Catcher

The image is troubling: a cynical and defensive Holden struggles to defend the innocent and sincere people of the world from the “morons” and “phonies” that take advantage of them. In this instance, Holden attempts to defend Jane Gallagher, a woman who his masculine roommate Stradlater just finished a date with, but knows virtually nothing about, from Stradlater’s lustful attitude toward women. Holden repeatedly insults Stradlater’s intelligence, which results in a fight, instigated completely by Holden, which results in Holden’s defeat. Amidst the blood and pain emanating from his battered face, Holden runs to his queer, red hunting hat for comfort. With his strange hat turned backwards in a peculiar style Holden examines himself in the mirror. Holden reflects on his depressing lifestyle at Pencey and decides to depart, beginning his journey of despair and self-realization. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, author J.D. Salinger connects the red hunting hat with Holden’s conflicts and trials throughout the novel to in order reveal Holden’s insecurities and contradictions and the sequent isolation caused by his hypercriticism. In doing so, Salinger implies that when a person seeks self-approval through rebuking others, he becomes further isolated from society, causing self-inflicted sorrow and gloom.

In the beginning of the novel, Salinger presents the red hunting hat as a symbol of Holden’s singularity in a society of “fakes” and “phonies”. Holden buys the hat after spotting it “in the window of this sports store when [he] got out of the subway, just after [he] noticed [he’d] lost the goddamn foils” (Salinger 17). By losing the foils, Holden cost the fencing team a game and received scorn from the entire team. Holden buys the hunting hat for comfort, to aid him during this gloomy and troubling time. Holden wears the hat with “the old peak way around to the back” (Salinger 18) which he admits to be corny, but enjoyable to him nevertheless. Holden’s desire to be unique and different stems from his views of the “morons’ at Pencey and his desire to preserve the innocence of life, rather than expose his own phoniness. For this reason, Holden associates with and seeks to establish a connection with Robert Ackley, despite Ackley constantly annoying Holden. Holden even admits that Ackley is “soft of a nasty guy” (Salinger 19) but his desire to be different and genuine lead him