Symbolism Of Water In The Catcher And The Rye

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The Symbolism of Water in The Catcher and the Rye “Change equals loss and loss equals grief. Any change–even if it’s good–represents the loss of something else. Loss–regardless of what it is–means grief,” (Dr. Wolfelt). Holden Caulfield lost his younger brother Allie who died of leukemia when Holden was thirteen years of age. The night of his death, Holden broke all the windows in the garage and had to be hospitalized. Ever since Allie’s death, Holden has tried to deny it. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is about an adolescent (Holden Caulfield) getting kicked out of school and living in New York alone for a few days. In that short time, Holden learns to accept reality as it is, thus accepting the death of his brother. Holden’s visit to the lake to see the ducks illustrates how change is a challenge for those who grieve. Holden decides to visit the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel. Instead of leaving after visiting Luce (an old friend), he stays at the bar and gets very drunk. “When [he] was really drunk, [he] started that stupid business with the bullet in [his] guts,” (150). When Holden gets very drunk, he acts as if there is a bullet in his guts. He later says that he didn’t want anyone to know he was “wounded”. Alcohol pollutes the mind and causes delusion. Holden isn’t literally wounded but emotionally he was. Holden is trying to keep face about Allie’s death. He doesn’t want anyone to find out how much his death changed him. It has become a challenge for Holden to open up. Before Holden decided to go to the park, he dumped his head in water trying to sober up. It was so cold outside that he says, “I kept worrying that I was getting pneumonia with all those hunks of ice in my hair, and that I was going to die.”(153) At first Holden dumps his hair into water, signifying he is washing away his negative thoughts. When he sees the pond which reminded him of

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