Hello All--
I hope that this message finds everyone well. Right now, I have been up for a little over an hour--getting reading for the day and wishing I was in South Berwick, Maine instead of Manchester, NH. I trust that yesterday went well and that today will also be a success.
For the second half of class today, please complete the following writing assignment:
On page 60, it reads: "'Hey listen,' I said. 'You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? THat little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know by any chance?' I realized it was a one in a million chance."
I love how this passage starts--and Holden's declaration of "Hey Listen." It feels as if he is talking to me (the reader) instead of a cab driver-it seems like he is asking me as a reader to help him--help him find his way, help him navigate the waters of his current problems. Thus, it transforms this questions from a literal idea into a more symbolic thought, or question: how is Holden like one of those ducks and will he ever find out where they go when their world freezes over?
In the 40/45 minutes you have in the rest of class please respond to that question. I would highly suggest that you write as much as possible--that you concern yourself with both quality but also quantity: get as many ideas down as you possible because you will be given the time to back and revise some of them at a later date.
-These do not need to be analytical responses. You can use I.
-While you do not need to write body paragraphs--your writing should try and argue a point.
-You should however include pieces of textual support and focus on trying to provide some analysis on how your piece of textual evidence answers the questions.
-Work on clearly and directly articulating the ideas you have.
-Think about how other motifs help answer this question and what themes that they are connected to.
-You should post your writing at the end of the class period.
I know that some of you might find this a difficult task--and I am sorry that I am not in class in order to answer your questions and help you along. However, have confidence in your abilities, write through your problems, and believe the fact that 'with a little elbow grease everything is possible."
Can't wait to see you soon--but thank you in advance for your efforts and dedication.
Best,
AK
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14 comments:
Like the ducks, Holden is confused and doesn’t know where he will go. Holden constantly wonders where the ducks are going, and by his constant wandering and wondering, he is also confused about where he too will go. Currently, on chapter seventeen, Holden is in New York City and has been for quite some time. I think that whatever direction Holden is given he ignores, and whatever assignment he is given, he quits then fails. “Dear Mr. Spencer [he read out loud]. That is all I know about the Egyptians. I can’t seem to get very interested in them although your lectures are very interesting. It is all right with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except English anyway. Respectfully yours, Holden Caulfield” (pg 12). Like I’ve said in other discussions this shows that he is just giving up and he’s throwing himself away.
Since this is the fourth school Holden has been kicked out of, his sense of direction is going to be misguided. Right now, his only chance of survival-like the ducks-is to try. Right now Holden is on the outside and will continue to remain that way until he can change. Him being on the outside and constantly judging and annoying is only pushing him further from the other “ducks” and increasing his loneliness, which is one of the reemerging themes we see. Holden is not trying and therefore, he can’t succeed. “They kicked me out. I wasn’t suppose to come back after Christmas vacation, on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself at all” (pg 4). Holden knows he is slowly drowning, but he isn’t doing anything to change it. The question, “will he ever find out where they go when their world freezes over?”, I believe applies to Holden as well. It is not a matter of when he will change but will he. I believe that Holden has the capability to turn his world around and make the best out of the hand he was dealt. Like the motif, Life is a game, Holden knows how to play the game, but not win it. It is up to him whether he can find a way to win, or if he will continue losing. The fear I have for Holden is not that he won’t find a way to win, but by the time he finds it, it might be too late and he might’ve already lost.
Where the ducks go in the winter is a huge mystery. But then again, where does Holden go when winter comes or times get tough. When he gets kicked out of boarding school Holden does not know where to go. He thinks he cannot go home and in the winter the ducks have no home. The pond was there home and now it’s frozen over. Pencey Prep was Holden’s home for the longest time and he was kicked out.
“Here’s my idea. How would you like to get the hell out of here? Here’s my idea…tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see” (132).
Holden’s only reflex in solving his problems is to run. Holden ran away from Pencey and now he is looking to run away with Sally. Most people have a fight or flight reflex, but Holden’s only option for himself is to fly. When times get rough, Holden does not want to face his problems, he just wants to run away from them. Running away from everything will not help Holden, it will only hurt him. Running away will hurt Holden because he is really running away from his internal problems; the problems that no one else can see. These problems are the problems that only Holden can fix, but he does not want to put in the effort to fix them. Holden believes that the only way to fix these internal problems is to run away.
When the ducks’ world freezes over, they have to go somewhere; even if Holden does not know where they go. If Holden keeps running away he will never find out where the ducks go. The only way that Holden will find out where they go when their world freezes over is if he looks inside himself. When Holden faces his internal problems, he will realize who/what he really is. Holden will realize that he, himself, is a duck (metaphorically). The place that Holden goes to fix his problems will be where the ducks find their winter home. All Holden has to do is look inside himself and he will find the answer that he has always been looking for. This answer will help Holden fight out his own problems and it will answer the question that has been on his mind since he arrived in New York City.
Holden asked the cab driver a second time where the ducks go for a reason. Holden asked because he is looking for help. What he does not know is that the help he is seeking, no one can give him. The type of help he wants can only be found when he truly faces his problems. When he looks inside himself. And when he realizes the type of person he truly is.
The ducks in the pond in NYC’s central park symbolize Holden in his struggle to figure out himself, his life (past and future), and the lives of his friends and family around him.The pond freezes as winter sets in, getting colder and colder makes it harder for the ducks to fly their wings getting stiff. The longer they wait the more their chances of escaping before winter decrease. Holden is struggling with his life, his troubles in school and with other people. The ducks escape from the pond before it freezes Holden wants to know that when trouble sets in and he can’t figure his way out what is he going to do and where is he going to go. I think he’s having troubles because the “winter” is setting in however a motif that I have noticed that goes along with the frozen pond is the ice skates his mother bought him. “One thing about packing depressed me. I had to pack up these brand-new ice skates my mother had practically just sent me a couple of days before” (52). His mother sent him a skates, which are used to skate across ice, with just shoes you fumble and take a while to get places but with skates on you skate right on through with ease. His mother is a way to escape the frozen pond, the troubles he’s facing and it’s right in front of him and he can’t see it. He’s too scared to tell his parents even though they love him.
However in the end even with the struggle the ducks have and where they go after, they always make it somewhere safe wherever they go.
Where the ducks go for the winter when the pond freezes is like asking where does Holden go when school starts. The ducks are obviously not literately there but with Holden at school he’s literately there but not into it. He doesn’t focus on any of his classes except English, and that’s why he’s failed out of four schools now. The thing with the ducks is that Holden almost wants to be them, in a better place rather than school. He feels like he needs to get out of like a jail, and break free like the ducks break out of the water during winter. I also think that with his parents its not that they don’t necessarily don’t want him it’s that he’s not being a want able person. Like when he smokes and drinks all the time and then fails his school, what type of person wants to associate with that. Yes there is unconditional love but there would be more if he got his act together. Yet Holden does not think of it this way, he thinks everyone is out to get him, and that he has done no faults. So he doesn’t look to make himself better or more want able, but instead he runs away, just like the ducks run away from the pond. The ducks don’t have a choice though, it’s either move for a little bit and survive or stay freeze and die. Holden however can decide his own fait; he can choose to run away from his problems and not be completely loved and wanted. Or he can decide to grow up become a man and do what he needs to get done. On page 88 Holden says, “Not that I’d have done much about it even if I had known. I’m one of those very yellow guys.” In this it’s just showing how he doesn’t stick up for himself like a man. He’s a cowardly boy, who lets people get away with things. He thinks however that he is this big man, he tries to show off that’s he’s 17 and not a child anymore but inside he really is. Holden needs to grow up and not be immature. He needs to be like a duck in one hand where he goes out and flies for the first time, takes a step in the right direction of what he wants. Not be a follower and let others decide his fait for him. Maybe Pency kicking him out was a good thing and now he doesn’t want to go home and disappoint his parents once again, but it means nothing if he doesn’t do anything about it. He needs to be active not proactive.
-Ricky
neAndrew Waterhouse said. . .
I think that Holden is one of those ducks because his entire world is slowly failing for him. Holden's world is the lake in Central Park he speaks of. He has flunked out of four schools, meaning that his chances of getting into a better college are less. His social world is not doing too well either. He is looking for intellectual stimulation, to make himself feel he is intellectual. He also wants to be loved by somebody, so he goes to great lengths to see who will love him. He can't seem to find these qualities in people. He is looking for somebody to catch him when he falls.
When Holden is people-watching he comes across a child that brightens his day. The child ‘catches’ him in a way, because Holden misses his childhood and the child he sees is singing (on pg. 115) "If a body catch a body coming through the rye." The little boy is singing it without a care; really belting it out. When Holden sees this boy and his innocence, it catches him because after all of the depression he has experience in the days before from the adult world; he needs a reminder that he was once that boy.
As for whether or not Holden will find out where the ducks go when their world freezes over, I believe that Holden will discover where to go or what to do. He has already made decent progress. Holden finds himself trying to escape the city life full of phonies and get away. He suggests to Sally Hayes that he wants to run away with her to Vermont or Massachusetts. "Tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, and all around there, see. It's beautiful as hell up there... We'll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out," (132). Holden wants to be caught by someone, and escape from the city (hence the name, CATCHER in the RYE).
How is Holden like one of those ducks and will he ever find out where they go when their world freezes over?
Holden is a duck. He has feathers and tough skin required to survive in the world; but he just is not utilizing them to the best of his abilities. Ducks have feathers to repel water, oil and other substances that do not belong on their skin. Holden too should be able to do this; he is seventeen years old; he goes to boarding school; he interacts with nasty people every day; yet every time he is insulted, hurt, annoyed or enraged with someone, he lets it right though his feathers because he thinks that they may be able to answer his questions and solve his problems. Also he wants his decisions to be justified by others to make him feel accepted,
“’He’s not too bad,’ I said. ‘You don’t know him, that’s the trouble.’
‘I still say he’s a sonuvabitch. He’s a conceited sonuvabitch.’
He’s conceited, but he’s very generous in some things. He really is,’ I said (24).
He feels he needs Ackley’s approval for his friendship with Stradlater; and he is feeling bad for not liking Stradlater so he makes petty excuses about is generosity. Holden is never going to figure out who he is if he cannot even accept and face his own decisions and opinions.
Holden also is lacking the skin of a duck. The skin that keeps them insulated in the winter and does not let them bleed or let their innards fall out. He is falling apart and being plucked apart by society. When he can come to terms and at least grasp the terrible path he is on, then he will be able to see where the ducks go when the world freezes over; where he can go when his own world freezes over. I think Salinger means by frozen is; when everything in your world is plummeting and going completely wrong it is vitally important to have a place, person or thing to turn to. For some it is the refuge of a safe room or the arms of a best friend. For Holden; he has none. He has no escape route for when his feathers are gone and his skin is sliding.
I, and apparently the rest of the world, have faith in Holden, or we would burn the book right now. He will find out where those ducks go because that is where he will go when he finds himself and his past. If he does not act quickly he will be a victim of himself, “that kills me”. And he doesn’t want to die, he needs to find his alternative, the warm place with out ice.
Although Holden lacks much of what a duck has; they do share is common one thing. They are both loved and cherished by someone.
Holden Caulfield is a young man in an expanding world, wandering around New York city to try and find a path for his life to follow. Instead of trying to find his own path for his life, Holden asks other individuals. A repetitive image throughout the Catcher in the Rye is of Holden asking different people this question; “You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?” The concept of layers, the ducks in the lagoon, the lagoon within the park, and the park within New York City itself, is a reference to the layers of Holdens world. Holden is at the center of his life, but surrounding it is his school, then New York City, and in a broader sense, the world. Holden Caulfield is one person in the world, and he believes he has no significant impact upon it; he has the same impact upon his world as the duck’s do on Central Park. Holden’s world is exactly the same as the duck’s world, and when their world freezes over, Holden’s world has as well.
The idea of the lagoon freezing over symbolically represents the loss of his brother Allie. When Allie died, Holdens world froze over, leaving him without guidance or purpose in life. “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don’t blame them. I really don’t. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (38-39). The death of his brother forces Holden to confront the sorrow and eventual anger he feels. From Holden’s perspective his world has stopped, frozen in place, and he is alone in the garage. The concept of freezing over is associated with death itself; when fall turns to winter the animals move underground to escape the cold and the harsh terrain, following closely are the plants which slowly wither away. Holden references the relationship between the death of his brother and the lagoon freezing over by associating his brother with water itself. “I and Allie used to take her to the park with us, especially on Sundays. Allie had this sailboat he used to like to fool around with on Sundays, and we used to take old Phoebe with us” (68). One of the most popular activities in central park for young kids to do, is to race sailboats across the small ponds. By mentioning the sailboat, Holden ties his brother together with central park. When Holden asks “Where do the ducks go?”, he is directly referencing the constant battle within his own mind over how to deal with his brother’s death. Every time Holden asks this question, the person he asks does not know the answer, leading Holden to the understanding that he is the only person who knows how to escape the sorrow, madness, and depression left behind by the death of his brother.
Holden is like one of the ducks because, similar to a duck, he thinks he is free but he is confined by certain things in his life, and will one day need to leave the confines and face the world. Holden is confined by his judgments, just as the ducks are confined by the lake. Holden judges people the instant he sees them, for instance when he sees Sally's friend, he judges him immediately. He describes him as "Some guy in one of those dark gray flannel suits and one of those checkered vests. Strictly Ivy League" (127). Holden judges this man immediately. He thinks that just because he has seen him, he knows everything there is to know. This confines Holden because by judging this man, and placing him in a category that he has stereotypes about, he forfeits the chance to make a friend, or at least have a good conversation. The degree to which Holden judges people is boldly stated when Holden states, "I can even get to hate somebody, just looking at them" (108). Holden is being stifled by his judgments, and unless he decides to stop judging people, he will continue to be crowded, similar to if there were too many ducks in the lake, to survive, some will have to leave.
Holden will find out where the ducks go when he is able to change, to let go of some of his judgments. The ducks leave every winter, and return anew every spring. Holden wants to know if they are caged or if they run free. Holden will learn when he decides if he will be caged by his judgments or if he will allow himself to open up to other people and free himself. The ducks only leave when "their world freezes over", and Holden will not be able to let go of his stereotypes and judgments until his world "freezes over". When this happens, Holden will be able to clearly see where he has gone wrong, and be able to finally open up to others, to allow himself to change, just like the ducks. Holden will be happy for the change to come if he ever gets there, just like a duck when it decides to leave the cold north and go south, but Holden will only hear that answer when he himself has decided to change.
When Holden asks other people what happens to the ducks, Holden is asking them for directions in his own life. Holden doesn't want to take control, he wants to just sit back and let a metaphorical cab driver show him the way, but Holden knows that won't happen, although he keeps hoping it will. Holden is in denial about his situation in life, and needs to choose his own path. Somewhere deep down inside himself, Holden knows where he needs to go, just like ducks have instincts, but ultimately, Holden will decide what to do, not necessarily the right thing, but what he believes needs to be done. Unlike ducks, with their instincts, Holden does not listen to his, and does not realize the consequences that his actions will bring if he doesn't change. Once Holden is able to change, everything will become transparent.
Holden is like the ducks he keeps mentioning. He brings up the question multiple times and is unable to find an answer to the question “where do the ducks go?” He is running away, like the ducks run away from the frozen lake, but he does not know exactly where he is going. That is why he continues to ask this question. Holden is running away from the ice, or the thing that would kill him if he were a duck. The pond has frozen over because it is winter and Holden is slowly being killed. He shows us this by continually saying, “It kills me.” Or “that just killed me.” When Sally mentions going ice skating, Holden doesn’t like the idea because he is trying to run away from the ice, not towards it. What Holden doesn’t realize is that he is killing himself. He portrays himself to the reader like he is being victimized, but in reality Holden is victimizing himself. Once Holden accepts that he needs to change in order to “survive” he will realize where the ducks go, and how they get there. The only way Holden will be able to realize this is if he looks within himself and realizes that he needs to open himself up to others. Holden going out onto the ice symbolized Holden looking within himself. He could not do this for a length of time and suggests that they stop ice skating. After they go ice skating, Holden is able to open up to Sally about what he wants. Once Holden faces himself he will be able to know what he is truly running from and how to get where he is going. Holden want to run away from New York, like the ducks, but he can’t figure out how to.
Holden also needs to learn to listen to people. When he is talking to Sally about where he wants to go, she keeps telling him, “Stop screaming at me, please.’ Which was crap, because I wasn’t even screaming at her” (132). Holden won’t listen to anyone, which makes it difficult to learn anything from people. People are telling Holden where the ducks go, he is just not listening to them. Instead of listening to people he isolates himself because he is scared finding a connection with someone, and then loosing the connection, like his brother. Holden needs to overcome the grief of his brother’s death, and trust that everyone is not going to leave him. Once he makes connections with people they will help him look into himself and find where he is truly going.
Holden Caulfield is a young man in an expanding world, wandering around New York city to try and find a path for his life to follow. Instead of trying to find his own path for his life, Holden asks other individuals. A repetitive image throughout the Catcher in the Rye is of Holden asking different people this question; “You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?” The concept of layers, the ducks in the lagoon, the lagoon within the park, and the park within New York City itself, is a reference to the layers of Holdens world. Holden is at the center of his life, but surrounding it is his school, then New York City, and in a broader sense, the world. Holden Caulfield is one person in the world, and he believes he has no significant impact upon it; he has the same impact upon his world as the duck’s do on Central Park. Holden’s world is exactly the same as the duck’s world, and when their world freezes over, Holden’s world has as well.
The idea of the lagoon freezing over symbolically represents the loss of his brother Allie. When Allie died, Holdens world froze over, leaving him without guidance or purpose in life. “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don’t blame them. I really don’t. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it” (38-39). The death of his brother forces Holden to confront the sorrow and eventual anger he feels. From Holden’s perspective his world has stopped, frozen in place, and he is alone in the garage. The concept of freezing over is associated with death itself; when fall turns to winter the animals move underground to escape the cold and the harsh terrain, following closely are the plants which slowly wither away. Holden references the relationship between the death of his brother and the lagoon freezing over by associating his brother with water itself. “I and Allie used to take her to the park with us, especially on Sundays. Allie had this sailboat he used to like to fool around with on Sundays, and we used to take old Phoebe with us” (68). One of the most popular activities in central park for young kids to do, is to race sailboats across the small ponds. By mentioning the sailboat, Holden ties his brother together with central park. When Holden asks “Where do the ducks go?”, he is directly referencing the constant battle within his own mind over how to deal with his brother’s death. Every time Holden asks this question, the person he asks does not know the answer, leading Holden to the understanding that he is the only person who knows how to escape the sorrow, madness, and depression left behind by the death of his brother.
Chris Richards
Holden is blinded by the single opportunity that someone will just come over and pick the ducks up when the water freezes over. For some reason, he is brought out to conclude that the ducks will either die, or get picked up by some truck. Similar to the ducks, Holden is almost about to get stuck in the pond and frozen over. His quick judgments, poor attitude, lack of aspirations and moral capacity show that only other people can save him from being the lonely self he is. Although the problem he is facing is not easy, he is way too reliant on other people to contribute to his success. One thing that Holden hasn't realized is that ducks can fly. The independent action that they take almost directly symbolizes how he should and will act. Although he might not be capable to do this in weeks or months, the present of skates shows how his parents, specifically his mother is there to guide him until he can fly like a duck on his own. Maybe he's curious asking the cab driver on how he will survive or carry through life, is he’s stuck in the pond of college jerks, snobby headmasters and weird roommates. In order for Holden to get out of this situation, he has to start being more open to other people’s feelings and quite being so selfish. If he gave the time to think over how he could make things better, he wouldn't have to resort to running away from his problems. One of his problems that he's running away from is growing up. He wants to stay in a pond just not this one. The realization that growing up is inevitable has not occurred to him and if he wants to succeed, the idea of making positive adjustments must be present.
When Holden’s talking to Horowitz after Holden asked him where the ducks go, he says “It’s tougher for the fish, the winter and all than it is for the ducks, for Chrissake. Use your head, for Chrissake. This section shows Horowitz saying how Holden being a duck isn’t really at a tough place right now compared to the people who are the fish that are having even worse time. They represent the unfortunate people around and Holden is luckier than he feels he is. His sole actions are his escapes out.
~Conor McFarland
Holden is like the ducks because he has nowhere to go. He has been kicked out of a third school, he is alone in New York City, and thus he has no one there for him. Soon, he will go home, and his parents will find out that he got kicked out of Pencey Prep. Whether out of fear for his own wellbeing or his parent’s, he does not want to go home; he is trying to run from his problem. This is Holden’s world, and like the ducks world, it is about to freeze over.
When Holden asks a cab driver about where the ducks go when the pond freezes over, he said he didn’t know. But he said that the fish stay right where they are. Holden is just as similar to the fish as he is to the ducks, because, like the ducks, the fish’s world is about to freeze over. The cab driver then explains that the fish are fine during the winter because Mother Nature takes care of them. “‘Listen’, he said. ‘If you was a fish, Mother Nature’d take care of you, wouldn’t she?” (83) This is just the case with Holden, because he needs someone to take care of him, even if he does not admit it to himself.
In order for Holden to understand the ducks, he needs to understand himself. Since Holden does not know where he himself will go when his world freezes over, he can’t possibly understand where the ducks will go. Or maybe the opposite is true. Perhaps Holden can’t understand where he will go because he does not know where the ducks will go.
No one will tell Holden where the ducks go because he needs to find the answer out for himself.
Holden is metaphorically one of the ducks. He is trying to run away from the ‘bad’ in the world—like winter. The ducks try to escape from freezing, and Holden is trying to escape from depression. I believe that the ducks are a foil for Holden’s character, and the help to show us a more in-depth version of Holden. “She said I was wild and that I had no direction in life”(59). Holden keeps so many of his emotions bottled up, that he can’t express them when it is appropriate, and because he struggles with his emotions, that translates into not knowing where to turn when he is in trouble.
Holden, like an animal (duck), has trouble thinking ahead about his life. Either he is caught up in the moment, or he is in his own fantasy. He can’t think about spring and a new beginning. For me, even being kicked out of Pency Prep starts a new beginning, a new spring. I think that Holden struggles with endings because he has been brought up in a family that struggles with endings—“she writes books all the time. Only, she doesn’t finish them. They’re all about...a girl detective”(68). Phoebe never wants or knows how to have her stories end. Allie didn’t finish his life, it was taken away from him before he could enjoy it. Ducks, like Holden, experience this too. They want summer to stay forever so they don’t have to migrate and change their lives. The difference between them is that Holden doesn’t look for the new beginning, and accept it, where as the ducks find acceptance that they have to leave.
Metaphorically, Holden will eventually come to understand where the ducks go. The actual fact of where they will go when their world freezes over, Holden might not ever find an answer to. The answer will only come to Holden from himself. He is running from his past, his present, and he will be running from his future if he doesn’t get himself out of this hole. Constantly Holden is searching for the answer of where he will go and what will become of his future. “By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know by any chance? I realized it was a one in a million chance”(60). Holden wants speed skates, but gets Hockey skates from his mother, he wants to know where the ducks go, but no one will answer him—he is searching for an answer; and he wants it now. He doesn’t have the patience to endure the struggle of finding an answer himself. The funny thing about the situation is however, that Holden is carrying the answer with him the entire time, he just chooses not to face it. The ducks face the problem of the cold and leave, Holden stays in his situation and shivers.
In all of his relationships, Holden tries to push people away or make excuses about why he can’t be close to them. He is worried that if he evolves himself in a relationship he could get ditched, and that would hurt him. Holden struggles to face reality. His perception of the world is crooked. Everything that everyone does he presumes to affect him negatively.
Holden is running because he doesn’t want to face himself.
Holden is a duck, but a crooked duck.
Holden is exactly like one of the ducks in the lagoon in Central Park mainly because he is looking for a way out of all his troubles, and he thinks that those ducks have already found a way out of their trouble which is winter. All of his troubles are brought on by himself because nobody really does very much wrong, but Holden always says they do and that they’re phonies. When he is arguing with Sally about her not wanting to marry him and run free with him, he starts the argument by saying something so stupid like that; he’s still only in highschool! “’ I could get a job somewhere and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something’” (132). Holden is so crazy in everything he does and this is no different. He goes into a rage and yells at her and she finally leaves him. I think the reason he got all excited about asking her to do all of these things with him is he thought that he finally found someone that he could explore where the ducks go with, and then go there with them. Holden’s troubles are phonies and he wants to escapefrom them just like the ducks have found a way out of their troubles which is when the ice freezes over the lagoon, but he wants to find someone that he can escape with. He doesn’t want to escape to a place where he is even more alone. The day that Holden fully escapes from his troubles and isn’t alone, that is the day when he is going to find out where the ducks go when they’re world freezes over. The ducks are a symbol completely for Holden in this book, and everytime he asks someone where the ducks go when the lagoon freezes over, he is indirectly asking them where he can go to escape all of his troubles. When Holden asks the taxi driver where the ducks go, and then he explains it to him by terms of the fish in the lagoon. “’ If you was a fish, Mother Nature’d take care of you, wouldn’t she? Right? You don’t think them fish just die when it gets to be winter, do ya?” (83). The fish in this instance are also a symbol for Holden. The taxi driver is indirectly telling Holden that someone will always take care of him.
~Jon Malloy~
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