Holden’s True Persona Through Symbolism of the Hat In Catcher In The Rye, Holden's red hunting hat symbolizes his true self by how he wears it, how it is aesthetically connected to him, and how it develops through the story with him. 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). Holden's red hunting hat is aesthetically connected to him. Holden is shown as arrogant …show more content…
At the beginning of the book, Holden is shown as a careless boy with animosity towards most people: “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!” (52). After Phoebe returns Holden’s hat to him, he watches her on a carousel. To him, seeing her on the carousel is an image of childhood innocence, which he has been looking for throughout the book. His red hunting hat serves as a shield to adulthood as shown in the quote, “My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyways. I didn't care though. I felt so damn happy all of a sudden” (212/213). His hat acts as a symbol of protection from his depression and fear of growing
While in New York with the fencing team, Holden loses all of their equipment, then buys a red hunting hat. Holden describes the hat as a, “red hunting hat, with one of those very, very, very long peaks… The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around back - very corny, I’ll admit, but I liked it that way.”(Salinger, 24) The hat makes him stand out and seem like a unique person.
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
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 ...
“Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist.” This quote by George Carlin perfectly outlines the reasons why many people are bitter toward the world in their everyday lives. While cynicism is justified for those who have had a tough life, countless people become exceedingly pessimistic because life didn’t meet their expectations.. An example of this would be Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye”. Salinger does an admirable job of portraying how Holden’s attitude leads to a massive downward spiral. When a person holds too high of standards for the world around them, it can lead to an unrelenting undue criticism of people around them and even hypocrisy.
In the beginning of the novel, Holden believes that the world is out to get him, so he alienates himself for protection. A way to do so, he brings forth his hunting hat, “‘This is a people shooting hat,’ I said. ‘I shoot people in this hat.’” (Salinger, 22) Holden’s hunting hat is the strongest symbol in the novel. It gives Holden protection from people who could be potentially harmful to him. Whenever he is afraid or anxious he regresses and puts on his hunting hat for comfort. This anxiety is triggered by memories from his past. The world has stepped on him and beat him down, so now he uses his hunting hat to symbolize his independence and alienation from the world. He consciously knows that the hat will not physically protect him, but, “the nihilist does not believe in the necessity of being logical.” (“On the Pathos of Truth”) So, since he doesn’t need to be logical, he uses the hunting hat regardless if it is actually going to work or not. Holden feels disconnected to the world in the beginning of the novel. Holden states that he feels trapped on “the other side of life.” (Salinger, 8) When Holden says this, he is in a distressed point in his life because he has recently just been expelled from his fourth school. The expulsion could be a reason why he feels so disconnected, but since this didn’t happen during his last expulsions, he
Spencer, having been told he has been expelled from Pencey, he seeks solace in his red hunting hat. In this scene, Holden states that he “swung the old peak way around to the back – very corny, I’ll admit, but I like it that way. I looked good in it that way” (Salinger 18). Here, the reader is given a glimpse into Holden’s feelings toward his hunting hat. He understands that the hat is quirky and mostly unattractive, but he connects with it in a way because he feels that, just like his hat, he is an outcast and an oddity. Holden feels that the hat looks “good” on him because he and his hat possess similar qualities, and he feels that the hat suits his personality. It is also clear that Holden feels a sense of protection when he is wearing the hat, probably because he feels a strong connection with it. After his fight with Stradlater in the dorm room, Holden immediately seeks comfort and protection with his favorite hat. Holden states, “I couldn’t find my goddam hunting hat anywhere. Finally I found it. It was under the bed. I put it on, and turned the old peak around to the back, the way I like it, and then I went over and took a look at my stupid face in the mirror” (Salinger 45). Holden puts the hat on before checking to see the extent of his injuries in the mirror. This action makes it clear that Holden sees the hat as a symbol of
The symbolism throughout the novel illustrates Holden’s isolation from the adult world. In the beginning of the Chapter Three, Holden returns to his dorm room where he finds his pestering roommate, Ackley. After seeing Holden’s red hunting hat, which he purchased in New York, Ackley is fascinated by it and tells Holden that “Up home [he] wears a hat like that to shoot deer in,” (22) Holden then takes the red hunting hat off of Ackleys’ head and closes one eye as if he is trying to shoot it. “This is a people shooting hat,” he says (22). It is obvious from the start of the novel that Holden’s red hat symbolizes his mark of individuality and independence. In this scene, the audience sees how his desire for independence is connected to the feeling of alienation and the bitterness Holden feels for the people in society. Of course, Holden will not actually sh...
...orld. Holden distanced himself by wearing this hat. Holden doesn’t want to be a part of the society and created this symbol to isolate from it.
that he is trying to hide his true identity. He does not want people to know who he really is or that he was kicked out of his fourth school. Holden is always using fake names and tries speaking in a tone to persuade someone to think a cretin way. He does this when he talks to women. While he is talking to the psychiatrist he explains peoples reactions to his lies like they really believe him, when it is very possible that he is a horrible liar and they are looking at him with a “what are you talking a bout?” expression. Holden often lies to the point where he is lying to him self.
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
Holden goes through a variety of trials in the novel leading up to his understanding of growing up and letting go of the past while between two worlds of childhood and adulthood. The Red Hunting Hat, despite its average appearance, is an object with major significance in Holden's mind - it acts as a barrier against the customs of adulthood, causes him to individualize his character from the "phony" world, and connects Holden to, in his belief, the purity of childhood
Holden’s sole purpose in the novel was to symbolize an average 1950’s disobedient teenager. His attire didn’t match that of the everyday 1950’s teen. He wore his hat backwards, cussed with words like “crumby” and “goddamn” and don’t forget his arsenal of slang terms which persisted of terms like “bucks”(dollars) and “chew the rag”(talk). Holden smokes
When Holden was leaving Pency Prep, "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" (Salinger 29). When Holden turned his hat backwards, he felt more confident. Holden has more of a shy and awkward personality. He typically does care about what others think of him. However, when he turned his hat backwards, he gains the confidence to be who he really is. As children transition into adults, they typically try to gain a sense of they really are. Sometimes, they will follow what the crowd does. Yet, other times they do what they want to do to be unique. For example, when Holden was on his date with Sally, he told her, "‘It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques'" (Salinger 70). Holden identifies a group of people and tries to not be like them which is why he is naming all the negative aspects of the people in Pency Prep. Holden does not
In the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield buys an odd red hunting hat in New York City. He believes the hat is a bargain since he only paid $1 for it. The red hunting hat has a large amount of significance in the book. The symbolism behind the red hat is Holden’s attraction to unusual items. This attraction to unusual items shows his uniqueness and individuality. It also shows his constant need to be different and isolated from others. The need form Holden to be different and isolated from others is one of the central conflicts in the story.