Many of the insults that one uses are often used to compensate for one's personal insecurities. This is demonstrated clearly in J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye. The main character, Holden Caulfield, frequently blames others for their faults, while not understanding that these faults exist in himself as well. An example of this is Holden's lack of identity and quest for finding one; A recurring symbol of this search for identity is Holden's red hat, because its outlandishness shows Holden's desire to be different from the superficial people that surround him. Through this symbol and one other, Salinger shows the reader how Holden's judgments of other people are often based on his own insecurities and faults, and how this presents contradiction in Holden's character.
             Holden often criticizes how many of the people he sees daily live shallow and insignificant lives, perhaps without direction or purpose; yet he does not realize that he has a lack of ambition and direction in his own life. This is symbolized often times throughout the novel by the ducks at Central Park, a symbol that is relevant in two ways. He often talks about the ducks that swim in the ponds in Central Park, and where they go when the ponds freeze over, and what direction they take when they vanish into the sky.
             "'You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?'" (60): This quote shows the ducks as an accurate personification of Holden's inability to predict the path that he will take in the future and what he will make himself into; he wonders where the ducks plan to go, and if they are planning their flight at all; while he does not realize that he has no plan to follow or direction to take in his own life. This type of speculation reoccurs...