Catcher+symbols

Catcher Notes
 * Coming of age novel – childhood to adulthood
 * What’s the difference?
 * we often talk about the innocence of childhood
 * Two opposites of innocence
 * guilt
 * experience
 * stream-of-consciousness – writing that mimics the words that pass a character’s head
 * colloquial language – how people really talk, in this case teenagers

Characteristics of Holden’s narration
 * Contrasts/Opposites
 * Lying (America’s most famous unreliable narrator)
 * Repetition and emphasis
 * exaggeration

Symbols Holden’s Red Hunting Hat
 * gregariousness and withdrawal from people
 * mental illness – depression, anxiety
 * brother Allie’s death, not getting any help
 * How do we know what’s a symbol?
 * symbols help show something important about the story
 * Context, mood, pattern
 * buys it in NYC – after losing all the fencing gear
 * bad day
 * later he puts it on when he’s grumpy or upset
 * sometimes he turns it around
 * whenever is shows up, he’s troubled

Museum of Natural History
 * Some people go further with this symbol
 * Hat is red
 * Allie was a redhead
 * smart, nice, socially adept
 * Phoebe is also a redhead
 * also good with the world
 * Therefore the hat could be a way to connect with Allie, be like him
 * used to go there on school trips
 * it doesn’t change, it’s reliable
 * life has been terrible since Allie’s death – too big a change
 * “every time you go, you’re different, but the museum is the same.”
 * memory of childhood, when life was predictable

Ducks in Central Park Allie’s baseball glove
 * Winter is coming – what will they do?
 * Keeps asking cab drivers
 * Another change
 * it worries Holden
 * Holden “happens to have it” in his suitcase
 * Still misses Allie – bad change

Catcher in the Rye
 * Holden hears a boy singing it while walking on the curb
 * at the edge of safety and danger
 * Holden gets the song wrong
 * He thinks someone (the Catcher)
 * is catching children as they’re playing
 * kids run too close, fall off cliff
 * Catcher saves them at the bottom
 * tells Phoebe he wants to be the Catcher
 * Catch kids who are **falling**
 * Protecting kids from?

Falling = change
 * Holden wants to prevent it
 * Mr. Antolini tells H. he’s “headed for a fall”
 * H. worries about Phoebe falling at the carousel
 * worries about her taking a risk
 * decides kids have to try
 * Kids always grow up
 * Except Allie