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 quick Google search, ducks represent a lack of control over emotions and a need of a wake up call. Holden clearly is spiraling out of control, he has barely slept, he is drinking heavily, and he is refusing to face reality. But if that is the case, why do the ducks never make an actual appearance in the book?
As the book progresses, I feel like Holden has been digging himself a bigger and bigger whole rather than growing up and facing his problems like you would expect from a coming of age narrative. I believe that this may be a failed coming of age where Holden rejects adulthood and the “phonies” rather than maturing and becoming one himself. The symbolic ducks seem to somewhat support this notion.
Holden never gets the wake up call he desperately needs. He needs a wakeup call when Spencer is telling him that he just flunked out. He needs a wakeup call when he is asking random cab drivers to get a drink with him. He needs a wakeup call when he is stumbling around plastered in the middle of the night. But the ducks are never there. Holden never gets his wakeup call, he is losing control and will not grow up.
At first, I was also confused about Holden's refusal to accept a more logical explanation (ie migration) about the ducks. But now, I interpret Holden's obsession with the ducks and expectation that they be in Central Park to be him deflecting from his own fear of change; to him, accepting that the ducks moved their lives on to somewhere warmer, which is a natural part of their life cycle, would be like him accepting the inevitability of growing up. Also, I think that to most other 16 year olds, getting kicked out of school IS the wake up call... he's gotten so many but chooses ignore them because he's that terrified of adulthood.
ReplyDeleteWow this is really interesting, I never knew that ducks were representative of anything. I didn't pay attention to Holden's weird obsession with ducks as I was reading, but looking back, I definitely see that all of the scenes you described almost seemed out of place. Ducks almost seem to randomly pop into his narration throughout the story, and Holden doesn't explicitly say why he's so obsessed with them. I liked how you pointed out that Holden once again thinks about ducks when he is wandering around drunk in the middle of the night, at one of his lowest points throughout the story. The fact that he suddenly thinks of them while in that state seems to signify that he really needs to get his life back under control.
ReplyDeleteI would actually say Holden does get a kind of wakeup call right at then end of the book when Phoebe asks to run away with him. It's pretty clear that that throws him into a panic, and that he might be starting to understand the effect his actions have on other people. While it doesn't deal with his issues with "phony adults", it does seem to imply that he'll at least start trying to grow up and work with the rest of society instead of rejecting it completely. In the very last chapter, he says he's going to try with school, and for the first time acknowledges that he misses people, which is a big step towards him connecting with people and integrating into society. So I'd actually say that while he doesn't necessarily completely come of age in this novel, it's been set up, and he's on the track to possibly grow up and have a successful coming-of-age. But, again, there's no way to know that for sure as even he himself says - he's *thinks* going to try at school, but he doesn't know for sure if it'll happen.
ReplyDeleteI was confused about Holden's obsession with the ducks as well. I think it's hard for him to understand that the ducks can last the winter (a metaphor for a rough transition or change - for holden this change is growing up). Holden thinks that the ducks must flee or be rescued. It never occurs to hm that the ducks could stay and weather the change (just as he cannot see himself weathering the transition from childhood to adulthood).
ReplyDeleteI think that this analysis of the ducks is super interesting! Thanks for sharing what you found! While reading, I was also drawn to Holden’s connection and recurring thoughts about the ducks. I figured they were significant or represented something about his character or the story, since they kept coming back over and over, but I couldn’t figure out what they meant at first.
ReplyDeleteNear the end of the novel, I had a theory that the ducks kind of represented time and change, such as where they go with the passage of time from season to season, which coincides with Holden’s constant and strong thoughts on these subjects. However, I think that this explanation makes so much sense, and it’s really interesting to see what ducks traditionally represent and how they can be interpreted! It works so well in the context of this novel.
Definitely never thought about the ducks before. When I first read it, I just thought it was kind of funny how he and the cab driver argued over where the ducks went in the winter. After reading this post though, I can totally see why ducks could represent Holden's regressing mental state. I also happen to really like that interpretation, as it adds more meaning to those conversations. Or, maybe he just has a weird fascination with ducks.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting! Like a lot of others have already mentioned, I never thought much of the ducks because I assumed they were just part of a classic Holden Caufield-tangent. I sort of thought Holden kept bringing up the ducks because they were somewhat similar to children in that they are forced to face the winter cold (adulthood) without much to protect them, and he was worried on their behalf. But this makes a lot of sense, it seems like every time he brings up the ducks he distracts himself from thinking about reality.
ReplyDeleteLike Eric said, I never even thought about the ducks. But seeing the connection you were able to make, how the ducks are kind of an escape from reality, is a really good one. Holden and ducks. Who would've thought?
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting how you chose to focus on the way that Holden focuses on the ducks and what they say about the larger problems that he has with life, the world, etc. A lot of people have suggested that the might represent his unwillingness to change, or the kind of immature way that he sometimes views the world, either way I think it really shows the way that he focus on small, "innocent" details of his life/the world because they are less "phony". Regardless, this was a really interesting thing to talk about.
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