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How And When Does Holden Grow In Catcher In The Rye

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When the weather turns cold, we all know, birds fly south for the winter. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden brings up the question about where the ducks go when the lagoon in Central Park freezes many times during the course of the first 14 chapters. I think there is a significance in that. Why and when does Holden bring up the ducks? What do the ducks and the frozen pond symbolize and why are they significant enough to take into account? Are they parallel to his depression and the severity of it?
There are three occurrences where Holden brings up the idea of where the ducks go when the lake freezes over in the winter. The first time he brings it up, Holden is at Mr.Spencer’s house and they are talking about Holden leaving Pencey because of his poor grades: “I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away” (Salinger 16). Holden does not ask this question out loud, but rather to himself. During this time, he is going through the problem of being expelled from yet another school. The icy, frozen over pond is how he sees his life at the moment, cold and hard. This may be the start of his depression. He’s at a road block, his life has fallen apart and he does not know what to …show more content…

I figured out that feelings of isolation and loneliness seem to intensify his depression, but I want to know where it all started, why does he feel so alone? He didn’t have to run away and be isolated from his family and friends. Why not just return home? If he returned home he would have seen his sister, who he cares deeply for, or have been able to speak to Jane. Maybe he has problems at home. Was he abused, and that's why he is so depressed because he has nowhere to return

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Just reading his thoughts makes you want to sit in a warm shower for extraneous amounts of time. This being said the conclusion I can draw from this tableau is how J.D Salinger saw the world at times. Writing with such detail, making the reader feel the alienation and depression the Holden feels, one

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Catcher In The Rye Rhetorical Analysis

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In day 4 of the reading, Holden takes a cab drive and once again brings up the question of where the ducks go during the winter, symbolizing his childlike curiosity and how he wants to be free from society just like the ducks. Holden brings up the question about the ducks, asking "does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away?" (Page 82). This shows Holden's childlike curiosity is still prevalent, asking a question that is obviously untrue but an ideal solution to the question. It also symbolizes how he is like a duck, who does not know what he wants to do, whether it is to transition into an adult and fly away, or stay in the lake and freeze in childhood.

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Holden thinks about the ducks in Central Park because he wants to be free, he does not want to stay in Pencey and live with phonies. He wants to move out and live on his own, to be independent and free. This allows Holden to change dramatically throughout his adventure. He sees the world more closely than he ever did before, he sees the behaviors of phonies and people who are actually honest. These are the changes Holden makes while traveling into the adult world and it allows him to become a mature teenager.

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Struggle of Depression The novel Catcher in the Rye exemplifies the motif of depression through the eyes of the main character, Holden Caulfield. Holden constantly struggles with depression throughout the novel. His depression is directly linked with the death of his younger brother Allie as, the loss of a loved one has that effect on many. The conformity of the society that Holden lives in allows for no grief causing Holden to spiral downwards into a state of depression.

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He is desperate to find an answer to “where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over” (Salinger 16). Through this question, Holden is indirectly asking about what will happen to him as an adult. For Holden, the ducks that do not know where to go in the winter represents himself not knowing what awaits him in adulthood, and therefore the pond frozen in winter is symbolic of adulthood. Furthermore, Holden is adamant about the idea that the ducks “can’t just ignore the ice”, confirming the idea that Holden recognizes adulthood is unavoidable as much as the pond freezing in the winter is bound to happen (Salinger 92). By asking this question, Holden is trying to reassure himself of his impending adulthood, something he desperately needs to grow

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The lagoon itself is symbolic of Holden’s longing for an eternal childhood, the frozen state representing a lack of change. The ducks represent the rest of society which Holden fails to assimilate with. Another symbol of this is the Museum of Natural History which Holden enjoys visiting, for similar reasons as the lake. He enjoyed going to the museum because “Nobody’d move.” and “nobody’d be different”. Holden visits this museum twice throughout the novel.

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Despite never getting an answer to his query, Holden seems to obtain some form of comfort from the idea of the ducks disappearing in the colder months and returning once again in spring. It’s possible that this question represents his interest in the circle of life. This is due to how the schedule of the ducks adheres to the premise that being gone isn’t always necessarily permanent, which, after taking into account his brother Allie’s death, would explain Holden’s

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A direct connection can be made from the ducks to one of the situations Holden ends up in. He was able to leave Pencey but he was uncertain about where he belonged when he parted ways. According to Clinton W. Trowbridge, similar to the ducks’ winter predicament, “Holden is

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In Holden’s mind becoming “the catcher in the rye “means that he can still catch Allie from falling off the cliff. This is relevant to Holden’s depression because everything around him is telling him to grow up but instead he runs away from it in fear that is will pull him farther apart from his relationship with his brother Allie. Holden is on the edge of becoming an adult which creates more pressure and leads him to

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Isolation and Depression: A Vicious Cycle Grief. Depression. Isolation. What do you think when you hear those words? Holden Caulfield has been through a lot, from being kicked out of several schools to being so depressed he wonders why he should go on living. Holdens family keeps pushing him away and that’s where he learns his tendency to push people away who he cares about.

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What are some solutions that he comes up with while thinking? Where the ducks go in winter, Whether the ducks have a permanent home Whether the ducks return to the park. Holden wonders if the ducks actually live like other beings and care for each other like some humans do. 3. When talking with Mr. Spencer, Holden reflects on a few reasons he hates growing old and old people.

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Furthermore, Holden also refers to his fears of disappearing as to not mention death, a term with which he has not fully come to terms with, “every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I 'd never get to the other side of the street. I thought I 'd just go down, down, down, and nobody 'd ever see me again”. (Salinger 2010: 106) This is also what causes him to wonder if the ducks of the lake have vanished. In contrast to that come the mummies in the museum, whose death seems alright in Holden’s perspective since they did not disappear after it.

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This shows that the Museum is a symbol of Holden’s reluctance for change, in himself and in the world. Central Park is the location where Holden goes in order to answer his question of where the ducks go in the winter. This question could represent Holden’s

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