Holden's Concern for the Ducks

The ducks in Central Park are a great example of a motif in the Catcher in the Rye. The topic of ducks keeps appearing throughout the story from Holden's continued worry about where they go off to when the lagoon freezes over during the winter. He usually thinks about them when he has nothing on his mind or when he is wandering around New York not doing anything to advance in life. I feel that he thinks about the ducks because he likes to see other things move on in life rather than do it himself. I also feel that this is an excuse for Holden to not move on in life by keeping his concern on how the ducks are going to move on in life. The idea here is the big question of how do humans advance in life. Do they do it on their own or do they need help from an outside source? I feel that Holden is trying to answer this question himself from keeping his mind on the ducks throughout the story, but never actually tries to apply it to himself to move on.