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Transcript

The Ducks in Central Park

The Carrousel

The Red Hunting Hat

  • Holden, like a complete child, asks almost every taxi driver he meets where the ducks fly to during the winter
  • Taxi drivers often respond as if it was the most pathetic question ever asked. Even when Holden tries asking nonchalantly, the drivers react disturbed.
  • The question about the ducks shows Holden's immaturity yet it projects his burning desire and determination to find an answer to his question..
  • The ducks in the park represent Holden's desire to run away from NYC and move on to a warmer, better place.
  • Holden's sister Phoebe at the end of the book rides a Carrousel (in case you didn't know).
  • Holden even makes Phoebe ride the carrousel twice.
  • Outside of the Carrousel, the world is bleak, gray, dull and it is raining non-stop while inside of the carousel, it is nice, colorful, bright and full of happy children.
  • The carousel represents infinite childhood as they are unaware of the cruel harsh world of adulthood around them.
  • This Red Hunting Hat was bought by Holden in NYC after he got off the subway, for only one dollar!
  • The Hunting Hat represents Holden's Identity.
  • Holden acts fake and phony whenever he is NOT wearing the hat.
  • Holden is scared at the end when Phoebe is wearing the hat because he realizes Phoebe has a chance of ending up just like him.

The "F" Word

Allies Baseball Glove

  • It used to belong to Allie (duh!)
  • Has multiple poems written on by Allie, so he wouldn't get so bored in the outfield
  • This glove represents Allie's identity.
  • Holden keeps it to himself to keep a part of Allie with him even after Allie's passing away.
  • While in the school, Holden ends up finding a giant "F--k you" written on the walls of the school, and later in the museum.
  • Holden gets very angry at this and erases it off the wall of the school, but cannot do much but get angry over it being in the museum.
  • The giant "f--k you" represents how even in the most innocent of places, the outside, corrupted, adult life still tries to pierce into the innocence of children.
  • It gives more to the idea of Holden wanting to be The Catcher in the Rye (which we will go over more on the next slide!)

The Catcher in the Rye Illusion - "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." (Chpt. 22, pg. 173)

The Cross-Dresser - I saw one guy, a gray-haired, very distinguished-looking guy with only his shorts on, do something you wouldn't believe me if I told you. First he put his suitcase on the bed. Then he took out all these women's clothes, and put them on. Real women's clothes – silk stockings, high-heeled shoes, brassiere, and one of those corsets with the straps hanging down and all. Then he put on this very tight black evening dress. I swear to God. Then he started walking up and down the room, taking these very small steps, the way a woman does, and smoking a cigarette and looking at himself in the mirror. He was all alone, too." (Chpt. 9, pg. 61)

  • The idea first comes to Holden after he talks with his sister; Phoebe asks him what he wants to do with his life and his instant thoughts is to be a catcher in the rye.
  • He imagines himself waiting in a field of rye, while children are playing baseball, and he wants to make sure none of them fall off the cliff.
  • The "Catcher in the Rye" illusion shows that Holden wants to protect children innocence from the raw cruelty of the real world.
  • It also shows how he hasn't overcome the fact that Allie is not there anymore.
  • Holden doesn't want his siblings to "fall and get hurt" and wants to be able to catch them before they fall off the "cliff."
  • During one of Holden's multiple nights in NYC, he ends up staying at a hotel where he has access to see rooms of other people - in one room there is a man cross dressing.
  • At first the man looks pretty normal, but then the dirty secret comes out.
  • This man symbolizes how Holden hates everyone because he can see everyone for who they truly are. (not just because hes a sadistic jerk)
  • It also shows why he hates himself too.
  • He proves society is too strict on who we really are as if it were taboo, therefore one must follow the norms of life and abide to them.

The Ducks at Central Park - “I thought maybe if there were any around, they might be asleep or something near the edge of the water, near the grass and all.” (Chpt. 20, pg 154)

The Carousel - “I felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around, in her blue coat and all. God, I wish you could’ve been there.” (Chapter 25 p. 213)

The "F" Word - “But while I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody’d written “Fuck You” on the wall…I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant,…But I rubbed it out anyway, finally.” (Chpt. 25, pg. 201)

Even MORE Quotes!

Allies Baseball Mitt - "I wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder's mitt. He was left-handed. The thing that was descriptive about it, though, was that 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. He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him." - (Chpt. 5, pg.38)

The Red Hunting Cap - “But it was freezing cold, and I took my red hunting hat out of my pocket and put it on – I didn’t give a damn how I looked.” (Chpt. 13, pg. 88)

The idea of being "The Catcher in the Rye".

The Cross-Dresser.

More Quotes!

Quotations From the Book!

Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye

By Jessica Juarez, Karla Ramirez, Kevin Reyes, and Teresa Ballinas

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