The red hunting hat in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, is believed by many to be a symbol of security or isolation for Holden. It is interesting to note when he wears the hat as opposed to when he doesn't. Usually, he wears it when he wants to hide emotionally or pretend to be different than who he is. One of the first times that Holden puts on the hat is in chapter 5 when he sits down to write a descriptive paper for his roommate, Stradlater. Holden is actually a good writer and understands literature very well. He probably wears the hat thinking it will help him write the paper from Stradlater's point of view. Instead of being able to pretend to be Stradlater, though, Holden's brain visits memories of his deceased brother's baseball mitt, and he writes about that. Symbolically, then, the hat allows him to face hurtful or disturbing memories or experiences that he can't otherwise think about.
In chapter 6, Holden gets into a verbal and physical altercation with Stradlater over a girl. He doesn't leave well enough alone and provokes his roommate to bloody his face. When Holden gets up to look in the mirror, he puts on his red hunting hat first and says the following:
I couldn't find my goddam hunting hat anywhere. Finally I found it. It was under the bed. I put it on, turned the old peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I went over and took a look at my stupid face in the mirror. You never saw such gore in your life. . . . It partly scared me and it partly fascinated me. All that blood and all sort of made me look tough (45).
From the above passage, it seems as though Holden couldn't look himself in the mirror all bloody without the false security of the red hunting hat. Thus, he seems to be using it like a crutch to face himself or the reality of life.
Another example of Holden using his red hunting hat to face a difficult situation is right before he leaves the school for good and goes on his weekend on the town.
I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I 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 (52).
Again, Holden puts the hat on whenever he needs help to face reality. In this case, he has decided to leave the school early (rather than wait for his parents to find out about his expulsion and come get him) and head out on his own.
In chapter 23, though, Holden gives his red hunting hat to his little sister Phoebe. He says that he gives it to her because she likes hats like that, but it is probably because of the following:
Then I took my hunting hat out of my coat pocket and gave it to her. She likes those kind of crazy hats. . . . I'll bet she slept with it on. . . . It was a helluva lot easier getting out of the house than it was getting in, for some reason. For one thing, I didn't give much of a damn any more if they caught me. I really didn't. I figured if they caught me, they caught me. I almost wished they did, in a way (180).
By this point, Holden seems to be wanting to face reality, so he is able to give his sister his hat. Maybe he subconsciously wants Phoebe to have it so she can face the difficult time she may have without him in her life, since he's planning on running away. But when he says that he wishes that he would get caught, this must signal that he is almost ready to face reality without any disguise or help from anything else.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Which three quotations can show the significance of red hunting hat?
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