and catch them” (Salinger 173). This quotation reveals on how he wants to save and preserve the innocence of children. This implicitly reveals that Holden wants to protect kids from bad or scary events. Moreover this quotation shows that Holden is willing to risk his life so that other children will not have a traumatic experience like him. This not only reveals the title of the book, The Catcher in the Rye but also reveals his love for