An Analysis of Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye
1. Introduction恶女神
The Catcher in the Rye is J.D Salinger’s first and only novel. It was published in1951. It gained immediate polarity among the American young readers，especially the high school students. It has been reprinted time and again. The New York Times book review wrote: in the United States, reading The Catcher in the Rye was as important as the graduate got the approval of the tutor. The novel tells the story of an acute 16-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield who is expelled from an elite prep school, spending two days in New York killing time, obrving, and eking direction of life. There, he es all kinds of phony phenomena. Holden is tired of the phoniness and degeneration in the modern civilization, and does not know how to handle the problem. So he tries to escape from the society. Through fruitless struggle, he is eventually driven crazy.
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Literary critics did a lot of analysis on this book from different aspects. G. S. Amur(1989) analyzed the protagonist Holden’s inner world from psychology aspect. William Riggan (198
9) compared this book with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, analyzing the similarities and differences between Holden and Huck from sociology aspect. In psychoanalytic terms, Malcolm Bradbury (1988) pointed out that there were two worlds in Holden’s heart, namely hypocritical ugly adult world and pure and beautiful child world. As a 16-year-old big boy, Holden was in great fear for the inevitability into the adult world. 小暑节The Catcher in the Rye is so popular for most part owing to his writing skills. In this thesis, it mainly focus on the symbolism applied in The Catcher in the Rye.
In奇异果和猕猴桃的区别 Webster’s English Dictionary, the definition of symbolism is “the art or practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or nsuous reprentations”(Merriam，2036). Arthur Symons (2004) said: “No Symbolism, no literature”(126).
In novel creation, symbolism aims at revealing the hidden meaning behind phenomenon or objects; namely it us association and correlation between image and significance to display the mind cret and philosophy behind things. In The Catcher in the Rye, there ar
e abundant of symbolism. It rves as a new perspective and also an artistic device in the analysis of the novel. Various symbolic elements involved in the novel, such as ttings, objects and characters, assume their specific significance in the exploration of the universal theme of the novel. In this thesis, the writer will analyze the symbolic elements.
2. Symbolic Settings
The physical action of the book takes place in 1949 at two locations. The first ven chapters-about one quarter of the book are t at Pencey Prep. Another tting is New York. Each of them has their own significant symbolic meaning.
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2.1 Pencey Prep—Traditional Mainstream Culture
Pencey Prep is the symbol of traditional mainstream culture. It is a middle school special open for the children who come from a rich family. Students are more like Holden who is a child of a middle class family after the World WarⅡ. In its enrollment advertiment, it al
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学走路ways claims “Since 1888 we have been molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men” (Salinger,2). In fact, since the 1950s, America had been in a phony peaceful state. Modern production made people into the robot of the asmbly line. They can not communicate with each other becau of the estrangement. Pencey Prep is just like a production asmbly line of producing robot, promoting phony education policy according to social norms of the United States, training students to be the “ideal” citizens who don’t have their own ideas and accord with the traditional mainstream culture regulations and requirements. But after the Second World War, cold social reality shows that the smoldering things in the traditional culture actually have already vanished and have been replaced by coldness, callousness and “phoniness”. In Pencey Prep, the headmaster is a “phony slot”, despising the poor and currying favor with the rich curry; teachers are old and talentless; Schoolmates deceive each other and only think about themlves. However, Pencey Prep has a very good reputation, how ridiculous it is. From this aspect, we can e that the phony school reprents the insane society.
At the beginning of The Catcher in the Rye, almost every one in the school is watching th
e football game with Saxon Hall. Holden, however, he stands on the top of Thomn Hill alone, watching the crowds. The move suggests that Holden can’t fit in the mainstream society reprented by Pencey Prep. In order to escape the mainstream society, Holden adopts a ries of passive ways—getting flunked in four cours, kicked out by school. He breaks with the traditional culture with his uncooperative attitude.
2.2 New York—Non-Mainstream Culture
New York is another big tting in The Catcher in the Rye. It symbolizes the non-mainstream culture reprented by “collap generation”. In 1950s, a group of young American intellectuals influenced by Nietzsche “Voluntarism”, Freud’s “analytical psychology” and Sartre “existentialism”, deem that all suffering in the modern world comes from “rationalism” and “spirit”. Therefore, under the guide of anti-rationalism, they deny everything and oppo everything, exaggerating Nihilism as well as pessimism. At the same time, they are addicted to hedonism and carnalism, resisting the traditional culture by drinking alcohol, madness, prostitution, living abnormal life to against the unfair
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