Allie’s baseball mitt is extremely important to Holden in The Catcher in the Rye. It is a symbol of Allie since it was important to his brother. It keeps Holden grounded when he is falling apart, as it is the only remembrance Holden has of Allie, whom he misses and loves very much.
The mitt is a replacement of sorts for Allie. Since Allie’s death, Holden has not been able to deal with his loss. When he died, Holden punched in the garage windows and broke his hand. Because of his injury, he was in the hospital and missed Allie’s funeral. He keeps Allie’s glove as a comforting force whenever he needs it.
Holden keeps Allie close to him by keeping his fielder’s mitt with him. When Holden writes Stradlater’s descriptive essay, he chooses the glove as his subject. He could have chosen anything at all to write about, but the glove is the only thing he can think of. “I happened to have it with me” he says. It is a safe assumption that when Holden packed his bags to leave for school, he packed both necessary and meaningful items. His family is wealthy, so he could have brought anything he wanted to school. He chose to bring his brother’s mitt because Allie was important to him; it was not by chance that he had it with him.
Holden becomes angry with Stradlater for berating the essay not because he’s offended at the insult to his work, but because he feels Allie has been insulted. By complaining about the essay, Stradlater unknowingly is lashing out at the mitt—which by extension is attacking Allie. Holden’s attitude toward Stradlater becomes “cold as hell,” and he defends Allie. “You said it had to be descriptive. What the hell’s the difference if it’s about a baseball glove?” Holden will not share the reason why the glove is so important; he only shares with people he cares about, like Jane. Stradlater could never understand or appreciate the significance of that mitt, so Holden tears up the essay.
The mitt gives Holden comfort in his otherwise troubled life. He makes excuses to himself for choosing to write about the mitt, but the truth is that it keeps him grounded. He admits, “I sort of liked writing about it.” The poems that Allie wrote on the glove are part of what makes it so special. “He wrote them on it so that he’d have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat.” Holden likes reading those words simply because Allie is the one who wrote them, so the words are an extension of Allie. Thus, Allie’s mitt serves as a catharsis for Holden.
1. In chapter 5, Holden agrees to write a descriptive composition for his roommate, Stradlater, who is going on a date with Jane Gallagher. When Stadlater leaves for his date, Holden has a difficult time thinking of descriptive things to write about and decides to write the composition on his deceased brother's baseball mitt. Holden says,
"So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie’s baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder’s mitt. He was left-handed. The thing that was descriptive about it, though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he’d have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat" (Salinger, 23).
Allie's baseball mitt represents his unique, sensitive personality. Holden goes on to describe his deceased brother and mentions that Allie was intelligent and fun to be around. Holden also says that the day his brother died, he broke all the windows in his parents' car and spent the night in the garage. Holden's reaction to his brother's death reveals that it was a traumatic moment in Holden's life.
2. Holden also says,
"Old Allie’s baseball mitt. I happened to have it with me, in my suitcase, so I got it out and copied down the poems that were written on it" (Salinger, 24).
The fact that Holden keeps Allie's mitt with him is significant and represents his love for his deceased brother. Holden has clearly not gotten over the death of his younger brother, which contributes to his anxiety and stress.
3. In chapter 11, Holden mentions that Jane Gallagher is the only person he ever showed Allie's mitt to, which illustrates his affinity and affection for Jane. Holden says,
"She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever showed Allie’s baseball mitt to, with all the poems written on it. She’d never met Allie or anything, because that was her first summer in Maine—before that, she went to Cape Cod—but I told her quite a lot about him" (Salinger, 48).
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