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The Catcher In The Rye Literary Analysis

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The Catcher in the Rye Literary Analysis Essay In the novel The Catcher in the Rye Salinger the author uses lots of symbols to express who Holden is and how he develops throughout the novel. Salinger gives Holden some symbolic feelings towards some things and places to express a different side of Holden. Holden’s baseball mitten acts as a memory of his dead brother Allie. He wears a red hunting hat to express alienation to the real adult world. The duck pond expresses Holden’s other side from his usual depressed and grumpy side. Through the use of these symbols Salinger further explains the theme and her own message to the reader of protecting children from losing their innocence when they grow up from being children to adults. Holden keeps a baseball mitt covered in poems his dead brother Allie wrote on there. He keeps it with him at all times and does not even show it to anyone except at very rare occasions as it means so much to Holden. The poems on the Baseball mitt express who Allie was and how unique he was to be he own kind. Holden respects Allie so much as Allie …show more content…

Whenever Holden feels depressed he usually puts on this hat to block all the society around him from affecting his depression. "I took my old hunting hat out and put it on. I knew I wouldn 't meet anybody that knew me". This quote shows how Holden wants to be unique and not a phony like others. He also realises that his family would recognise him if they saw someone with a red hunting hat as most people do not wear hunting hats when walking in a big city like New York. This shows how Holden is still trying to keep a hold of his inncence and not just let everything go and turn into a normal adult. He does this as he does not like change as he does not want to grow up and be an adult. This relates to the real world as people might get scared or depressed once put into the complex world of the

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741 Words | 3 Pages

Blaise Engle English 9 CP Period 6 Mrs. Gowanlock Tuesday, December 21 CITR Essay Throughout the majority of the Catcher in the Rye J.D Salinger employs several different symbols that define Holden's personality. One particular object that set him apart from everyone else was his red hunting hat. It is brought up on several different occasions in the book and is often described as an article that reminds him of his brother Allie and sister Phoebe. Salinger furthermore develops the red hunting hat into a symbol by referring to it several times as Holden's own form of uniqueness, aiding in the theme of “ protection of the innocence” and the resistance of maturity.

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658 Words | 3 Pages

Since one of Holden’s few sources of comfort comes from an object, we can tell how alone he truly feels. Additionally, the symbol of the hunting hat Holden wears represents anger and isolation. At one point, Holden fights with Stradlater. After the fight, Holden remains beaten up, depressed, and all alone. He puts on his hunting hat, almost for comfort or companionship.

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217 Words | 1 Pages

In this quote, Holden describes his younger brother Allie 's baseball mitt. The quote is significant to the novel because it provides context on Holden 's past and the reason for his behavior and apathy towards life. In the quote, Holden addresses Allie for the first time while discussing the details of his baseball mitt. Holden describes his brother 's baseball mitt as having "poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere",the quote shows the similarities they once had and their shared passion for reading and literature. Allie 's baseball mitt serves as a symbol of Holden 's love for his brother as well as the sorrow that he has experienced since his passing.

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788 Words | 4 Pages

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is the story of seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield’s struggle to connect with people after losing his brother several years before. Salinger uses the red hunting cap to represent how Holden protects himself in The Catcher in the Rye. At the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden uses his red hunting cap as a form of protection from those who cannot understand him and what he has been through. Right after his fight with Stradlater over the composition, Holden says, "I couldn't find my goddam hunting hat anywhere.

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484 Words | 2 Pages

The Catcher in the Rye and its main character, Holden Caulfield. The novel presents four vital symbols—namely, The red hunting hat, the ducks, the Carrousel, and the golden ring. All of these objects symbolize a specific aspect of The Catcher in the Rye and help in effectively portraying Holden’s emotions, thoughts and his story overall. The first symbol that appears in the novel is the red hunting hat. It is perhaps one of the most

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596 Words | 3 Pages

In this excerpt from the beginning of the novel called The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character, Holden Caulfield speaks to his psychologist about his deceased younger brother. Salinger includes this quote from Holden in order to offer the reader some understanding of his actions and attitude throughout the book, and it also enforces the thought that Holden is a character struggling with teen grief, misunderstood by his parents and the peers around him. In this quote, he seems to be lost in thought of the detail of his younger brother's baseball mitt, even remembering the "green ink" (Salinger) that was used on it. Because of this, readers can infer that Holden has spent much time with this mitt and that such an object has a great amount of sentimental value to him because it was a possession of a person that he cared greatly about. However, despite his pain, Holden does not allow himself to process his grief properly; he instead puts up a sort of facade of passiveness towards the death of younger brother.

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704 Words | 3 Pages

Catching a baseball may seem hard, but catching a person is even harder. J.D Salinger 's A Catcher in the Rye depicts the story of Holden Caulfield, a high school dropout who wanders the streets of New York City aimlessly looking for his purpose. A major theme of the novel is preserving the innocence of children. This theme persists throughout the book as Holden erasing profanity, in conversations and other symbols. Throughout the novel, Holden is seen troubled by the thought of the adult world mixing with the innocent world of children.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D., Salinger struggles against the fact of growing up into the adult world including their responsibilities and surrendering the innocence of a child by being a teenager in between these two worlds. In the novel, Holden tells the reader about his life story about how he flunked school, finds refuge around New York City for a few days, only to return back home and have a mental breakdown. Holden tries to cope with the anxiety of his confusion by communicating his feelings through the Red Hunting Hat he bought early on. Holden's Red Hunting Hat illustrates the importance of individual personality in a teenager and at the same time symbolizing the attachment to adolescence and protection from adulthood

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698 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield narrates his perspective of his life from the location of a mental hospital. This story takes place in New York where Holden encounters many struggles as he flunks out of another school, Pencey Prep. Salinger’s incorporation of symbolism has a significant meaning to the book as a whole. Giving the novel its name, the symbol of a catcher in the rye directly correlates to Holden Caulfield as he hopes to fulfil his dream of preserving the innocent. Despite Holden’s lack of effort to achieve success, he possesses this heartwarming quality of love for the innocent and hope that they will succeed.

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1580 Words | 7 Pages

The story of The Catcher in The Rye explains Holden Caulfield's journey to discover his purpose in life. Throughout the novel, he travels around New York, interacting with several people. But not only people, but symbols help Holden to understand how the world works, from a Red Hat to a Childhood museum, these symbols dictate his feelings towards the outside world and people around him. Innocence and permanence are staples of the story, and Salinger's use of a Hat, Childhood Museums,ducks, and a carousel, are able to convey these idea because of their representation of these concepts.

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464 Words | 2 Pages

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is considered a coming of age novel. Throughout the novel, Holden, a confused teenage boy, matures and understands more about himself. Salinger conveys Holden’s increasing levels of maturity by using a variety of symbols. The ducks in central park, the red hunting hat, and the carousel ring symbolize the the development of Holden’s adulthood.

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1057 Words | 5 Pages

In 1914, the First World War commenced. The outbreak of war was a result of a number of factors, however, many historians argue that German policies were the main feature for the start of the war. Therefore, this essay will address the question: to what extent did German policies lead to WWI? Firstly, it is extremely unjust to state Germany as the only country to blame for the war and make it pay the harsh punishments the Treaty of Versailles forced them to.

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923 Words | 4 Pages

Holden relies on other people to tell him what he should do with his life and where he should go. Holden shows that teenagers and adolescents are confused about growing up and he ultimately shows how difficult it is for children who don’t have anyone to go to, to

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1239 Words | 5 Pages

There are three main symbols that directly introduce the theme and these symbols those are the red hunting hat, the ducks in central park, and the carousel. By using these symbols the author shows the literary ability of being able to skillfully use symbols as a tool. The first symbols that Salinger uses to convey his message is the red hunting hat. The main character of the novel Holden Caulfield has an iconic and important red and black hunting hat which he frequently wears in different situations for more than just its obvious use as a hat.

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