The novel is full of symbols. Actually symbol refers to the objects, characters, figures used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Symbol also carries the theme.
We can find that the title Catcher in the Rye is symbolic. Rye is a kind of crop field on the top of a cliff which stands for children's innocent world. Holden, the main character of the novel, wants to be the protector of children before they fall out of innocence in to knowledge of the adult world including knowledge of sex. It is highly ironic that the word meet refers to the physical attachment and Holden's substituting. The 'catch' takes on the exact opposite meaning in his mind. Another symbol is Holden's Red Hunting Hat. His hat represents him in isolation, self- consciousness. It refers to the symbol of his uniqueness and individuality. The color of hat is red which symbolizes the purity and innocence.

     Museum of National history is another symbol. The museum is the symbol of Holden's world; it is the world of his catcher in the Rye's fantasy, a world where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple, understandable. Holden fears with complex things, he hates conflict. Holden wants to showcase the children like the things are kept in museum. Ducks in the central park Lagoon is another important symbol. Holden's search for the ducks represents the curiosity of youth and a joyfull willingness to encounter the mysteries of the world. The duck and ponds are very symbolic. The duck proves that some vanishing are only temporary. Holden is terrified by the idea of change and disappearance. The ducks vanish every winter but return every spring. It symbolizes that life has motion and nature in itself like that.
    On the other hand, pond becomes minor metaphor for the world because it is partly frozen and partly not frozen. It is in the transition between two states just as Holden is in transition between childhood and adulthood.

   Cooper: Last of the Mohicans  James Coopers's The Last of the Mohicans shows the process of colonization by keeping the conflict between civilization and so called savagism; the most conflciting clash between the French and English for colonial control of the land. Read More...

   Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter    Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a good example of love story that includes the cause and effects of love relationship throughout the entire novel in different modes by depicting the different characters in different positions in their love relationship. Read More...

   Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin  Uncle Tom's Cabin raises the measurable condition of slaves in America; mainly the condition prevailed in southern life, by characterizing the protagonist as the victim of extreme inhumanity of slavery. Read More...

    Fowles: The French Lieutenant Woman There are a lot of metafictional qualities in the novel from beginning to the end of its formulation. Sometimes the narrator says about what his postion in particuar situation and what actually he is going to do. The narrator himself is one of the fictional characters and he himself gives the information about the fictional quality to the reader which is one of the most important metafictionl qualities in the novel. Read More...

   Beckett: Murphy   Murphy is Beckett's most important novel that expresses the sense of alienation in different level. Murphy's mental alienation, social alienation, physical alienation and contextual alienation are some major aspects of discussing the sense of alienation in Murphy. Read More...

   Tony Morrison: Beloved   Tony Morrison's one of the central focuses in her novel is about the consciousness of African roots. The racial problem prevailed during contemporary period includes the holistic formality in African society since long time. So her historical consciousness has been rooted in the novel while exposing the African roots together with the depiction of blcaks' position in the society. Read More...

   Defoe: Robinson Crusoe   Although on the surface it seems that Robinson Crusoe is largely novel of travel and adventure, in fact it is not so. Economic mentality has vital role in his character. The protagonist in this novel prove himself to be a potential capitalist. Read More...

   Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility    In the novel Austen is more successful in her delineation of women than of men. She is not only concerned with outward consciousness of character but also with a psychological portrayal of character specially in women character. One critic Louis Cazamian has given the view that Ausitin's studies of women are more searching and more life like those of men. Read More...

   Marry Shelley: Frankenstein Shelley's Frankenstein can be read from two main level; as a science fiction and as human nature. The whole novel moves around the invention of a scientist and the result of it. Dangerous aspect of experience in scientific field is the subject matter of the novel. The monster, Frankestein's reaction itself is a kind of scientific achievement around which the whole plot structure is designed. Read More...

William Faulkner : As I Lay Dying     As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is one of the novels to be taken as a modern text in terms of its theme, style and subject matter. Writer of this novel breaks away the traditional and conventional trend through experimentation with new literary forms, devices and styles. Read More...