Themes in "The Catcher in the Rye"

Themes

Aesthetic features/Positioning techniques

Isolation: -          In relation to teenagers especially. Most teenagers feel alone in what they are facing and therefor feel a strong sense in isolation.           Loss and Death; -          Something you can’t avoid, painful, happens to everyone and no one really understands why it happens.             Adolescence:   Innocence: -          Something that Holden values the most, very precious thing, he sees it as the opposite of phoniness, he sees it exemplified by childhood and that when you have lost it you have lost it forever.

·         Characterisation of Holden ·         The red hunting hat – used as a symbol of Holden’s need of protection because of his feelings of isolation. ·         Language choices in the things Holden says ·         The motif of the ducks – the reason Holden is so worried about where the ducks go when the pond is frozen over is that this mirrors his own sense of isolation. ·             -          Holden’s experience with Allie’s death -          His reaction and the effect it has on him -          Use of first person narration -          Language choices -          The story he writes about Allie’s baseball glove -          Holden’s loss of his friend Jane to Stradlater through her date             -          Through the characterization of Phoebe -          Through Holden’s view on Phoebe -          The metaphor of the catcher in the rye because through it we know that Holden wants to stop children falling out of innocence into phoniness -