Stomach

What are things for which Holden hungers (metaphorically)?

~Alyssa Zamloot

Deep down, Holden really hungers for stability and the ability for him as well as others to feel innocent a free forever. He has unreasonable, childlike ambitions and dreams of running away its Sally Hayes, wanting to become a catcher in the rye field, and wishing that, “Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.” (Salinger, 122). Holden wishes that he could be free from the phoniness that adulthood comes with, and he tries as hard as he can to shield himself from entering that phase of his life. It can be argued that Holden also desires real, genuine love. He misses Jane Gallagher dearly throughout The Catcher in the Rye and goes out with any girl he can think of to find that deep love he felt with her. He says about Berenice, the girl of whom he just wanted to feel some connection with when he danced with her in the Lavender Room, "I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are." (Salinger, 73). Holden wants a sense of normality in his life and somebody (non-phony) who he can love along with it.

A straight line represents Holden's desire for things to never change. A line will go out in two directions forever; it will forever be constant and unchanging. Holden wants this sense of constant reliability in his life.