Catcher In The Rye Literary Devices

Ian Buswell

Mrs. Chimo

Honors English 11

20 April 2023

The Catcher in the Rye Analysis Essay

“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice” (Salinger 185). In the book The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses many different analytic techniques in order to establish a story about a confused and disillusioned teen, Holden Caulfield. Salinger uses the themes of blindness, symbolism, and irony to help further the reader's understanding of the story.

Inside The Catcher in the Rye, there are many techniques used to help the reader understand the book. Firstly, the theme of blindness is seen throughout the book with our main character, Holden Caulfield. In the story, he calls people “phony”, but by calling all these people

In this novel, there are many instances of symbolism, one of which is the red hunting hat that we always see Holden wearing. To the normal reader, the hat is just seen as an article of clothing that has no deeper meaning to it, but if you look further into the text, you will see that there is much more to it. The hat is a representation of Holden's individuality and uniqueness. With the hat, for one, being bright red but also a hunting hat that has ear flaps, it is not your regular hat and stands out to the naked eye. It fits Holden because he wants to be perceived as memorable, whether it be in the city of New York or at all the different schools he has attended. At the start of the book, right after Holden bought the hat, he mentions that “[he] swung the old peak way around to the back—very corny, [he’ll] admit, but [he] liked it that way” (Salinger 18). This enforces the idea of Holden’s individuality by showing the reader he does not care what the norm is; he will do whatever it is he likes. Another example of the hat representing Holden’s individuality is when he is having a conversation with Ackley. Ackley tells Holden that, “Up home [they] wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake…that’s a deer shooting hat,” in response to this, Holden shouts, “Like hell it is… This is a people shooting hat… [he] [shoots] people in this

Throughout the story, Holden struggles with the idea of growing up. He is scared to grow up, but ironically, he does many things that adults would or could only do, like go out to bars and drink alcohol. While reminiscing about home, Holden thinks about the lagoons in Central Park and what happened when “it would be frozen over.. and if it was, where did the ducks go?” (Salinger 13). This is significant because it is symbolic of Holden worrying about what will happen when he grows up. Towards the end of the story, while having a conversation with Phoebe about what Holden wants to do with his life, he tells her, “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…That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye” (Salinger 173). With this, Holden further reveals his childhood fantasy of being a hero and saving everyone. In his soul, Holden is an innocent boy who does not want to grow up. However, his actions of going out and drinking, smoking, and hiring a prostitute show that on the outside he wants to do adult