Allie Died: What Did He Stand For?

Allie died of cancer at age eleven. Other than innocence, what did he represent?  Both he and James Castle could symbolize innocence sacrificed on the alter of adulthood. Though Castle died violently, an apparent suicide, neither boy was guilty of some egregious wrongdoing. Religious rituals have involved the taking of innocent life, with Jesus being a prominent example. Through his poetry, Allie stood for art. And James Castle, by refusing to submit to fascist bulling, stood for freedom of the human spirit.

People always seem reluctant to talk about the ones who have died. People die and everyone's in a big hurry to forget about them. "Put it behind you," they say. "Let bygones be bygones."

No one talks about the dead and what their lives meant, what they stood for, or failed at while striving for something. But not Holden. Holden is haunted by the deaths of James Castle and Allie.
Innocent kids aren't supposed to die, but they do all the time and when they do it raises the ante on the bet made each time a child is born. Life means something. And when it stops we need to park the car, turn off the radio and think.

There were two alcohol-related death during my kids' high school years and nobody wanted to talk about it. Grief counselors should have been brought in at school. Nothing. Kids just went on with their cheerleading and football games and pep rallies and two kids' lives got brushed under the rug. Detritus on the soles of restless Reeboks and Nikes.

Holden Cauflield was profoundly affected by the deaths of Allie and James. He can't move on. He didn't cry at Allie's funeral. He's a basket case because he needs to grieve. He is forced to face what these two lives mean to him.

Allie speaks to us through Holden's "madman stuff" and the poems he wrote on his baseball glove. The deaths of Allie and James could represent not just the metaphoric death of childhood on the odyssey toward adulthood, but the deaths of all innocent people.

Holden still has the glove. He's holding onto it. He can't let go. A physical treasure of leather anointed with Allie's sweat and creativity.

If there were a sequel to Catcher in the Rye, what do you think Holden will do with Allie's glove?

When we die we leave a legacy, of things and of memories. The grim tally at Gettysburg gave Abraham Lincoln ample reason to give the value of life considerable thought: "...that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."

What is a life worth? It's a question that each of us in our own individual way, moment by moment, lives into an answer.

Catcher: The Red Hat and Names

I have covered the Central Park ducks in a separate post, but symbolism can be a matter of how far you want to take it.

The red hat could be just a way for Holden to have fun with something as functional as head protection during cold weather. It's probably something Salinger actually did as a kid at Valley Forge Military Academy, a gesture of defiance and independence or a way to get attention. It also serves as a gesture of intimacy when he and Phoebe swap it back and forth. There may be some significance to her slapping it back on Holden's head at the end, perhaps signifying he's been claimed as Phoebe's trophy for being rescued.

Or if you want to take the red hat thing deeper, Holden says it's "a people hunting hat." It's red. Allie's hair is red. Holden has Allie's baseball mitt. Holden wears the hat  backwards, like a baseball catcher. Holden wants to be a "catcher in the rye" for children. Red and backwards are also signs of rebellion or defiance.

Either way, the red hat stands out. It makes us sit up and think. Any kid wearing a red hunting hat in the city, you'd think he'd just come from a sporting goods store. Or he was being silly or was a tad bit off-kilter, both of which apply to Holden.


The only name of outright significance to me is Ed Bankey, who is possibly named after WWII fighter pilot Ernest Bankey, famous for becoming Ace-in-a-day during the horrific Battle of the Bulge in which Salinger fought.

The name "Holden" could imply holding back from growing up, holding on to innocence, holding onto sanity, stopping time, although that seems rather weak.

If you're into Greek mythology, Phoebe was the Titan goddess of "bright" intellect, which resonates ironically with "Sunny," the child prostitute, tarnished, so-to-speak, by her profession, a shining example of the tarnished innocence Holden wants to protect. Seeing Sunny within the context of his own precious sister Phoebe could have erased any sexual desire Holden had after Maurice's proposition.

Relying on symbols that refer to Greek mythology is risky proposition because the meaning is lost on the vast majority of readers who are unfamiliar with Greek mythology. It can also be seen as elitist and alienate some readers. It can also be a crutch. An author who relies heavily on external works can be seen as either lazy or lacking imagination and ingenuity.



(My thanks to my lit-chums at Goodreads for pointing out some of this.)

Is Catcher in the Rye Outdated? (A Goodreads.com Conversation)

(From the "Most Overrated Books" Discussion, 12/31/14)

The Catcher in the Rye has been criticized as outdated because modern schoolkids can't relate to what has been described as a "spoiled rich kid" from the 1950s. The following conversation lifted from a discussion on Goodreads.com addresses this issue.


Cemre: Why do you think Catcher [in the Rye] saw such a huge backlash ?

I mean there are so many articles all over the internet about it aging badly. Words "spoiled rich kid" are frequently used, but then aren't most of the main characters of classics are rich ? Why is Catcher the biggest victim of this ? Is it because it is easy to read or is there any other reason that ı can't understand ?

Mochaspresso: Perhaps it's that the internet reaches the reader before the actual book does and influences their perceptions of it? It could also be that other literature, films and music have reached that reader and shaped their pov before the novel. I know of people who read it for the first time because of the movie, "Six Degrees of Separation". I also knew people who read the novel for the first time because it was mentioned in a Green Day song. I haven't read this particular book, but I read an article that claimed that the book "The Collector" references "The Catcher in the Rye" rather negatively.

Cemre: Yes Mocha. Even stranger, people sometimes have negative perceptions of a book without actually reading it, based solely on its representation in popular media. Furthermore, their expectations of the novel can colour their reading and even then, it's arguable if they had actually read it.

I haven't read The Collector, but ı've gazed through it in a book fair, mainly for finding that passage (yes, I'm obsessed.) If ı've understood it correctly, a girl recommends it to a man, because she thinks that man can identify with Holden, but the man doesn't like it because Holden is a rich prep kid who didn't suffer as much as he did, etc. etc. Same thing.

Books sometimes have cultural reputations that doesn't have anything to do with the actual text. People come CitR expecting a novel of a rebellion, a book that inspired the killing of a rockstar, a life changing manifesto. What they find is the life story of a confused 16 years old boy who have lost his little brother. This might have disappointed a lot of them, and made them to see it as worse than it actually is, despite the fact that Catcher is rather good at the thing it's trying to do.

Monty:  <Cemre wrote: "Why do you think Catcher saw such a huge backlash ?">

Two reasons. First, I believe the backlash reflects present political realities. Holden representsthe privileged 1%. Wealth and income disparity are reaching new highs every year and there's growing frustration and unrest among the poor and Middle Class who feel victimized by the job-destroying Mitt Romneys and Kochs who pull the strings behind the curtains of government and industry.

I am afraid that Holden has, unfairly, become a literary insult to those suffering the grim realities and hopelessness of the economic disparities of this age.

The second major reason, I suspect, is psychological. The book deals with the transition from juvenile to adulthood, a transition that young readers are still experiencing when they read it for the first time. I suspect reading about yourself as you are struggling with vital issues of personality development can feel theatening. It's also about a guy, and girls have their own issues.

Additionally, many older readers are still wrestling with unresloved issues of an incomplete transition to adulthood themselves. Many were forced by parental expectations into unfulfilling roles and careers, and the book reminds them of it.

A book that sells this well is an easy target. Expect the attacks to grow until the economics and politics reverse their present course. The other issues are timeless, and for this reason CiTR can never become outdated. Attacked for socio-political reasons, but never outdated.

Cemre: Is Holden 1% though ? USA is one of the richest countries in the world, Holden's family seems to do well, but can they represent 1% of United States of America ? Wasn't Holden's father a lawyer? I'm sure they're doing rather well, but c'mon ı don't think they eat money? There has to be richer characters in American fiction.

Monty: <Cemre wrote: "Is Holden 1% though ? USA is one of the richest countries in the world, Holden's family seems to do well, but can they represent 1% of United States of America ? Wasn't Holden's father a lawyer? ...">

True, but corporate lawyers are major facilitators of the Kochs and Romneys, and they're paid immensely well for it. They write the legislation that chains us. They sit on the Supreme Court that redefined money as speech.

It is perception that matters, and Holden, merely by attending prep school, represents that privileged class.

Salinger In the CIC With Henry Kissinger

Salinger served in the CIC (Counterintelligence Corps) during The Battle of the Bulge in World War II. He was responsible for interviewing captured German soldiers as well local civilians, friend or foe. Did he witness torture and if so how did he handle it? How much was he willing to face and share, or was allowed to? War does things to the mind. His mind failed under the relentless pressure of trauma after trauma. After having thoughts of self harm, he submitted to psychiatric care. After recovering, he volunteered to return for more. He was cited for valor more than a couple of times, a bonifide hero.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger also served in the CIC and the Battle of the Bulge. It would be interesting to know if their paths crossed during those assignments, for which they both received medals for valor. Here's the relevant Wikipedia quote about Kissinger in the CIC: 

"Kissinger was reassigned to the 84th Infantry Division. There, he made the acquaintance of Fritz Kraemer, a fellow immigrant from Germany who ...arranged for him to be assigned to the military intelligence section of the division. Kissinger saw combat with the division and volunteered for hazardous intelligence duties during the Battle of the Bulge."

Further Wikipedia comments about the CIC:

"In the European and Pacific theaters of operations CIC deployed detachments at all levels. These detachments provided tactical intelligence about the enemy from captured documents, interrogations of captured troops, and from para-military and civilian sources. They were also involved in providing security for military installations and staging areas, located enemy agents, and acted to counter stay-behind networks. They also provided training to combat units in security, censorship, the seizure of documents, and the dangers of booby traps. In some cases CIC agents found themselves acting as the de facto military government on the occupation of large towns before the arrival of Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories (AMGOT) officers. As the war in Europe came to a close, CIC were involved in the Operations Alsos, Paperclip and TICOM, searching for German personnel and research in atomic weapons, rockets and cryptography. Recruits after World War II included Klaus Barbie, also known as the 'Butcher from Lyon', a former Gestapo member and war criminal."

After recovering from shell shock, Salinger volunteered to return to postwar Germany and hunt war criminals. He married a woman and later had the marriage annulled. She was a Nazi. Did he marry her for Intelligence reasons or did he truly love her? 

Salinger's war record was so highly personal we can understand why he had to lock himself away for long periods. It meant going deep and facing shame and trauma, and facing trauma can be re-traumatizing. This is why many combat veterans end up on welfare. PTSD, untreated, can be debilitating. Salinger wrote during the war, even during combat, stories that became The Catcher in the Rye.

Can you imagine sitting down with Charlie Rose to talk about killing and death? Or with any civilian who hasn't a clue what it is like to face combat? 

Read All Quiet on the Western Front  or Slaughterhouse Five for a sample of what it is like to return home after combat. These are be the standard by which any book about infantry combat is measured. In future volumes to be published we may see how Salinger does it.

The Catcher in the Rye: A Review

Pound for pound, The Catcher in the Rye would win the American novella category and rank highly among all the novels I have read to date.

First-person narrator Holden Caulfield is America's first literary teenager, opening the door for a new genre, the teenage confessional. Like East of Eden, Ordinary People, The Outsiders and Rebel Without a Cause, The Catcher in the Rye authentically portrays the struggles of teenage boys in a certain place and time. The quality of the writing is exceptional. While first-person point of view can be a challenge for young readers, the authenticity of the narrator's voice and the book's compactness make it more accessible. A lot happens in four days trapped inside Holden's head.

The Catcher in the Rye can be seen as a young adult novel or an adult novel about the teenager within us all, a lament on the necessary loss of innocence on the way to adulthood. You can't read it as an adult without getting personality insights than were impossible as a teen because teens are by definition living within the transitional state exemplified in Holden. They can't see it as transitional because it's the only reality they know, the fog they are living within.

Caterpillar, pupa and butterfly are different states of being. The vast majority of teens are emerging from pupae-ville, just starting to sample the sights and smells of the world. For them, death--James Castle's mangled body--is an abstract notion, something in a video or book or some stage or screen rendition of Romeo and Juliet. The average teen has never been in the presence of a lifeless body and smelled death's pungent vapors--well, maybe a frog in biology class--let alone lost a beloved sibling.

Only an adult can look back on their teenage years with perspective, yet academia keeps throwing The Catcher in the Rye at teenagers because of what it says about the challenges of growing up.

The Catcher in the Rye depicts an upper-middle-class male in an urban setting going through a crisis. He's overwhelmed by the pressures of becoming an adult, but too much has been thrown at him at once. He hasn't gotten over the death of his beloved younger brother, Allie, when he witnesses the suicide of a dormitory mate, James Castle. He's been traumatized and can't function. How much can a guy take?

He's looking for answers and can't seem to get them, like Conrad Jarret in Ordinary People and Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause. All three boys struggled with the death of people they cared about.

And the one person Holden respects and looks to for help, Mr. Antolini, he mistakes for a pervert, a threat. It's too much; so Holden withdraws. He wants to go live in a cabin in the woods, which is a metaphor for "Time-out! I need a break!" Phoebe rescues him with unconditional love. She accepts him no matter what. If she'd been a brat,the message would have been entirely different.

Holden goes from being antagonistic and callous to highly empathetic. He wants to protect children from the brutal realities of adulthood. But the trip has been too exhausting and he ends up in a rest home.

Cal, in East of Eden is similar to Holden--acting out, raging, doing strange things. But all four of these books/films are about males. The world of teenage girls is different; so all the guy stuff (fighting, jealousy, possessiveness, etc.) may not come across for the female reader.

I reread the book at age 67 and discovered that Holden could be suffering from PTSD stemming from the death of his brother and from witnessing the suicide of dorm-mate James Castle, who bailed out of a dorm window wearing the sweater Holden had loaned him. The symptoms Holden was exhibiting: depression, poor concentration, attention deficit, crying, uncontrollable rage, lack of motivation, self-isolation, sleeplessness, etc., are typical of PTSD.

To me The Catcher in the Rye is partially about a kid struggling against the downward spiral of mental illness. Without professional help he was doomed to submerge, and did. Holden was barely "holdin' on."

There's a lot of cultural and psychological meat in there: a) how boys interact with each other when living in close quarters, b) particularly when two have or are dating the same girl (Jane Gallagher)and one feels protective or possessive of her, c) how a sensitive boy might behave because of a deep emotional wound and d) how that boy might become neurotically protective toward his younger sister and toward children in general because of c).

Most teenagers aren't mature enough to comprehend the psychological ramifications of what I've just described unless they've been prepared for it by a mature adult who does comprehend. And there are many adults who can't.

Most adults have psychological defenses that don't allow even them to comprehend what I've just described. It's either too abstract, too complicated or too scary. I suspect this is the main reason the book is so controversial. Most people don't get it unless someone points the way.

A greater sense of Holden Caulfield through JD Salinger can be found in the film Finding Forester, which is purported to be based on Salinger's life. The reclusiveness of Forester appears rooted in the trauma of losing his beloved brother in a car crash.

In World War II, Salinger was at Utah Beach at Normandy and at bloody major campaigns like the Battle of the Bulge, where Allied troops were decimated. He was among the first Allied troops to liberate a German concentration camp. He was hospitalized for battle fatigue; he understood first-hand the effects of trauma.

In a 1953 interview with a high-school newspaper, Salinger said that the novel was "sort of" autobiographical: "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book ...it was a great relief telling people about it."

Salinger, when writing The Catcher in the Rye wouldn't have had a clue about PTSD, as it wasn't even in the diagnostic manual (DSM) for psychologists until decades later. He was just writing what he felt, blasting his feelings onto paper and letting the chips fall.

Many people see Salinger as a sort of literary genius because he sold 70 million copies of one book. I'm not saying he wasn't talented and educated; he had plenty of both going for him. I'm saying he leveraged his talent on top of some inner need to get this desperate crisis part of his life onto paper and out of his head.

A great segment of the literary world has quite understandably interpreted Holden's PTSD symptoms as mere teenage angst, but this is a gross oversimplification. It is his masterfully presented array of extreme symptoms that is largely responsible for the success of the book.

It's too complicated, or too sensitive, for English teachers to talk about mental illness; so they focus on the simple and more obvious interpretation. Such teachers are missing a phenomenal opportunity to reach kids who are in crisis or know someone who is. We'd have fewer cases of teenagers going postal if The Catcher in the Rye were used for exploring mental illness.

One point of the book is the redemptive power of unconditional love, revealed and brilliantly illustrated in the climax scene at the carousel.

Even at Phoebe's tender age, she knew how to get her point across. On the way to the carousel she digs in her heels, throws a fit, making Holden promise not to run away. Because of the depth of her devotion, Holden realizes she's doing it because she loves him, wants him to be safe and come home and return to school.

This revelation makes him so happy he begins to cry. He shows his love for Phoebe by fussing over her, making sure she gets a good seat, watching over her as the tears stream down his face in the rain. Teenage guys are supposed to be tough, but he's "practically bawling." And as if that weren't enough, Salinger practically spells it out with those two songs ("Oh Marie" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".)

Holden wanted Sally Hayes to run away with him, but all she wanted was someone to trim the Christmas tree, skate and go to the theater with. All Jane Gallagher wanted was someone to play golf and checkers and hold hands with in a movie. The raw fierceness of Phoebe's simple, innocent devotion redeemed Holden by showing him that among all the "phoniness" and flaws of mankind there is a niche of happiness if we open our eyes hearts to the possibility.

There was no one in Holden's life--not parents, not friends, not teachers, to let Holden know he was loved--except Phoebe. She proved her love by standing her ground to keep him safe. Phoebe represents family, clan or tribe. People are social creatures, like most higher forms of the animal kingdom capable of love. Love is a bonding emotion with survival implications.

If a writer has to STATE the obvious, it ruins it for the reader, cheats the reader of that glorious "Ah-ha" moment of discovery, or worse, insults the reader's intelligence. But by not spelling it out, he/she runs the risk that some readers won't get it. Herein lies the artistry--the use of symbol (ducks, fish), metaphor (pond), mood setting (rain).

Salinger strikes a balance between showing and telling, with the knowledge that some readers will get it and others will walk away shaking their heads, or come up with interpretations that he had not intended. We tend to find what we are capable of seeing, or need to.

Nature symbols are used sparingly but effectively. Ducks flying south and the "part frozen, and part not frozen" pond can symbolize Holden's transitional state--neither boy nor man. The fish symbolize nature, a reminder that a natural process ("Mother Nature") is taking place. The seasons come and go; we live; we die; we get sick; we get well; we get hurt; we heal. Are the Central Park ducks there to remind us that to survive and thrive we must stick together? You decide.

A final word on the so-called "Peter Pan" interpretation of Holden. I find little support in the text for the position that Holden was resisting growing up.

The passage often cited as evidence for the Peter Pan perception concerns the naked-breasted squaw diorama at the museum. Holden: The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. . . . You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, . . . and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.

In an article in the October 14, 2014, The New York Times Sunday Review of Books, author Mendelshon says, "The all-too-evident regret in that last sentence is striking — one of the novel’s many markers of Holden’s problem, which is a refusal to grow up." What regret? There is nothing in the text that conveys regret. Mendelshon may be projecting from his own history or it could be academic influence, some popular professor's interpretation that caught on because it was easy to relate to.

Practically everyone, Youtube star John Green included, parses out this naked-breasted squaw passage and Holden's liberal use of the word "phony" as evidence Holden doesn't want to grow up, while overlooking a mountain of evidence to the contrary.

Holden smokes, drinks, lies about his age, critiques theater and music performances, frequents museums, hires a prostitute, repeatedly seeks out adult conversation with peer-level engagement, acts protectively toward children. How many examples are needed to prove Holden is experimenting with adulthood? Criticizing adults as phony means he's evaluating adult behavior, not resisting. This is engagement, not avoidance.

Note further that Holden never seeks advice from his parents, or even thinks about it. Not consulting parents shows independence of mind, the embrace of maturity, not dependency or disengagement from the responsibilities of adulthood. Holden expresses compassionate concern about his mother, indicating that she hasn't been the same since Allie died. Compassion toward a grieving parent is adult thinking.

It shouldn't escape notice that Holden was also eagerly embracing the dessert of adulthood--sex, smoking, booze, nightclub music, dancing, flirting, dating, literature and the dramatic arts--while agonizing over the spinach of social hypocrisy and rationalization.

So, how DO we interpret Holden's comment about the bare-breasted Native American?

The key is in that last sentence, underlined above: "The only thing that would be different would be you." Holden is telling us he is aware that he is changing. This level of intuitive self-reflection is adult thinking. It also shows maturity to appreciate that "some things don't change and never should," because they are part of our cultural identity.

Nostalgic awareness is mature thinking. Mature people want to protect and preserve cultural icons.

Think of the loss and disorientation after the Twin Towers were destroyed. Icons like the Statue of Liberty are signposts reminding us of who and where we are. Holden was feeling lost. In his agitated state he desperately needed that bare-breasted squaw to be right where she had always been. That's all he was getting at with his comment. You Peter Pan theorists, give the kid a break and stop projecting your own history onto him.

Holden pondered and wrote down the Wilhelm Stekel quote Mr. Antollini gave him: "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." This is another sign he was putting a lot of serious and strenuous thought into growing up.

There are teenagers and even some adults, who resist growing up because their parents don't want to let go. They've been infantalized, encouraging dependency. Holden shows no evidence of having been infantalized. Quite the contrary, sending a kid to a military-style prep school could be evidence that Holden was too independent and possibly hard to control.

Many readers are perplexed by the book, for it is way over the heads of many, even some who teach literature. The book must be read slowly and thoughtfully in order to absorb its meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye even gets into the very meaning of life in the Steckel quote cited by Antolini: "The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." You can shrug your shoulders and flip the page or you can sit and ponder what it means, which could take days.

Many readers, teens in particular, resist The Catcher in the Rye because of the book's capacity to trigger self-reflection. It resonates with their own transition from juvenile to adult, a vital period for personality development, when boys and girls become men and women and are confronted with one another's sexuality and the struggle to think and "be" independent from their parents.

Check out the date rape scene in Ed Bankey's car when Holden overhears Stradlater abusing a girl in the back seat. You can't just blast through that scene without stopping to ponder your own early dating experiences.

The evidence on the page shows that Holden was not resisting adulthood; he was aggressively embracing it. Holden was no Peter Pan.

The book is a masterpiece of art and insight. Who will ever get into the head of a teenage boy so deeply, so thoroughly and with such an authentic and authoritative voice?


(More about me at http://www.wattpad.com/user/MHeying/works/page/1)

The Catcher in the Rye: Phoebe, Ducks and Nature

When he needed it most, there was no one in Holden's life--not parents nor friends nor teachers--to let him know he was valued and loved. His veneer of rude independence was like a barking dog, keeping people at bay. Buy his little sister Phoebe proved her devotion by standing her ground to keep her brother safe. She had already lost one brother, Allie, to cancer, and wasn't about to let it happen again.

Phoebe represents not only innocence but family, clan or tribe, as do the Central Park ducks that Holden keeps mentioning. People are social creatures. Love is a powerful bonding emotion with profound survival implications for most higher forms of life. If you want to test the concept, just wander between a gorilla and her cubs in spring.

If a writer has to state the obvious it cheats the reader of that glorious "Ah-ha" moment of discovery, or worse,  insult the reader's intelligence. But by not spelling it out the author runs the risk that some readers won't get it. Herein lies some of the artistry in writing--the use of symbol (ducks, fish), metaphor (pond), mood and setting (rain).

In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger strikes a balance between showing and telling, with full knowledge that some readers will walk away shaking their heads or come up with interpretations that he had not imagined. We tend to find what we are capable of seeing, or need to see.

Nature symbols are used effectively in this, Salinger's first novel. Ducks flying south and the "part frozen, and part not frozen" pond remind us of Holden's uncomfortable sate of transition. He is an adolescent, neither boy nor man. The fish are suggestive of nature, reminding that a natural process ("Mother Nature") is taking place. The seasons come and go. We get sick; we get well; we get hurt; we heal; we live; we die. Are the Central Park ducks in the story to remind us that to survive and thrive we need to stick together? Possibly.

Three times, Holden frets over the Central Park ducks, reflecting Salinger's study of Buddhism, a belief known for empathy. Such hypersensitivity would be expected of Salinger given his years of trauma in military combat.

When one has witnessed extreme suffering over three years--men chopped and blown to pieces, skeletal remains, walking dead and emaciated corpses in a concentration camp (Dachau)--life in all its forms can take on an expanded level of meaning.

What was Salinger's intent by making Holden worry about the welfare of ducks? It could show a wacky, childish aspect of Holden's character, or that he is mentally unbalanced or that he has the makings of a deeply spiritual, compassionate person. Or some combination of all three.

Here are four citations about the ducks:

On page 13, Holden is in a conversation with Mr. Spencer and daydreams about the ducks. "The funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while I shot the bull. I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go. 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 an took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away."

On page 60 Holden asks the first cabby about the ducks."...listen, I said. "You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?"
He turned around and looked at me like I was a madman.
"Whatt're ya tryna do, bud?" he said. "Kid me?"
"No--I was just interested, that's all."
He didn't say anything more, so I didn't either.

On page 81 Holden brings up the ducks again with the second cabby: "Hey, Horwitz," I said. "You ever pass by the lagoon in Central Park? Down by Central Park South?"
"The what?"
"The lagoon. That little lake, like, there where the ducks are. You know."
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, you know the ducks that swim around in it? In the spring time and all? Do you happen to know where they go in the wintertime, by any chance?"
"Where who goes?"
"The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or to they fly away by themselves--go south or something?"
Old Horwitz turned all the way around and looked at me. He was a very impatient-type guy. He wasn't a bad guy, though.
"How the hell should I know about a stupid thing like that?"

The conversation goes on for two pages bout the Central Park ducks and fish, then Horwitz ends it with: "Listen," he said. "If you was a fish, Mother Nature'd take care of you, wouldn't she? Right? You don't think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya?"
"No, but --"
"You're goddam right they don't," Horwitz said, and drove off like a bat out of hell.

The duck musings and dialog depict Holden, the cab drivers and city people in general as somewhat ignorant of nature, but if satire of urban life were on the agenda it would show up elsewhere. Like the theme of compassion, which crops up in every chapter--Holden fights Stradlater because of his probable abuse of Jane Galagher; he lies to a classmate's mother to make her feel good about her creep of a son; he chats with nuns, gives them money and tries to pay their bill; he lies to tourists about Gary Cooper to give them a story to tell when they return home; he hires a prostitute but he pays her to just talk to him instead of doing anything sexual because she's too young; he removes graffiti so kids won't see it; he wants to make a career of protecting kids from "going over a cliff"; he's even nostalgic over a nature diorama at the museum. Holden is such a softie that even reading about someone getting killed bothers him: The thing is, it drives me crazy if somebody gets killed--especially somebody very smart and entertaining and all--and it's somebody else's fault. Holden eventually feels sympathetic toward Stradlater, who knocked him flat, and even toward Maurice, the elevator operator/pimp who punched him.

Holden's concern over the ducks supports the themes of innocence and compassion and the security, warmth and social connection of family, making Phoebe's prominent climactic role in the story seem entirely natural.

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Notable Salinger Quotes

The Catcher in the Rye:

Holden Caulfield...

 “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”

“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

“I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot. ”
“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And 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 mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.”

“I am always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.”

“That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can.”

“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.”

“Mothers are all slightly insane.”

“It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.”

“When you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.”

“And I have one of those very loud, stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably lean over and tell myself to please shut up.”



Mr. Antolini...
“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.”

“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

“Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.”

“I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.”

“People are always ruining things for you.”

 “when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose.”

“I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy.”

“I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.”

“All morons hate it when you call them a moron.”

“If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late?”

“People never notice anything.”

“People always clap for the wrong reasons.”

 “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and they're pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody's be different. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that, exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat this time. Or the kid that was your partner in line the last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner. Or you'd have a substitute taking the class, instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd heard your mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in some way—I can't explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it.”



Franny and Zooey:
“I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.”

“I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”

“I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s. I’m sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It’s disgusting.”

“And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.”

“An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.”



Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

“I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.”