Catcher In The Rye Symbolism

Best time of your life? Try most stressful time of your life. Teenage years are full of stress, anxiety, and a lot of hard work. Teens find themselves lost in schoolwork, homework and sometimes even jobs. Managing all aspects at the same time can boil into a trainwreck. In J.D Salinger’s best selling novel, The Catcher in the Rye, symbolism is used to its fullest extent to show the painfulness of growing up. We see these symbols when Salinger mentions Holden’s red hunting hat, The Museum of Natural History, or even The Catcher in the Rye itself, It's all symbolism pointing towards ways Holden Caulfield, the main character, is coping with the painfulness of his teenage years. Holden Caulfield, the main character in the novel, tells his sister how the only thing he’d really like to do is be the Catcher in the Rye. In fact, Holden states to his sister “I'd be the Catcher in the Rye and all. I know it sounds crazy and all but that's all I’d really like to be.”(pg.173) Holden says this to his sister after she claims he doesn't like anything. Later in the story, Holden hears a little boy singing a song …show more content…
The Museum of Natural History is a place Holden visits a couple different times in the story. When he’s there, he mentions it reminds him of his childhood and going there as a family. At one point, he mentions that “the best thing though, is that everything in that museum always stayed the same.”(pg. 121) To me it seems Holden holds an emotional attachment to this place. This is important because teens often have a place they hold sacred. Whether it is their home, their school, or a vacation spot, it could be a million different places but Holden's happens to be the museum. Holden holds this place sacred and he enjoys going there because it makes him happy. Very few things make Holden happy so when he said the museum does so, it is important to recognize that as a