The Symbolism In J.D.Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye

As a reclusive writer and literature hermit, J.D. Salinger enjoys a high prestige in the world with his first and only novel The Catcher in the Rye. This novel was listed as banned book and later became a world-enduring classic, and Salinger is regarded as a classical writer whose work is widely read by Americans. It is really unusual in the history of the world literature. The Catcher in the Rye describes the ugliness and loss of the capitalist world after World War Ⅱ in the third person and a youth’s tone, which has aroused great empathy among readers especially teenagers. Based on the theory of symbolism, this thesis defines various symbols in this novel in the light of longitudinal relations, excavates miscellaneous symbolic contents in the novel roundly and systemically, and discusses how symbolism serves to highlight the theme of this works and depict the characteristics of characters.The first chapter explores the symbolic imagery in the novel. Symbolism is strongly reflected in this novel, ranging from story background and natural environment to appearance and clothing of characters. Pencey Prep and New York, which respectively symbolize the mainstream social culture and hypo-stream social culture, left Holden in choke and desperation, thus molding his unusual and extreme characters. The objects in the novel such as rye, cliff, Holden’s hunting hat and his gray hair refract the themes and characters features of the novel.The second chapter analyzes symbolic characters and their activities. The figures in this novel can be clarified into positive ones and negative ones. For example, Holden’s girlfriends Sally and Jane represent profane and platonic loves; Stradlater, Sunny and Allie, Phoebe are spokesmen of goodliness and ugliness. Besides, some figures’behaviors also have distinct symbolic meanings.The third chapter discovers symbolism in the work from the perspective of colors. Different colors in this novel including red, white, black, blue, pink and so on contain various symbolic connotations under specific language environment and culture. For instance, white stands for purity and goodness; black represents evil and fear. The writer presents deep symbolic meanings with these colors to feature the theme of this novel.