The Symbolism Of The Catcher In The Rye

What do bills, responsibilities, and grocery shopping have in common? They are all things that humans have to look forward to when entering adulthood. The Catcher in the Rye may have nothing to do with any of these things they both address the same issue. Adulthood. The Catcher in the Rye has many symbols that correlate to the pain of growing up. The symbols the museum natural history, the catcher in the rye, and the all represent or show the pain of growing up. One of the symbols in Catcher in the Rye is the museum of natural history. The museum symbolizes that as you grow up people do not want to acknowledge the pain associated. In the book Holden ends up in museum of natural history. At the muse says “the best thing though, in that museum

Holden is walking towards Broadway when he sees this nice family walking down the street. The parent were “walking along, talking, not paying any attention to their kid.” (115). The kid was walking on the street not the sidewalk ” he was singing that song, “if a body catch a body, coming through the rye. He had a pretty little voice too. It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed anymore”(115). Holden is enjoying watching the kid hop down the street singing. He likes seeing the innocents in the child. He connects the song to children’s innocence and happiness. Later Holden is talking to his little sister Phoebe. Phoebe asks him what he wants to be when he grows up and he replays “the catcher in rye…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… I have to come out from somewhere and catch them [children]. That's all I would do all day. I’d be that catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy but that's the only thing I’d really like to be”(173). Holden what's to save the children from falling over the cliff so they can play safely. But he is not talking about a literal cliff, the cliff is adulthood. He wants to save the children from entering adulthood; wants to save them before they lose there honesty, innocence and curiosity.

The symbols in The catcher in the Rye show the pain one might faced with Adulthood, the museum of natural history, “the catcher in the rye”, and the ducks in the central park. The Catcher in the Rye really show the pain of entering adulthood. The scary time is something hard to comprehend. When the idea of bills, responsibilities, and grocery shopping come your way may you now think of a kid wondering the crowded street New York City trying to find his