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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