c. Holden asks the second taxi driver about the ducks
After Holden leaves the Lavender Room, he decides to check out Ernie‘s Bar in Greenwich Village. He takes a taxi, and for the second time asks the taxi driver
about the ducks in the Central Park. Previously, Holden doesn‘t find satisfying respond from the first driver. The second taxi driver, according to Holden, is ―much
better guy th an the other driver I‘d had‖ Salinger, 2010: 88. They have a
conversation and Holden asks about the ducks in Central Park: ‗Well, you know the ducks that swim around in it? In the springtime and all?
Do you happen to know where they go in the wintertime, by any chance?‘
‗Where who goes?‘ Salinger, 2010: 88 Unlike the first taxi driver, Horwitz the second taxi driver shows interest
about Holden‘s curiosity. Although Horwitz misinterprets the ducks as the fish, Horwitz maintains his interest to continue the conversation:
I stopped having a conversation with him, if he was going to get so damn touchy about it. But he started it up again himself. He turned all the way
around again, and said, ‗The fish don‘t go no place. They stay right where they are, the fish. Right in the goddam lake. Salinger, 2010: 89
In the end, Horwitz doesn‘t know where the ducks go in the winter, but Holden thinks that ―he got so damn excited and all‖ Salinger 2010: 89-90.
The table below shows the resemblances between the story plot in which Holden asks where do the ducks go in the winter. Although each person asked by
Holden including himself about the ducks give different attention, the similarity of
the recurring ―where do the ducks go in the winter‖ question is the same: Holden still doesn‘t know where the ducks go in the winter. So, it is clear that the binary
oppositions of knownunknown place construct the motif of Holden‘s unanswered question. Seen in Holden‘s point of view, the binary opposition of knownunknown
place represents –adulthood+adulthood opposites. Holden has already know the state
of –adulthood and yet to search the unknown land of adulthood.
Holden Chapter 2 1
st
taxi driver Chapter 9
2
nd
taxi driver Chapter 12
Respond Curious
Not interested Interested
Answer Unanswered
Unanswered Unanswered
Holden‘s curiosity to know where ducks go in the winter also fulfills the requirement to be an outstanding motif, as Freedman describes that motif is
characterized by its unlikehood and uniqueness. When Holden asks where the ducks go in the winter, he is not only questioning the ducks, but also himself. Although
Holden wanders in New York City and checks in and out to many places he feels that he does not know what he really does and where should he go so that he feels
comfortable. After the first task of defining the binary opposition per one motif is done,
then Barry 2009: 53- 54 suggests that ―we may then perform a simplifying move
which is rather like finding the lowest common denominator of a set of number, for those items might be reduced to
a set of more generalized ones.‖ The simplified and
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