Emotions can be imbued in everyday objects. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, the protagonist Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy who comes from a rich family, retells the story of his life in New York shortly before he moved to California. Holden, throughout the retelling has many instances where he puts on a red hunting hat. This hat represents Holden's isolation and reluctance to lose his innocence. Holden sees innocence lost so often in his life that he needs something to protect him. Holden puts on the hat in times of loneliness or need. The hat frequently provides Holden with a safe space where he does not need to worry about growing up or losing his innocence which shows the overarching idea of Holden being the preserver …show more content…
Holden’s common use of the word phony when talking about people implies that he believes that society is all about conforming to the beliefs of others. Caulfield uses his red hunting hat to get away from society in moments where he feels isolated. For example, when Ackley, Stradlater and Holden are talking in the room Holden feels uncomfortable and puts on his hat “What I did was, I pulled the old peak of my hunting hat around to the front, then pulled it way down over my eyes. That way, I couldn't see a goddam thing”. Holden uses his hat as an escape. When put in a situation where he feels uncomfortable, Holden puts on his hat and pretends to be blind so he can get away from it all. The hat represents a safe space for Holden, where he cannot be violated nor can his innocence be lost. The hat keeps Holden safe which is especially useful after Holden gets in a fight with Stradlater, his roommate at Pencey. He puts on his hunting hat before he leaves the school “When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, ‘Sleep tight, ya morons!’ I'll bet I woke up every bastard on the whole floor. Then I got the hell out”. Holden shows emotion in this passage
First and foremost, Holden gifted Phoebe with his red hunting hat as a demonstration of his need to protect her “Then I took my hunting hat out of my coat pocket and gave it to her. She likes those kind of crazy hats. She didn’t want to take it, but I made her” (180). In this quote Holden and Phoebe are dancing around, and Phoebe feels like Holden is acting crazy yet she refrains from judging him. Instead Phoebe wants to support him. To Holden, Phoebe is in no way phony, and in handing over his hunting hat he is trying to protect her, and in doing so he is giving up the protection from himself. Holden’s mission to defend Phoebe is rooted in wanting to protect her innocence’s, and keeping her from becoming phony like the rest of society. Moreover, Phoebe also looks to Holden to protect her not just the other way around “Then what she did- it damn near killed me- she reached in my coat pocket and took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head” (212). In Phoebe, giving Holden back his protective hat, she is forcing Holden to watch over her. In order for Holden to protect his sister’s innocence, he will be forced to give up his alienation and be realistic. Holden’s loss of innocence is his driving power to shield Phoebe from the realities of life. The exchange of the red hunting hat from Holden to Phoebe to Phoebe to Holden is the
Can a hat really provide a person with emotion, or for that matter, can a hat ever protect a person from their own emotions? In the book The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger the image of the main character’s red hunting hat comes up many times. Holden, the main character buys a hat while he is in New York with his school fencing team. Holden has just been kicked out of his school because for academic reasons, he decides to leave his school before the winter break starts, so he goes to New York. Steering clear from his family, except for his sister, he stays there for about three days on his own. During this time a lot happens to Holden, causing him to grow up. Holden’s hat is a metaphor for Holden’s growing up; in the beginning of the book Holden uses his hat frequently to combat as well as bring on emotion, then when he gets to New York and begins to grow up more, he uses his hat less frequently; at the end of the book Holden realizes that he doesn’t need his hat, and gives it to his sister.
How Holden wears his red hunting hat symbolizes his true self by how he wears it. The first time Holden wears the hat, he is alone. “The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around to the back-very corny, I’ll admit, but I liked it that way. I looked good in it that way.” (18). When he is alone, he thinks of himself as attractive and appears to have more confidence than he does around other people. Holden describes wearing the hat “the way [he] like[s] it” many times to make himself appear the way he likes to look. This self confidence is replaced by anxiety and self consciousness, as shown in the quote, “I’d put on my red hunting cap when I was in the cab, just for the hell of it, but I took it off before I checked in. I didn’t want to look like a screwball or something” (61).
The distance that Holden makes sure to keep in place isolates him from others and manifests in curious actions and mannerisms. One example could be the red hunting hat, which advertises his uniqueness and also gives him a sense of protection. Holden explains to Ackley that his red hat is not a “deer shooting hat” but a “people shooting hat”. Out of all the mentions of the red hat in the novel, this is the most enlightening. Holden uses the hat as a sign of individuality and independence; this hat serves as another way Holden is able to isolate himself from the rest of the world. The red hat serves as symbol for Holden’s desperate desire for independence and his distaste for conformity. Although Holden does not kill anyone in the novel, he does “shoot people” in his own cynical way by spending all of his time and energy belittling the people around
The novel, The Catcher in the Rye, written by JD Salinger, touches on the themes of innocence, death, and the artifice and the authenticity in the world, while following the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, through his weekend trip to New York City. As the story unfolds, Holden, as narrator, becomes more vulnerable to the reader, and starts to express his feelings surrounding the death of his brother, Allie, as well as his feelings about himself. Holden is faced with a truth that has haunted him for many years: adulthood. Many of the qualities Holden exhibits, which he sees as negative, are those of the average person: struggle, loneliness, deep sadness. He is one of many classic protagonists that encourages the reader to relate to them on
Have you ever pondered about when growing up, where does our childlike innocence go and what happens to us to go through this process? It involves abandoning previous memories that are close to our hearts. As we can see in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, we listen to what the main character; Holden Caulfield has to say about it. Holden is an average teenager dealing with academic and life problems. He remains untouched over his expulsion from Pencey Prep; rather, he takes the opportunity to take a “vacation.” As he ventures off companionless in New York City, we are able to observe many things about him. We see that Holden habitually states that he is depressed and undoubtedly, wants to preserve the innocence of others.
In “The Catcher In The Rye”, J.D. Salinger uses Holden’s red hunting cap, the exhibits at the Museum of Natural History and “kings in the back row” as symbols whose meanings help tell the story. Holden’s red hunting hat stands for Holden’s disapproval of adult society and phonies. Although, Holden and his hat are out of place in New York, he loves this hat because it demonstrates his difference and independence from other kids his age. He becomes more and more attached to his hat because he feels like a catcher in the rye when he wears the hat. Holden cannot let go of his hat, like he cannot let go of his childhood.
In the beginning of the novel, Holden says to Mr. Spencer he feels trapped on the “other side of life.” This clearly demonstrates how Holden doesn’t feel that he belongs in the world he lives in. Holden has his hunting hat as a source of protection. Holden buys a red hunting hat in New York for a dollar. The hat has a very long peak, and Holden wears it backwards with the peak aiming behind him. “…I swung the old peak way around to the back-very corny, I’ll admit, but I liked it that way” (17), Holden explains. Holden puts his hat on when he’s under a lot of stress. The hunting hat not only symbolizes protection, but it also symbolizes Holden’s uniqueness and individuality. Holden doesn’t wear his hat because it’s fashionable, but only to keep his individuality and to feel safe. In the cab Holden put his hat on and says, “I’d put my red hunting hat when I was in the cab, just for the hell of it, but I took it off before I checked in” (61). This quote illustrates how Holden thinks it’s necessary to wear the hat in order to feel safe. But at the same time, Holde...
Everyone’s mother always told them that childhood innocence is the best thing in the world, but for Holden it is the world. When reading The Catcher in the Rye some people disdain Holden, because they think he’s cynical and immature, but really he is a representation of us all. Unlike other books, the protagonist isn’t someone you want to be friends with, it’s someone you realize you are. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is Holden’s chronicle of running away from his boarding school and living on his own in New York City. While there, he meets interesting people that he calls phony but in reality reflect characteristics of himself and the appalling qualities of the culture he lives in. At first he’s pessimistic towards everyone and everything but by the last scene, when he’s watching his sister on a merry go round, he does a complete 180 and starts feeling better, the sun comes out from behind the clouds and it’s a new and better Holden. It’s this last scene that sets the stage for the future of Holden. He changes in a good way, now less cynical and more open minded, a better and healthier person.
There are great sorrows buried within everyone; some choose to move on and others choose to mask their sadness. In the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the main character Holden Caulfield initially gives the impression of an careless and rebellious teenager, and his behavior and attitude cause him much trouble. However, as the story progresses, he begins to show his softer side and becomes very loving. Love can be expressed in many ways, and for Holden, he shows his affection by constantly thinking about the people precious to him. Because he cares about them so much, they strongly influence his decisions and actions, for good or for bad. Therefore, he is best described as a "loving" character because of his vivid remembrance
(70). Holden likes how the hat makes him feel individual but he is still embarrassed to wear it in public. He still wants to fit in with all the phonies and
Allie’s baseball mitt is a very important symbol in the novel. It is connected to the novel, because the heart of the novel is Holden's grief over his brother's death and his inability to accept it. When Holden finds out that his brother Allie died, he is in denial because he refuses to accept Allie’s death. Holden is in denial because he thinks why his innocent brother had to die and not him. Because Holden needs help dealing with this grief he must always take out the mitt, and acknowledge his feelings over Allie in order to release himself from the guilt he feels. When Holden’s roommate at Pencey, Stradlater, asks him to write a descriptive essay, Holden writes about Allie’s baseball mitt. Holden treats the mitt differentially, taking it with him to Pencey and copying “down the poems that were written on it” (Salinger 38). For Holden, t...
Indeed, just the naming of his red hunting cap as a “people-shooting hat” is suspicious enough; but Holden merely wants to stand out in a crowd and be different from all the phonies around him, and the unique hat is enough to do so, despite it making him look foolish. He is going “people-shooting” in the sense that he is putting down partisans of the supposedly fabricated adult world, the same people who put Holden down for his visible immaturity. The cap gives Holden the confidence he needs to feel like his own independent person – an adult – without actually being one. This is yet another one of Holden’s desperate attempts to cling onto whatever shred of youth and innocence he has left and avoid growing
A big trait in Holden’s character is the stubbornness. Holden is not willing to accept his problems in addition to let others help him. It is equally important to realize that Holden’s stubbornness is fatal to changing, otherwise growing up. One of the first symbols introduced is Holden’s red hunting hat. “This is a people shooting hat. I shoot people in this hat. (3.31)” gives signs that this hat is a way to alienate himself from the world. When Holden articulates it is for shooting people; shooting really means calling them phonies to only stubbornly protect himself from the outer world. Proceeding to Holden’s visit to Phoebe’s school, the f**k you signs on the wall are a way of representing the negative influences on kids. Holden’s stubbornness is shown when he attempts to erase them off the wall, although states “you couldn’t rub out even half the ‘F**k You’ signs in the world.(25.18)” The symbol’s meaning towards the story is understood that it’d be pointless to erase even all of the negative influences in the world because they’d just re-appear, except the protagonist cannot accept the reality of the situation. Jumping right to the end of the novel, when Phoebe ...
Holden’s red Hunting hat was very crucial to him as he bought it in New York on the Saturday morning that he visited. The hat is the center of attention for Holden as many people such as Ackley ask about the hat. Holden only puts the hat on at crucial moments in his life such as writing the composition for Stradlater, leaving Pencey Prep, and acting confident in front of the mirror. “It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks. I saw it in the window of the sports store when I got it out of the subway...it only cost me a buck” (17). In the novel, Holden also wears the hat when he leaves Pencey Prep as he says “Sleep tight, ya morons”. In the novel, it can be noted that Holden doesn’t like to wear the hat outside as