Holden Caulfield's Hat

When writing, authors often make reference to objects, people, and even conversational or grammatical errors in attempt to draw the reader’s mind to a deeper, more analogical train of thought. In the novel Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a teenage boy living the life of a stressed out, depressed, and even suicidal student in the late 1940s. He claims to always see himself as different, even alienating himself from society. During the beginning of his story, he buys a hunting hat on a trip to New York and puts it on at various times in the novel. This red hunting hat is often used as a symbol by Salinger as a way to express Holden’s development as an individual. As Holden matures and grows throughout the novel, his …show more content…
During the first few chapters of The Catcher in the Rye the red hunting hat the Holden buys rises dramatically in significance. Holden first buys the hat as a way to make himself feel better after losing the foils from his fencing tournament out in New York. He sees it as nothing more than a funny looking thing that he would never let anyone see on him or with him in public. However later in that same day Holden is wearing the hat while talking to Ackley calling it his “people hunting hat” (p.26). This made him feel as though if he wore his hunting hat while with other people, he could judge them and even look down on them and because of his had he shouldn’t feel bad for thinking of them in such a way. The hat became a loophole for Holden to distance himself from society. Holden then takes the final step by wearing the hat when leaving Pencey Prep. He turns the hat backwards, the peak facing backwards rather than forwards, because he realizes that he likes that the hat looks different than it's ‘supposed’ to look and it makes him feel different and special. As Holden starts to find comfort in the hunting hat, he begins to see himself as different from society and from other people in the …show more content…
As Holden realizes what he needs to change, his view of his precious hunting hat is changed as well, going from a metaphorical safety blanket to an insignificant object. Holden first starts to distance himself from the hat when he hands the hat to a woman he met in a bar. This small action gives him and the hat a short period of time apart, their first break from one another since Holden bought it. However as he is leaving the bar the woman he handed his hat to made him put it back on, realizing that even though Holden didn't know it, he needed the hat more than she did. Holden then gives Phoebe the hat, and less than a day later she gives it right back to him. Phoebe realized that she didn't need the fabled ‘protection’ of the hat, but that Holden still did. Phoebe realizes that Holden needs the protection of the hat back when he send her a note saying that he was going to “hitchhike out west” (p. 220) that afternoon. Holden thought that he could live without it’s protection but as he goes about his single day without the hat, he starts to slide right back down the slippery slope of his depression. When Phoebe returns the hat to Holden, he calms down and realizes that he can’t just leave in a spur of the moment decision, coming to terms with the fact that he has to take responsibility for his actions and stop hiding from his reality. As