Catcher in the Rye: Symbolism and Literary Devices

Do you believe in happy endings? The majority of J.D. Salinger’s book, “Catcher in the Rye”, certainly makes readers believe he doesn’t. “Catcher in the Rye” is a story about a misanthropic, 16 year old named Holden Caulfield. Holden has just been kicked out, or “gotten the ax” from yet another school, called Pencey Prep. He leaves Pencey early, and spends a few nights out in New York City, meeting up with old acquaintances and generally hating adulthood. Thankfully, the ending to Holden’s account of that night, however much we doubted it would be, was indeed happy.

Catcher in the Rye is a book stuffed with symbolism and other literary devices. In fact, there are SO many symbols, one might actually lose track trying to count them all, although, that is the point of your graphic organizer. The first symbol, and probably the one most easily recognized, is Holden’s red hunting hat. He bought it for a dollar in New York when he left the fencing team’s foils on the subway. (first mentioned on page 17) The hat mainly shows his difference from every else. It also, however, shows the conflict of his needing friendship, versus him needing isolation. This is shown because he will wear the hat in private, but usually not in public. Near the end of chapter 16 he says, “I took my old hunting hat out... and put it on. I knew I wouldn’t meet anyone who knew me.” He clearly wants to be different and isolated, yet accepted and have friends. Another important symbol in the book is the Museum (first mentioned on page 121). Holden likes that nothing changes in the Museum, and everything stays the same, symbolizing his deep want not to grow up, the latter being a distinct theme in the book. The title itself even, “Catcher in the Rye” is a symbol, that most people would probably overlook, and pass it off as one of Holden’s “weird fantasies”. He wants to be the “Catcher” of innocence. He wants to save kids from falling off the cliff into adulthood, thus “catching” their innocence and giving it back to them. Another thing that plays on “lost innocence” is when Holden breaks the record. The record “Little Shirley Beans” (page 115) that he bought for his sister Phoebe, was something Holden didn’t think was phony, or too “adultish”. So perhaps breaking the record (page 154) showed losing the innocence Holden sees in children. The ducks Holden is always asking about (first on page 81) show both his curiosity, and his fear of change. Finally, a big piece of symbolism is the quote about the gold ring on the carousel from page 211, at the end of paragraph 7. “The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it is bad to say anything to them.” Holden finally realizes that growing up is unavoidable. You have to make mistakes, and learn from them. The quote is quite overlooked, but it is when Holden is finally seems happy for once.

The book certainly is pretty descriptive in some parts too. This is good, because Holden doesn’t usually describe things directly. As a matter of fact, the phrase “sort of” appears 179 times in the book. A good example is when Holden talks about James Castle’s death on page 170, he says “Even I could hear him land,” and “He was dead, and his teeth, and blood were all over the place... He had on this turtleneck sweater I’d lent him” Holden probably describes this scene, to show what society is truly capable of, which is, completely breaking people. Holden also described the prostitute that comes to his room pretty clearly on pages 93-94. He describes her as “Having a polo coat on, but no hat.”, “sort of blonde, but you could tell it was dyed”, nervous, young and with a “wheeny whiny voice”. However, Holden is afraid of intimacy, probably because it means he is growing up. The last thing I noticed Holden explain in detail was on page 38, when Holden talks about his brother Allie’s baseball glove. He says “He had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he'd have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat.” Holden probably uses this as an excuse to talk about Allie, or just to show how important Allie was to him.

Catcher in the Rye has some form of figurative language on every page. In most cases its a hyperbole, like when Holden is complaining that something is taking 10 hours, or a million years, or days. There are so many examples you could read almost any random page in the book, and find a hyperbole. For example on page 167 Holden says there’s “A million reasons why” he got the ax from Pencey. There is also an example of foreshadowing right on page 1. Holden hints that he might be in a mental facility, which implies how crazy he really is. Anaphora also comes up on page 155, when Holden says “It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach and it rained all over the place.” He repeats the same phrase to make us feel more emotionally connected. There are also a couple moments of irony. On page 28, when Stradlater asks Holden to write his essay for him, and says he always puts the commas in the wrong place, in the very next paragraph, Holden says “He was a little bit like Ackley, that way.” See, there shouldn’t technically be a comma before “that way.”, but it sounds right. The title of the book, “Catcher in the Rye” is also a metaphor, because it compares being the Catcher in the Rye to saving kids from losing their innocence.

All of these things-symbols, images, figurative language-make the tone of the book feel cynical, and sad, but slightly humorous. The tone is basically one giant reflection of Holden’s character. The main themes that really drive this book, are loss of innocence, Holden’s loneliness, and the fact that growing up is hard. These themes come together to form an accurate summary of the book, and an average teenager’s life.