Central Park Ducks
Why does Holden care so much where the ducks of central park go in winter? They are birds with the power of flight which leads one to the obvious conclusion that they migrate. Why is he so fixated on these ducks? He has a weird fascination with this topic and it even leads him into an argument about the fishes of central park with Horwitz, the second taxi driver. I don’t understand why he dawdles on this topic and why he does not ever consider migration. Holden expects the ducks to be there for him. He first thinks about the ducks while he is on autopilot talking to his history teacher, Spencer. Holden is showing the reader how easy it is to talk to teachers and still think about other topics. The idea of the ducks pops into his head as he is wondering if the central park lake is frozen. After that, the ducks repeatedly come up in the story. He asks both cab drivers and even wanders into the park late at night, very drunk, to see if he can solve the mystery himself. Well from a qu...