《麦田里的守望者》的主题思想和象征手法的运用_英语专业毕业论文.doc

PAGE PAGE 1 《麦田里的守望者》的主题思想和象征手法的运用 Introduction In 1951,Jerome David Salinger published his first well-known novel, The catcher in the Rye, with which he gained an almost immediate reputation as one of the foremost post-world War ⅡAmerican novelists. Shortly afterwards, the book became assigned reading for a majority of high school and college English courses in America. No other writer since War Ⅱ has achieved the heights of popularity of J.D. Salinger. And we can say that his popularity has rested primarily on one character, Holden Caulfield, in the book. The novel tells a seemingly simple story of a 16-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield,who, after being expelled from the school for failing almost all of his courses, runs away from that hateful place to New York and spends three days there, roaming around in search for some goodness and the true value which he vaguely understands. With suffering uneasiness and a bitter spirit, he encounters many different people, only to find hypocrites and liars everywhere. Finally, he sneaks home to see his sister Phoebe, an unspoilt, angel-like child who helps him find the courage to live on in this corrupted adult world. Salinger’s success surprised the critics as well as the reading public. Critics searched and are still searching for justification for such overwhelming success in literature. They emphasize the spiritual disillusionment, the psychological stress of the adolescents in post-war America, and the creation of a life-like character. These are, admittedly, important and primary factors contributing to the immediate success of the novel. However, many authors have lightly touched upon one literary technique, which Salinger employs extensively, and which helps the author to achieve what he wants to achieved—the use of symbols. This thesis tries to deal with this aspect of Salinger’s style of writing and in relative detail I shall try to show how, step by step, the author underlines the basic theme of the novel by using