摘 要

《麦田里的守望者》是杰罗姆·大卫·塞林格的代表作。主人公霍尔顿是一个出生于富裕家庭却整天浑浑噩噩，厌恶学习的中学生。他一生只想做一个麦田守望者，看护儿童、远离世界。然而他的理想却最终被现实击破。本文旨在分析小说中颜色、人物、场景等三方面的象征意象，并进而探讨这些象征意象是如何凸显小说主题和人物形象的。

关键词：《麦田里的守望者》；象征；颜色；人物；场景

Contents

1. Introduction...............................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration...........................................................................................................2

2.1. Symbolic colors......................................................................................................2

2.1.1 Symbolic meanings of red....................................................................................2

2.1.2 Symbolic meanings of white and black................................................................4

2.1.3 Symbolic meanings of other colors......................................................................4

2.2. Symbolic characters...............................................................................................5

2.2.1 Symbolic meanings of adult world: Stradlater and Sunny....................................5

2.2.2 Symbolic meanings of pure world: Jane and Allie...............................................6

2.3. Symbolic scenes.....................................................................................................7

2.3.1 Symbolic meanings of the ideal world: rye..........................................................7

2.3.2 Symbolic meanings of boundary between pure and dirty: cliffs...........................8

2.3.3 Symbolic meanings of self-identity: ducks...........................................................8

3. Conclusion.................................................................................................................9

A Brief Analysis of Symbolism in The Catcher in the Rye

1. Introduction

Jerome David Salinger (January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010) was an American writer who won reputation early in life. He began writing short stories in the secondary school. Lots of his works were published in The New Yorker in the early 1940s before he began serving in WWII. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story A Perfect Day for Bananafish appeared in magazine. Three years later, his novel The Catcher in the Rye won a great success immediately after it came out. This controversial novel was popular among adolescent readers at that time for the themes of anxiety and alienation although it was originally published for adults.

The Catcher in the Rye tells a story about a teenage boy, Holden, who is the manager of the fencing team but has been expelled for the four fails in his exams. He does not feel discomposure. After a physical altercation with his roommate, he leaves Pencey Prep without permission, not letting his parents know where he is or where he is going. He catches a train to New York City and spends a total of three days there. His stay in New York is characterized largely by drunkenness and loneliness. Eventually, he comes back and sneaks into his parents’ apartment while they are out, to visit his younger sister, Phoebe, who is nearly the only person in the book he really trusts and views Holden as a hero. When Holden makes the decision to head out west, his little sister immediately decides to leave with him. But Holden declines her and that makes her upset. He told his little sister that he wants to be the catcher in the rye, just watching children playing without worries. At the end of the novel, Holden decides not to mention much about his ideas of being a catcher in the rye and the last words of the novel are, “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” (Salinger 207)

The Catcher in the Rye has been listed one of the best novels of the 20^th century, but not all reception has been positive, which means the book has had its share of critics. For example, Rohrer wrote in his The Why of the Rye: