1. English I: Spring 2012
The Catcher in the Rye
Themes, Motifs, Symbols

2. Theme: Alienation as a Form of Self-Protection
Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him.
As he says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on “the other side” of life, and he continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he does not belong.
As the novel progresses, we begin to see that Holden’s alienation is a way of protecting himself.

3. Continued
Just as he wears his hunting hat to express his uniqueness, he uses his isolation to prove that he is better than everyone else, and therefore, above interacting with them.
Interactions with others confuse and overwhelm him, and his cynical sense of superiority serves as a type of self-protection.
Holden’s alienation is the source of what little stability he has in his life and also the source of most of his pain.
Needs contact and love, but his own bitterness prevents him from seeking it out.

4. Continued Source of Holden’s strength and the source of his problems
Longs for the type of connection that he had with Jane Gallagher, but fear prevents him from contacting her.
He depends upon his alienation, but it destroys him.

5. Theme: Coming of Age Holden resists maturity itself
Holden fears change and complexity (Natural History Museum)—wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed like the statues of Eskimos and Indians at the museum
Is guilty of the sins that he criticizes other for. Fears his inability to understand the world around him.
Refuses to acknowledge his fears, except in a few instances (Chapter 9—sex)

6. Continued Adult world=superficiality, hypocrisy, “phoniness”
Child world=innocence, curiosity, honesty
Fantasy about The Catcher in the Rye: he imagines childhood as a big field of rye in which children romp and play; adulthood, for the children of this world, is equivalent to death—a fatal fall over the edge of a cliff
Covers himself with cynicism to avoid both worlds
Shallow conceptions

7. Theme: The Phoniness of the Adult World
Holden’s catch-all for the superficiality, hypocricy, and shallowness that he encounters in the world around him.
Chapter 22—all adults are inevitably phonies, but worse, they don’t see their own phoniness.
Phoniness=everything that is wrong with the world and gives him an excuse to hide behind his cynicism
Holden’s observations are not entirely inaccurate
Holden can be a highly insightful character

8. Continued
Holden never understands his own phoniness because he is so focused on others
The world is not has simple (and black and white) as Holden wants or needs it to be.

9. Motifs
Definitions: recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes

10. Motif: Loneliness
Manic quest for companionship—flits from one relationship to another
Holden doesn’t understand his own mind or why he behaviors/feels the way he does
Holden messes up his own attempts at ending his loneliness because he wants to preserve his isolation to avoid getting hurt
Loneliness is the emotional proof of the alienation that Holden experiences; it is both a source of great pain and a source of his security

11. Motif: Relationships, Intimacy, and Sexuality
What he fears most about the adult world: complexity, unpredictability, and the potential for conflict and change
Holden projects his own idealizations about childhood on to Phoebe
Holden fears intimacy and sexuality because he in unwilling to let people get close to him
Holden continues to desperately search for relationships, but breaking them down at the last moment

12. Motif: Lying and Deception
Holden is most critical of those who do not recognize their own weaknesses
Lying=phoniness; indicates insensitivity, carelessness, or even cruelty
His random and repeated lying indicates his own self-deception.
Does not recognize his own shortcomings and does not acknowledge how his actions affect others
Guilty of the same phoniness that he accuses others of

13. Symbol: The Hunting Hat
Uniqueness and Individuality
Holden desires to be different from everyone around her
Self-conscious of the hat
Presence of the hat mirrors the central conflict in the novel: Holden’s needs for isolation versus his need for companionship
Red hat—Allie and Phoebe both have red hair (coincidence?)—A means of connecting?

14. Symbol: The Museum of Natural History
Displays appeal to Holden because they are frozen and unchanging
Troubled by the fact that he has changed each time he visits the museum
A world he wishes he could live in
Terrified by unpredictable nature of the world, scared of change, does not understand the senseless death of Allie, and fear interaction with others

15. Symbol: The Ducks in the Central Park Lagoon
Reveals a genuine and youthful side to his character
Curiosity of youth
Mysterious survival in the face of a difficult environment (parallels Holden’s own situation)
Ducks prove that some vanishings are only temporary (Holden’s fear of change)—change that isn’t permanent would be more bearable (Allie’s death is permanent)
“partly frozen, partly not frozen” (transition) Holden is between childhood and adulthood

16. Symbol: Radio City Music Hall
Rockettes and war memorial movie
Inauthentic (phony) art that panders to the audience
Holden is left cold by the performance
Audience is manipulated by the sentimental glorification of war and military—Holden hates this

17. Symbol: The Carrousel’s Golden Ring
A hope, a dream, the chances we must take to grab the gold ring
It is hard for Holden to understand the concept that children will reach for the ring and adults must let them
A part of life and part of growing up

18. Symbol: Allie’s Baseball Mitt
Holden’s love for Allie and his uniqueness
Left-handed
Poems in green ink
A fielder’s glove, not a catcher’s mitt?

19. Symbol: Pencey Prep and Elkton Hills
Phony and cruel world
School pictures and mottos are misleading
Stradlater—wants Holden to cheat, yet Holden is being expelled for failing courses
Cruelty Holden has seen at the prep schools
Holden dislikes the exclusivity and the prejudice
James Castle’s suicide at Elkton Hills
2 schools are emblematic of are corrupt system of privileged adults designed for those who want to join their ranks
Holden struggles against a system in which he was born