Red Hunting Hat Symbolism In Catcher In The Rye

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Nathalie Pineda
Mrs. Kawano
English 11/B, P. 4
22 February 2017 The inevitable cycle in the Catcher in the Rye Mandy Hale once said “Growth is painful. Change is painful… but nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong”, meaning that accepting the fact of change and growth will bring comfort instead of trying to control something that is beyond oneself. This is shown in J.D Salinger's book the Catcher in the Rye, that trying to change the inevitable leads to disappointment. This is expressed through the symbolic objects of the Museum of Natural History, the red hunting hat, and the Central Park carousel. Holden from the Catcher in the Rye illustrates how trying to change …show more content…

When Holden portrays the image of the hat he bought in New York he says “ It was a red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks”(Salinger 21). In Holden’s mind the hat makes him seem less vulnerable than what he actually is. Everytime he got nervous or embarrassed his hat was his escape from that kind of situation. Furthermore, the hat is red, the same as Allie’s and Phoebe’s hair. This matters because Holden probably thinks that the hat relates to the innocence and pureness his brother had and sister has. Later on in the book he took his hunting hat out “ and gave it to her. She likes those kind of crazy hats. She didn’t want to take it, but I made her”(Salinger 199). Holden thinks that this hat has protected him from the world and wants to pass it on to his little sister. He is worried that one day Phoebe will lose her innocence, grow up and become an adult, which will eventually happen. Also, the reason Holden might of given the hat to Phoebe at this point is because he became aware with the fact that he has to move on and accept that he can’t hold on to his childhood forever and Phoebe should be the one who should enjoy her childhood while it …show more content…

When Holden took Phoebe to ride the carousel and it started he “watched her go around and around”(Salinger 232).When he sees Phoebe go around and around it sort of cheers him up because it looks like she’ll never go anywhere or change. The carousel symbolizes life and the journey from childhood to adulthood. This is when he stops seeing change as a horrifying thing and accepts it as an unavoidable cycle,. He also said that “ All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them”(Salinger 232). The reason Holden doesn’t say anything to Phoebe because he starts realizing that he can’t protect a kid from growing up, so it’s better to just accept it despite the fact that she might “fall”. In other words, Holden accepts that Phoebe’s future is up to her ,not his, that growing up is probably necessary and children are sometimes capable of making their own

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