I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go? I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away.
– J. D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield in Chapter 2. The ducks are symbolic of Holden. He wonders what happens to them the same way as he worries about what will happen to him when he grows up and becomes an adult.