Ducks Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye Essay Example

The way Holden obsesses about the ducks highlights maturity, the central issue in his life. In chapter 2, Holden visits his history teacher, Mr. Spencer. This is before Holden moves out of school because of his poor grades in every class but English. When Holden visits Mr. Spencer, the entire conversation bores Holden. Mr. Spencer lectures Holden, and was practically yelling at him in some parts of the talk. The shirtless history teacher also was not helping the situation. Fed up with the conversation, Holden begins to day dream. He says, “ 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” (18). 

After getting basically told he was a disappointment, he zones out, off into space. This is the type of thing you would expect a little kid to do when an adult is talking to them. His fascination with the ducks in the lagoon shows how immature he really is for not being able to focus just because he does not like what is happening. That is also relative to a kid, for example in a classroom. If they do not like what is being taught, they simply choose not to listen. This is exactly what Holden does here. 

Next, after screwing up his date with Sally, and having an awkward conversation with an old friend at the bar named Luce, Holden decides to go pay the ducks a visit. He says, “I figured I’d go by that little lake and see what the hell the ducks were doing, see if they were around or not. I still didn’t know if they were around or not” (191). After getting into a fight with Sally, and not being able to talk about it with Luce at the bar, Holden is hurt. In order to feel better, he needs to go see the ducks to heal himself and make him happy again. His attitude is similar to a toddler in this. When they do not get what they want, they cry and whine until something else cheers them up. What Holden wants is for Sally to runaway with him, and she rejects him. Then he tries to talk about it at the bar with Luce, and he did not listen. Holden also said he, “felt blue as hell” (199). This means that all of this makes him upset. 

Finally, he goes and sees the ducks and is not really sad anymore. All of this shows that after facing adversity, his child-like personality still comes out in him going to visit the ducks to make him feel better.