Babadook's Symbolism In The Catcher In The Rye

Australian-Canadian horror film The Babadook shows the impacts and overall results that pent up grief can have on your life. Widowed mother Amelia is left with her son Sam after her husband, Oskar, died in a car accident. Sam begins to have fits and the intense need to protect those around him from imaginary monsters. After reading a mysterious book found on the shelf, it would seem that not all the monsters Sam is imagining aren’t so imaginary after all. Now constantly haunted by the Babadook, Amelia must face griefs she has buried in order to save her son. The Bababook, as an entirety, is a physical manifestation of Amelia’s repressed grief from her husband's death. The monster soon possesses Amelia and acts out all the rage and grief she

The red hunting hat is a symbol for security to Holden, when he wears it, he feels confident and safe. As seen when Stradlater hits him; “Finally I found it. It was under the bed. I put it on, and turned the old peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then i went over and took a look at my stupid face in the mirror.” (45). This shows his desire to be comfortable with himself. He wants to be, in his own way, individual. Holden can’t feel right being himself in public, his emotional health has been significantly impacted by the want to fit in with those around him. The reader is also able to interpret what the museum means to Holden. He has a fantasy of time stopping to preserve innocence and keep things the same around him. This is an example of his desire for comfort in society. “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was...Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”

Impacts society puts forth on a young person as seen in The Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger shows this through three main examples. In characterization it shows Holden’s corrupted behavior from the society around him. Through symbolism, you see his inability to feel comfortable in current situations by putting up facades or dreaming about unreal fantasies. Finally, conflict shows how Holden’s emotions are affected by the loss of his brother and is clearly seen through his inability to communicate. In the final scene of The Babadook when Sam holds his mother’s face proving to her that she is loved and she can share her grief, this relates to the final scene in The Catcher in the Rye when Holden watches Phoebe on the carousel realizing that his fantasy cannot come true and that he truly feels happiness at home. J.D. Salinger tactfully places society’s impacts on Holden throughout the novel in perfect places for the reader to interpret his crumbling emotional