Catcher In The Rye Symbolism Analysis

The Catcher in The Rye was a novel published by J. D. Salinger in the year 1991. It is just one example of an extroardinary book that relies on symbols to relay the message, meaning, or theme of the text. Without these symbols in literary architecture, the readers would not be able to clearly understand the authors purpose within the piece. In Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, symbols such as broken records and an infamous red hunting cap enhance the novel to relay the authors purpose. The first main symbol that is explored within the piece is the main character, Holden's, red hunting cap. He first describes this hat after re-enteing his dorm room after a meeting with his teacher, and goes into an anecdote about how he had bought this hat in New York City while on a trip with his fencing team, and

Just after he had bought it, the record had been dropped on the concrete and shattered into a bunch of different pieces. There are many different ways this symbol can be interpreted, all of them meshing into one to create an anecdote for the reader to interpret. The record, first, is a childrens record- symbolizing the recurring image of innocence, especially in his younger sister. He wants her to remain youthful because he couldn't. The breaking of the record symbolizes Holden's innocence breaking down and cracking away piece by piece- therefore, symbolizing Holden's need to preserve his innocence after being forced to mature. Then, even though it had been broke, his sister kept the pieces of the record, finally symbolizing how she will keep the memories of Holden's youth and try to preserve those instead. Salinger included this to relay the strong imporatnace of preservation of innocence within his writing. It is one of Holden's main character points and is also explored plenty of other times within the novel. Moreover, becoming a major point of the