One of the most poignant symbols in The Catcher in the Rye is the ducks in Central Park. In Chapter 1, Holden wonders where the ducks go in the winter when the lagoon in Central Park freezes over. He says,
I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away.
Holden feels connected to the ducks in some way, and they might even represent his concerns about himself. He, like the ducks, feels misplaced because he has just been kicked out of prep school and feels reluctant to go home. He is also caught between wanting to be grown up and wanting to retain the innocence his younger sister, Phoebe, still has. Later, in Chapter 20, Holden goes to find the ducks in Central Park, but he grows upset when he can't find any waddling around. He worries the ducks have no place to go; in that sense, the ducks represent his own displacement.
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