As the source of the book's title, this symbol deserves careful examination. He first appears in Chapter 16, when a boy whom Holden admires for walking down the street rather than on the sidewalk sings the Robert Burns song "Comin' Thro' the Rye". In chapter 22, when Phoebe asks Holden what he wants to do with his life, he responds with his image, from the song, of a "catcher in the rye". Holden imagines a rye field perched on a cliff, full of children romping and playing. He says he would like to protect children from falling off the edge of the cliff by "catching them" if they were about to fall. As Phoebe points out, Holden misunderstood the lyrics. He thinks the line is "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye," but the actual lyrics are "If a body meet a body, coming through the rye." The song "Comin' Thro' the Rye" asks whether it is wrong for two people to have a romantic encounter in the fields, away from the public eye, even if they don't intend to commit to each other. It is highly ironic that the word "meet" refers to an encounter that leads to recreational sex, because the word Holden replaces - "catch" - takes on the exact opposite meaning in his mind. Holden wants to catch the children before they fall from innocence to knowledge of the adult world, including knowledge of sex. Holden's Red Hunting Hat The red hunting hat is one of the most recognizable symbols of twentieth-century American literature. It is inseparable from our image of Holden, for good reason: it is a symbol of his uniqueness and individuality. The hat is whimsical and shows that Holden desires to be different from everyone around him. At the same time, he is very embarrassed about the hat: he always has... in the center of the card... Holden's understanding of his own situation. Furthermore, the ducks demonstrate that some disappearances are only temporary. Traumatized and made acutely aware of the fragility of life by the death of his brother Allie, Holden is terrified of the idea of ​​change and disappearance. The ducks disappear every winter, but return every spring, thus symbolizing change that is not permanent, but cyclical. Finally, the pond itself becomes a minor metaphor for the world as Holden sees it, because it is “partly frozen and partly unfrozen.” Pond is in transition between two states, just as Holden is in transition between childhood and adulthood. Works Cited Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 2001. Print.