Central Park as a Symbol By Tori Mayer

Explanation

Central Park symbolizes multiple thing in The catcher in the Rye. Some of those being loneliness and depression. Holden went to the park late at night and he mentions how no one is around. Which is surprising because people are always in central Park. You can’t really tell if the park is truly empty or if Holden if just reflecting his feeling of depression into how he views the things around him. When Holden goes to the lagoon he sees the lagoon, he sees that it is half frozen. This could also show how Holden may relate to the pond because it is between states. The states of frozen and melted. Just as Holden is in between the states of childhood and adult hood.

Quote

“I didn’t see one person the whole time I was in the park. I’m just as glad. I probably would’ve jumped about a mile if I had. The, finally, I found it. What it was, it was partly frozen and partly not frozen.” (page 200)