How Does Holden Have My Red Hunting Hat Symbolize

In J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the author uses symbolic images that the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, encounters. Holden in the novel goes through several life obstacles and tries to find acceptance to adulthood. Throughout the novel, Holden often acts the opposite of society and wishes for the present day to have more of the nostalgia he had in the past. The Catcher in the Rye illustrates how Holden tries to find stability and acceptance in a broken society full of phonies and liars. Throughout the novel, the author often emphasize when Holden turns his red hunting hat; being descriptive and showing how his attitude and beliefs change after he flips his hat. "I still had my red hunting hat on, with the peak around to the back and all. I really got a bang out of that hat" (Salinger 27). Holden’s red hunting hat is an on and off switch that he has that changes him mentally. "I put on my red hunting hat, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it..." (Salinger 52). By turning around his hunting hat, Holden tells the reader that his values are the reverse of the rest of society’s …show more content…
“I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye … [and] I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff” (Salinger 173). Although Holden says that he wants to be in charge of saving children from falling off a cliff, but figuratively he is saving the children from the fake, depressing life of adulthood. Even though there is nothing Holden can do to stop the pure world of childhood from changing into a world of adults. Yet Holden does what he can do for himself and the children to keep them to stay them and stay pure. “Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean except me” (Salinger 173). This is the reason why Holden can be himself in front of