Attention : This paper is a part of my final assignment for Prose and Writing Class on 4th semester. So, I've put some sources of the frameworks as the requirements. I've missed some data and I think this paper is (really) far from perfect. Firstly, I didn't know how to start writing, however, I FINISH IT (^_^) ! I'm so happy!
The Existence of Museum as a Symbol of Unchanging Condition in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”
Introduction
“The best thing, though, in that museum was everything always stayed right here where it was” (p.121) is one of Holden Caulfield’s, the main character in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”, statement. Have the reader ever thought about one thing in this world that never changed? The writer concerns it since she reads “The Catcher in the Rye”. It also justifies Holden’s, a seventeen years old boy, opinion about rigid situation he wants whereas he is surrounded by phony and moron people including his family and friends and contaminated by those people and circumstances. Then, it is happened while he is starting an odyssey in New York after kicked out from Pencey Preparation School since he does not pass some courses there. Beside that, Holden involved in a quarrel with his roommate, Stradlater, the night before he goes out from the dormitory. Having many experiences with new people and new things, Holden desires to be a catcher in the rye in order to save children from adults’ moronic and fake behavior. In Holden’s opinion, each adult becomes a liar and should not infect children with negative things. Finally, Holden came back to his home after his sister, Phoebe Josephine Caulfield, decides to follow him to go to West and leave her school (p.206). In brief, Holden could not stop the alteration in this world either he likes or not due to the fact that human’s life affected by many aspects and it is different than museum which saves static things. Thus, the story of “The Catcher in the Rye” contains many symbols from the first chapter until the last; however, the writer just notices some symbols in Museum of Natural History having long description by the author in this novel that Holden explains while he was in New York. Besides, the writer also uses some theories from several sources to support her essay about symbolism in “The Catcher in the Rye”. So, the first thing she does is to find out the existence of the museum itself in the reality and as a result, discovers some information that the Museum of Natural History is a real museum located at 79th Street and Central Park West, New York. Therefore, the writer assumes Salinger uses real museum in his fiction perhaps to make the reader closer to the setting in this story for supporting reader’s comprehension of some signs and symbols he puts. So, are there any things that never changed? The writer does not think so because nothing in this world that never changed except the change itself. In brief, here is the writer’s short analysis about the existence of museum as a symbol of unchanging condition in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”
Symbolism in Literature
Furthermore, these are some theories the writer uses to analyze the symbols in this novel, especially the Indian stuff, Columbus, Eskimo guys, big glass cases, the birds and the mummies in Holden’s perspective about unchanging condition which he compares these things with the reality in his life that has changed related with his childhood memories. Thus, each time he visits the museum, it never changes whereas he finds himself has changed for example, being phony and moron, growing older, and trying to find the identity of his life. As a consequence, Holden felt depressed, gloomy and lonely becoming his reason to be the catcher in the rye in order to keep children from world’s bad contaminating. Therefore, most of the theory the writer picks from Robert’s “Writing about Literature - Brief 9th Edition” but the other she gets from Barnet’s “A Short Guide to Writing about Literature, 7th Edition”. Besides, she also uses additional source from Ryan’s “Teaching the Novel in Paperback”. In brief, these sources help her a lot to finish this essay. Moreover, these symbols will help the writer to understand the main characer’s mind and Salinger’s ideas about life transformation in situation connected to the passing time, especially in an issue about teenager’s live and the transition to adulthood where at that time, teenager prefer to choose his own life or way and make some wrong decision without a guidance from parents or older acquaintances. In brief, the usage of these theories is to help the writer to bring writer’s ideas from Holden’s statement to the reader understand the meaning of the symbols in museum.
So, the first theory is to determine what is symbolic or not symbolic, the writer should watch or pay attention to meaning’s constancy of an element (Roberts, 1999, p. 117) because symbolism is one of literary modes of increasing meaning (Roberts, 1999, p. 110). According to Oxford Learners Pocket Dictionary, symbol is a sign, mark, and object that represent something (Bull, 2008). Therefore, to realize whether a particular object is a symbol or not she should watch carefully the pointed things that often appear and have significant meaning or support meaning to other element. For instance, the museum has constant meaning due to the fact that it has explained and described on two chapters in this novel (Chapter 16 and 25) which in this case, Salinger made it mainly important to support and increase the meaning of other element in this novel, that is the main character, Holden, statement’s and perspectives about the phony lives (big glasses). In brief, to analyze symbols, the writer should highlight the points that the author emphasizes to increase and support meaning of other element in the story.
Second, a symbol has two elements, the objects and the ideas associated and substituted each other. (Roberts, 1999, p. 115). First, the object is some particular things the author uses with either attractive or implicit ways to build the meanings and the ideas of other element in the story, for instance, a specific object, scene, character, or action. Then, the ideas included values, moral lessons, personality, and ways of life are the things that the author informs to the reader by using symbols. So, not all of the things in the novel is a symbol but some things engaging with the main idea or theme of the story. Consequently, this theory helps the writer to prevent over analyze an object which actually does not engage in the story. In brief, these elements, the objects and the ideas, could not be separated due to the fact that their unity of relationship as a symbol will help her to analyze a story.
Third, according to Ryan, symbols, brought to the writer’s consciousness by the author, is one of literary devices give signals either to human’s mind or emotion, such as ideas, attitudes, and feelings. Last, the complexity of symbols in interpretations and the emotional response. (Ryan, 1963, pp. 56-57). Besides, Barnet also tells that writers of fiction write about things that have happened, seen, or heard and also about thoughts and emotion. Additionally, symbols, located among the real idea containing in a story, give the accuracy in a story. (Barnet, 1996, p. 172) Hence, the writer may know the meaning of the symbols by noticing the signals author uses to describe main character’s behavior. For example, In this case, Salinger used Holden’s statement to make dig reader’s awareness, such as “Nobody,d different. The one thing that would be different would be you. Not that you’d be so much older or anything. It wouldn’t be that, exactly. You’d just be different, that’s all.” By this sentence, the writer can feel Holden’s feelings when he talks to himself, feels depressed and lonesome, finds himself change while actually, he wants to stay same like the museum and its big glasses that never changed. In summary, symbols, as one of literary components, enrich the writer’s thought and soul with writer’s signals about the character he has made.
Fourth, the author helps writer to get ideas about the elements in the story (characters, places, time, and settings) having rich implications by emphasizing them with some ways such as, describing, introducing, or calling attention. (Barnet, 1996, p. 173). First, the example of describing is same as the writer says on the 3rd paragraph about determining what is symbolic or not. In this case, reader can notice from Salinger’s long explanation of an object in some length, such as museum which is described in two chapters. Then, introduce the symbols at times when they might not seem strictly necessary, for example, the mummies’ tombstone. Firstly, she does not notice the meaning of tombstone in this story; however, after she reads Holden’s statement which is said:
“I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all, it’ll say Holden Caulfield on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and then right under that it’ll say Fuck You. I’m positive, in fact.”
It seemed not necessary thing but the tombstone of the mummies informs to the writer about Holden’s perspective and imagination of death. The last is calling attention, where the writer perceives -at least slightly- certain characters, places, or situation by calling them repeatedly, for example, Holden said, “It’s killed me” many times from the first chapter and his sister, Phoebe also said word, “killed” to him (Chapter 22, p.166). Although the words “kill” in different meaning, she can understand after reading the whole chapter and the general meaning of death in dictionary because Holden always tells about death which becomes his perspectives of growing old, becoming phony adult, and die. Hence, the general meaning of kill is “to cause someone or something to die, to say that someone will be very angry with someone else, to stop an activity or experience completely, to cause you a lot of pain or effort” (Cambridge Learner Dictionary).Thus, some words that called repeatedly perhaps become a symbol of the story. In summary, describing, introducing, or calling attention are some author’s ways to make a rich implicit symbol.
The fifth theory is symbols have two types, cultural symbols and contextual symbols. First, a cultural symbol refers to general understanding about an object that received in universal. Usually, the writer and the author share the same ideas about historical and cultural traditions. Then, it exemplifies the ideas from both of them (the writer and the reader). For example, in American season, winter is a symbol of death which is related with Holden’s words and imagination about being death by Pneumonia. In addition, Holden’s hat also a cultural symbols because at that age hat is a symbol of uniqueness and individuality. Therefore, the author, the writer and the reader have same idea about winter. Other examples are ordinary, such as water as a symbol of life and a spouting fountain as a symbol of optimism. On the other hand, contextual symbolic refers to a meaning of symbol that an author creates personally in his craft, for example, the ducks that Holden eager to know where they go in winter. It is a symbol that Salinger’s made by himself for this story as a metaphor of Holden’s life when he had a journey but finally come back to home as the ducks go in winter but after winter come back to lagoon (Chapter 12, p.81) (Roberts, 1999, pp. 116-117).
Therefore, the writer uses those five theories above, there are determining what is symbolic or not symbolic, watching two elements of symbols (the objects and the ideas), searching the signals (human’s mind or emotion, ideas, attitudes, and feelings), paying attention to writer’s ways in describing, introducing, or calling attention to the symbols, and divide the symbols into, cultural symbols and contextual symbols. So, it really helps her to analyze the symbols in “The Catcher in the Rye”
Analysis of Symbolism
After collecting the theories, the writer starts to analyze some symbols in Museum of Natural History taken from chapter 16 and 25 such as, Indian stuff, Columbus, Eskimo guys, big glass cases, the birds and the mummies. These things are symbolic since they have two elements of symbols, emphasizing by the writer, and divided into cultural and contextual symbols. Moreover, all of these objects refer to Holden’s viewpoint about growing up and life’s changing where Holden did not want to be adult because he wished for being a child without infected by phony things but the reality is different to his wish. Thus, it is the irony that creatively symbolized by Salinger by explaining that everything in the museum stay same but the visitors (like Holden) can change, as Holden said, “I mean you’d be different in some way… certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone…” In addition, museum also related to Holden’s and Phoebe’s childhood, that is why this place becomes the only place Holden liked (p.119 last line) although some stuffs are spooky and creepy, such as Indian guy in the back of the canoe and Pharaoh’s tomb (pp.120, 203). Therefore, the stuffs in museum also support some ideas about unchanging life from the creative author, Salinger.
Starting with Indian stuff clearly justified by Holden as the first symbol, the writer tries to get the object’s meaning constancy in order to determine whether it is a symbol or not based on the first theory. Then, she finds that it shows Holden’s attention and explanation about the Indian stuff, for instance,” twenty Indians were paddling and standing with paint all over their faces, and they also have a war canoe”. After that, the writer also tries to find the emotion while reading Holden’s experience seeing Indian stuff based on the third theory. In this case she watches Holden’s description about Indian stuff although their spooky; however, still interesting him. For example, the Indian woman also refers as a symbol of sexuality because Holden said that, “… you could see her bosom… we all used to sneak a good look at it… because they were only little kids…” (p.121). Therefore, it shows that Holden is thinking about his innocence when he was a child compared with his eagerness of adultery and sexuality. In addition, Holden explains about the Indian Room where it is a long, long room (p.120). Thus, the writer assumes this as Holden’s journey that seemed takes long time even it just takes three day because there are some precious experiences for Holden’s life and she also feels Holden’s feeling while reading this. In brief, Indian and all of its stuff is a picture of Holden’s journey and eagerness that the writer gets based on the first and the third theory.
Continuing to the second symbol, the writer discovers that Columbus included as a symbol because of the event when Holden escapes from the dormitory (beginning of the story) and come to his parents’ apartment to meet Phoebe, his little sister and borrows some dough from her. This analysis based on the fourth theory which says:
“The author helps writer to get ideas about the elements in the story (characters, places, time, and settings) having rich implications by emphasizing them with some ways such as, describing, introducing, or calling attention. (Barnet, 1996, p. 173)”
So, Salinger emphasizes Columbus’ situation by introducing and describing from Holden’s utterance that Columbus getting Old Ferdinand and Isabella to lend him the dough to buy ships with (p.120). Therefore, it shows about Holden borrowing some money from Phoebe to go where he wants to go (buy ships). Furthermore, the fifth theory is also said about cultural or general meaning and contextual symbol which is the author’s way to represent his meaning. As a consequence, the writer discovers the cultural and contextual meaning in this symbol. Then, the contextual meaning has been explained in the beginning of the paragraph about Columbus’ journey as Holden’s journey in his life because they have a similarity. However, the general or cultural meaning will be explained by the writer. Noticing the word “mutinying” seemed has a cultural meaning in this novel. For example, Holden says the sailors mutinying on Columbus means when Holden, represented by Columbus, wants to go abroad and left his family, he is betrayed by his own conscious when see Phoebe wants to join with him. The writer interprets this after she searches the meaning of mutinying in Cambridge Learners Dictionary which said that mutiny is a verb means to take part in a mutiny. So, the journey of Columbus is representative of Holden’s odyssey even though Holden stated that nobody gave too much of a damn about Columbus (p.120) and has functions as cultural symbol and contextual symbol.
The next symbol is Eskimo guys that is sitting over a hole in icy lake and was fishing through this, as a symbol of the numb and unchanging situation, same as the general interpretations of museum based on the fifth theory about cultural symbol having same meaning between the author and general reader. Holden also states that even he goes there hundred thousand times that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish (p.121). It symbolizes about something freeze that never changed, perhaps the numb of ice statues as social senseless about negative impacts to teenager in age transition from childhood to adulthood like what Holden felt. Besides, it also represents as unchanging situation that Holden expects which cannot be happened that the writer makes this conclusion based on the second theory that a symbol should has an object and an ideas associated and substituted each other. First, the object is the Eskimo guys having related idea about unchanging for the Eskimo guy will never change since they are statues made from ice (frozen means unchanged and no feelings) . Moreover, Holden’s wishes about his past memories of being a child also reflected in the way of his speaking about those Eskimo guys,” Not that you’d be so much older or anything. It wouldn’t be that, exactly. You’d just be different, that’s all…” In summary, the Eskimo guys as a symbolism of a social attention at that age and unchanging situation Holden’s expected.
Furthermore, big glass cases become an important symbol based on the fourth theory about the significance (calling attention) because the stuffs in museum mostly put inside these. There are Indians, Eskimos, Birds, and others which make the museum full of glasses. The writer assumes glass as something that fragile but transparent, so people can see what inside it but cannot touch it. It describes about all the unchanged stuff protected with something that really fragile is a metaphor of Holden’s life that changed because he is not protected with something fragile but he must protect himself. The conclusion is Holden does not afraid of being adult or older but he was afraid of the effect of the change itself which is stated in Holden’s words, “… certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone…” (p.122)
After that, the writer notices about the birds in page 121 “…the birds nearest you were all stuffed and hung up on wires, and the ones in back were just painted on the wall, but they all looked like they were really flying south ….” Reading this part, she thinks about why Holden tells about bird after telling about Eskimo guy. Then, she understands that bird is a symbol of liberation and freedom where Holden has felt after he kicked out from Pencey Preparation School, Holden feels free to do what he wants to do, to be a bad boy like all his friends that had religion while he says he is an atheist, and also to search the life’s identity. This conclusion, she takes based on the fifth theory about cultural symbol since bird is widely believed as a symbol of freedom and liberation. Then, Holden finds the goodness in his heart that actually he is not a bad boy, he just does not like school, so he ‘fly’ wherever he wants during three days in New York. As the birds, he thinks that he is really flying to the West; however, he still stays in the place where he must grow up. In brief, birds as a sign of liberation and freedom have a nest, so Holden as a representative of the bird also have a place where he should came back.
The last symbol is mummies which appear at the last part of this story and separated from the other symbols in the Museum of Natural History. It should be a special signs because mummy also known as dead body of Egypt’s Kings buried with special chemical material so that their bodies will not be rotten. The mummies are symbols of death and the vanishing of human’s soul; however, Holden does not feel afraid or peculiar when explaining about this to two young children because what he likes from that ‘pretty spooky’ things (a paradox style of a word) are it is still the same and unchanging even though it has died. So, that is what he wants to be the same, still innocent without any phoniness surrounding him even though he cannot stop the change itself.
Conclusion
Paying attention to the symbols in museum such as Indian stuff, Columbus, Eskimo guys, big glass cases, the birds and the mummies will make the writer as also a reader recognizes Holden’s desire with the help of some theories from several sources. Actually, Holden just wants to be a child for becoming a child is free from phonies and moron things and free to do what he will without infected with terrible factors, for example drink, sex, cigarettes. Furthermore, his fear of growing up cannot help him even just a little because it brings him into irresponsible freedom, like a bird free from nest and does not know where to go. Furthermore, Holden should be guided by his parents but he does not get it from them so he searched by himself. Luckily, his sister, Phoebe, indirectly prevents Holden from his plan to go to West. In brief, the writer assumes this story as a story of a teenager’s fear of growing up, the process of searching the identity in transition time from teenager to adult and his desire of unchanging condition symbolized and represented by the museum and all of its stuff .
Therefore, Holden’s journey along three days in New York, especially in the museum and his statement, “The best thing, though, in that museum was everything always stayed right here where it was” shows the contrast often happened between the human expectation and the reality. Moreover, it presents that nothing in this world that never changed except the change itself. As a conclusion, one of the moral lessons in “The Catcher in the Rye” is to receive the transformation due to the fact that human’s life is totally different with the statues whose existence in the museum having unchanging condition.
Bibliography
Barnet, S. (1996). A Short Guide to Writing about Literature, 7th Edition. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
Bull, V. (2008). Oxford Learners Pocket Dictionary, 4th Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cambridge Learner's Dictionary 2nd Edition. (n.d.).
J.D.Salinger. (1945). The Catcher in the Rye. New York: The Little, Brown, and Company.
Roberts, E. V. (1999). Writing about Literature - Brief 9th Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Ryan, M. (1963). Teaching the Novel in Paperback. New York: The Macmilan Company.
Maria Kristina Pingkan - 1021150015
Faculty of Letters
Christian University of Indonesia
12 July 2012
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