Holden Caulfield In The Catcher In The Rye

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In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield uses the ducks in central park as a motif all throughout the novel. Holden has never really gotten along or fit in with anyone and has always been an odd ball to his peers. After being kicked out of Pencey Prep, he asked the cabbie where the ducks in Central Park go for the winter; although, the cabbie takes it as a joke, it has a very significant meaning to the story. He connects with the ducks through the sense of not having anywhere else to go, not fitting in well with his surroundings, and the idea of temporarily vanishing. One way Holden and the ducks connect, is through a sense of not having anywhere else to go. Just like the ducks, Holden doesn’t know what he needs to do or where he needs to go. He is uncertain about what his options are now that he has been, once again, kicked out of school. This makes him realize that he needs to start on his journey to finding where he truly fits in. The ducks follow their gut and their logic to know where to go; therefore, Holden should do the same so he knows that the decision he makes is the right one. He feels the need to go to his parent’s house because he had nowhere else to go, but he knows that his mom won’t like what happened and his dad will be extremely angry at him seeing that this isn’t the only school…show more content…
Holden looks to them for guidance and direction. The ducks get away from its every day surroundings when migrating, and when they return they always have a fresh new coat. This represents it only being temporary and them having to deal with the city repeatedly. When Holden is talking to the cabbie he adds, “When it gets all frozen over” (page 60), he means although it isn’t permanent, it is an escape from, overall, their biggest threat. When the ducks get away, they know they will come back when the lagoon unfreezes, but just going to a place where they better fit in is almost a
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