Catcher in the Rye In the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield deals with death to cope with himself to justify the people have not been there for him. He doesn’t have a strong role model to show him how to better handle his problems. Holden Caulfield uses alcohol and cigarettes to calm and shield his experiences in his life. “I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would’ve too, if I’d been sure somebody’d cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn’t want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all glory.”(salinger25) This shows that he really doesn’t care how he dies but only when he dies. Holden describes different imaginings of himself dying like “Any way, I’m sort of glad they’ve got the atomic Bomb invented. If there’s another war, I am going to sit right the hell on top of it. I’ll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will.”(Salinger 17) More than half the time he thinks of these things he is either intoxicated or depressed. One thing that symbolizes Holden’s problems is the ducks in the pond. It symbolizes this because so many people have left him in ways he can never see them again. So this is why he ponders over death so much in the book. On good way to prove that is Holden says “I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go?”(salinger4)
In conclusion all of these quotes show how Holden