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The Catcher in the Rye Symbols, Motifs and Themes
Essay on the catcher in the rye symbolism
Symbolism in catcher in the rye essay
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The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield is a very unique person who many people can relate to. He is a 17 year old boy who hates school. Not only does he hate school, he has gotten kicked out of many schools in the past and the book starts off revealing how he was getting kicked out of his current school, Pencey. Although Holden is easily related to, he also has many aspects that distinguish him from the rest of the people. Holden has went through multiple tragedies that have affected him greatly including the death of his brother Allie and the suicide of a former classmate. Holden likes to separate himself from people in many ways. Holden wears a red hunting hat that is a major symbol of Holden and his life. The red hunting hat symbolizes Holden’s desire for individuality, his embarrassment, and his love for his siblings. …show more content…
The red hunting hat is a symbol of Holden’s want to be different.
He sees people in many different ways. The people that the average people would see as cool, he calls phonies but the people who one would normally ignore, he relates to. Holden cannot stand most people and sees the fakeness in people. This is one of the reasons he wants to be different. He uses the hat as a way as sticking out from the phonies and the average person. He has a need to be different. He points out his hunting hat to many different people, one of them being his roommate, Stradlater. He tells the audience, “I put on this hat that I’d bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks” and “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”(Salinger 17). He knows that the hat was weird but he still wanted to wear
it. Although Holden’s hat showed his want to be different, it also showed another aspect of him: his embarrassment. He wore the hat very frequently and liked the fact that it made him different, but he also took it off every time he was going somewhere with a lot of people or anyone he knew. Anytime he went in public he removed the hat. Examples of this are when he rode the train, went to the bar, and when he went in the hotel. A quote from the book that shows his embarrassment reads, “I took my old hunting hat out of my pocket while I walked, and out it on. I knew I wouldn’t meet anybody that knew me, and it was pretty damp out”(Salinger 122). In saying this, Holden exhibits his embarrassment. Although he uses it to separate himself from everyone else, he only puts the hat on when he is sure he will not see anyone he knows. Not only does the red hunting hat act as a symbol for Holden’s embarrassment, it also symbolizes his love for his siblings. One of the major events in his life is when his younger brother, Allie, died of Leukemia. He had a very close relationship with his brother. He keeps Allie’s old baseball glove as a reminder of him. He also has a little sister, Phoebe, who he relates to very well. He loves to talk to her and makes a trip to visit her in New York. Allie and Phoebe both have red hair which is what makes the red color of his hat significant. He sees both of his siblings as very authentic and non-phony human beings. When he wears the red hat, he relates to his siblings and has a sense of strength. Throughout the book, a lot is learned about Holden Caulfield and the way views life. He goes through many hardships like getting kicked out of multiple schools and the death of his brother Allie. His view of the world and the people in it is very negative. The author uses a symbol, the red hunting hat, as a way to express Holden. The red hunting hat symbolizes Holden’s desire for individuality, his embarrassment, and his love for his siblings.
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.
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
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 ...
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
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
Holden is also aware of the image the hat projects to others, and he often takes it off when he is around someone familiar. This functions as a metaphor for Holden’s struggle between his need for independence and his need for companionship. Holden doesn’t want people he knows to see him with the hat on because he wants them to continue to be friends with him, and he fears loneliness. However, when nobody is around, Holden has no problem wearing the hat and embracing its quirkiness, because he feels a strong connection to the hat. As he is walking down the street in the middle of the night, Holden states that “It was freezing cold, and I took my red hunting hat out of my pocket and put it on--I didn 't give a damn how I looked. I even put the earlaps down” (Salinger 88). Here, Holden doesn’t care how he looks because the only people who might spot him on the desolate street are strangers to him. His image around strangers doesn’t faze him as much as his image around people his is familiar
Holden Caulfield can be analyzed through his thoughts, actions and circumstances which surround his everyday life. Holden acts like a careless teenager. Holden has been to several prep-schools, all of which he got kicked out of for failing classes. After being kicked out of the latest, Pency Prep, he went off to New York on his own. Holden seems to have a motivation problem which apparently affects his reasoning. The basis of his reasoning comes from his thoughts. Holden thinks the world is full of a bunch of phonies. All his toughs about people he meets are negative. The only good thoughts he has are about his sister Phoebe and his dead brother Alley. Holden, perhaps, wishes that everyone, including himself, should be like his brother and sister. That is to be intelligent, real and loving. Holden’s problem is with his heart. It was broken when his brother died. Now Holden goes around the world as his fake self, wearing his mask. Holden is looking for love, peace and understanding. He is scared to love because he is afraid he might lose it like he did with his brother. That is the reason for Holden's love of the museum, he feels safe because it never changes it always stays the same. Holden is troubled with the pain of death, it effects every aspect of his life causing him to not care about the future, himself or anyone, except Phoebe and Alley.
The first appearance of the red hunting hat appears when Holden forgets all the fencing equipment on the subway. As he loses the equipment, he doesn’t walk around New York with shame, but walks around without care for the equipment which is when he notices the red hunting hat through a store window display. “It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks” (Salinger 17). This gives the reader
Holden's red hunting hat was used to camouflage himself from both his problems and actuality. As bother some Ackley disturbs Holden while reading, Holden uses his hat as a defense. "I pulled t...
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...
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.
To begin with, J.D. Salinger’s style of creating symbols is artistic. In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger creates symbols mainly regarding Holden as a character including: Holden’s red hunting hat, the ducks in the lagoon, and the Museum of Natural History. Holden’s red hunting hat plays a prominent role in this novel, as it is continuously mentioned and involved. The reader can infer the red hunting hat symbolizes Holden’s individuality and his attempt to break free from the ‘phonies’ around him. The reader discovers Holden’s extreme dislike of phonies when learning about why Holden drops out/ quits Elkton Hills. Holden explains to Old Spencer, ‘“One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies”’ (19). By wearing this red hat Holden is attempting to stand out and be different. He is not trying to ‘be like everyone else’ or ‘phony’ instead he is displaying his true personality. However throughout this story, Holden struggles to discover his path in life, which leads to the second symbol, the ducks in the lagoon. Holden wonders to himself, “I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it...
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