BY DILLYN, FELICITY, LAUREN, BRIANA, AND OLIVIA Motifs

Holden’s Hat Holden’s red hunting hat is one of the most noticeable symbols in the book, and twentieth century American literature. It is a symbol of his uniqueness and individuality; it is inseparable from our image of Holden. He uses his hunting hat to almost prove his uniqueness, he uses this isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else around him and therefore above interacting with them. The hat is quite standoffish and shows Holden’s desire to be different from all of those around him.

Though in a way he is self conscious of the hat, he always mentions when he is wearing it, but he wouldn’t wear it around people he knows or is trying to impress. The hat shows the conflict of the book: Holden’s need for isolation versus his need for companionship. Also the colours of the hat, red, and the colour of phoebe and allies hair is the same, Holden could be associating it with the childish innocence and purity that these characters represent, he could be wearing it to connect with these characters. He never explicitly comments of the significance of the hat other than to talk about its unusual appearance or the fact that he is wearing it.

“[Ackley] took another look at my hat... “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” he said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.” “Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.” Through this quote we can see how deep his desire is for independence and how this is connected to his feeling of alienation, to the bitterness he has for the rest of the world.

Museum “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.” The displays in the museum appeal to Holden because they are unchanging. Holden mentions that he is troubled by the fact that he has changed in some way every time he returns to the museum. The museum represents the world Holden wishes he could live in, a world where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple, understandable, and infinite. Holden is terrified by the unpredictable challenges of the world. He hates conflict, he is confused by his brother, Allie’s death, and he fears interaction with other people.

He focuses on the way life is frozen in the museum’s exhibits: models of Eskimos and Indians stand as though petrified and birds hang from the ceiling, seemingly in mid-flight. He remarks that every time he went to the museum, he felt that he had changed, while the museum had stayed exactly the same. The museum presents him with a vision of life he can understand: it is frozen, silent, and always the same. Holden can think about and judge the Eskimo in the display case, but the Eskimo will never judge him back. They represent the simple, idealistic, manageable vision of life that Holden wishes he could live.

The Ducks The ducks in the lagoon at central park symbolise a different aspect of Holden Caulfield’s personality. His curiosity about the ducks show a less mature, younger and more hopeful side to his personality as well as their symbolism for change. Holden asks about where the ducks go during the winter and why they come back. Their disappearance and then return symbolise the cycle of change and that change is not always a permanent fixture as well as symbolising the death of his brother.

Holden talks about the lake being “part frozen, part not” which can also refer to his own world and his struggle to find what he wants to do with himself as well as the ever-changing state of his life. When the cab driver starts talking about the fish however Holden gets angry as he wants to talk about the ducks, the cab driver says that the fish are tougher as they get stuck in the ice and this is when Holden gets very annoyed yelling “They can’t ignore it!” at the cab driver about the fish ignoring the ice.

Holden can relate to the ducks flying away from change and only coming back when things are better where as he doesn’t understand how the fish could just ignore the change and just put up with it. Again this refers to his resistance to change.

The Song. ‘Comin’ through the Rye’, is a song not only the source of the book’s title but also a significant symbol in Holden’s state of mind. The song first appears when Holden admires a young boy, in the street who is singing; “if a body catch a body comin’ through the rye...”. This pleases Holden “it made me not so depressed any more.” The second time the song appears is when Holden is talking to his sister Phoebe, she asks him what he wants to do with his life. He tells her the “only thing I’d really want to be” is to protect children from losing their innocence. His sister informs him that he has misheard the lyrics “it is ‘if a body meet a body comin’ through the rye.’”

The song is about recreational sex the word ‘meet’ in the song represents this. Whereas Holden uses the word ‘catch’ to change the meaning of the song in his own mind. “I have to come out of somewhere and catch them... I’d just be the catcher in the Rye.” Holden wants to protect kids from “going over” a cliff, symbolic for losing childhood innocence and becoming an adult, including the knowledge of sex. ‘Comin’ through the Rye’ is a strong representation of Holden’s own trouble, of refusing to lose his innocence and become an adult.