Rough+Draft

The red hunting cap in “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger symbolizes more entities than Holden acknowledges. The red hunting cap seems to provide a lot more than one symbolic tool throughout the entire novel. In some parts of the story, the red hunting cap seems to symbolize Holden’s dead brother Allie. However, in other parts, the hat symbolizes ambiguous emotions, such as a sudden perseverance to deal with difficult situations. Throughout the entire novel, Holden keeps this red hunting hat by his side, and whenever he puts it on, it seems to provide a wall of mental fortitude to him. The red hunting cap is an extremely ubiquitous symbolism, and it is certainly far from a monolith.

Holden’s beloved younger brother, Allie, is one of the most significant symbols of Holden’s red hunting cap. Allie was first introduced by Holden when he was having a flashback while writing a composition about Allie’s baseball mitt for his roommate, Stradlater. The color of Allie’s hair is an intertwined characteristic with the red hunting cap because of their similarities in color. In Holden’s flashback, he was able to see Allie’s bright red hair even though he was watching Holden “about a hundred and fifty yards behind. That's the kind of red hair he had (Salinger 38).” In addition to the similarities of the colors between Allie and the red hunting hat, Holden fails to accept the death of Allie, who died of leukemia. Every time Holden get to the end of a block, Holden said in his mind, “Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie (Salinger 198).” Allie is the one and only person that Holden relies on when he is unnerved and scared. Furthermore, Allie appears quite frequently throughout the entire story, and Holden holds on so dearly to that hat since he has many delighted memories of his beloved brother. In the book, Holden said, “My brother Allie and I, if we were with our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch him. He's the best drummer I ever saw (Salinger 138)." Holden’s frequent indication of Allie in his mind shows that Allie is one of the most symbols of the red hunting cap.

Confidence is another symbol that was signified by the red hunting cap. In the novel, the red hunting cap rescues Holden from the difficult situations that he was facing by giving him self-esteem. In the beginning of the novel, Holden’s conversation with the teacher about dropping out of Pencey made him angry because Holden felt that his situation was none of his teacher’s business. Holden also had to face the fact that he wasn’t as successful and smart compared to his siblings who were all geniuses. In addition to his anger, Holden realized his anxiety after he thought about getting scolded by his parents if they find out about him getting kicked out of Pencey. To overlook and ignore this situation in his mind, he wears his red hunting cap and said, "The way I wore it, I swung the old peak way around to the back-very corny, I'll admit, but I liked it that way. I looked good in it that way. Then I got this book and sat down on my chair. " (Salinger 18) One of the pattern that was in the book was that his situation changes to another and Holden moves on with his life when he wears the red hunting cap. When Holden visited the museum, he realized that everything there, such as the Eskimos, stayed the same as the last time he visited the museum. The Eskimos in the museum allowed him to realize if everyone stayed unchanged, "Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you (Salinger 121).” His wish of everyone’s to stay the same and unchanged also came from the experience from the death of his brother. He became conscious of the fact that as people mature and come across reality, they will face many difficult situations, just like the death of his brother. Holden’s red hunting cap does not only give him confidence but also help him to face the right direction from impenetrable conditions. When Holden decided to runaway from his house and his family, he goes to meet Phoebe. Holden finally found her and said, "The reason I saw her, she had my crazy hunting hat on-you could see that hat about ten miles away. I went out the doors and started down these stone stairs to meet her. The thing I couldn't understand, she had this big suitcase with her." (Salinger 205) When Holden saw her with his red hunting cap and his big suitcase, he felt worried that his sister was following his miserable life and his footsteps because he thought that Phoebe looked exactly like him when she saw Phoebe crossing the street. The red hunting cap allowed Holden to not runaway and helped him to make the right decisions.

Holden keeps on this red hunting hat that creates a transition from scared or nervous, to an ignoring on the subject. “Anyway, I was sitting on the washbowl next to where Stradlater was shaving, sort of turning the water on and off. 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 15)." Holden seems to have a lot more confidence with the red hunting hat on, rather than with his red hunting cap off. This symbolizes Holden's security within the hat itself, it replicates the reassurance he feels whenever he's wearing the hat. "I pulled the peak of my hunting hat around to the front all of a sudden, for a change. I was getting sort of nervous, all of a sudden. I'm quite a nervous guy. 'Listen, where ya going on your date with her?' I asked him. 'Ya know yet?'(Salinger 19)." Whenever Holden's security is threatened, he feels the need to have some sort of protection, or barrier, from the problem. In this situation, Holden was quite nervous that Stradlater went out with his crush, Jane Gallagher, and the fact that he mentioned he pulled the hat around to the front, symbolizes his nervousness reacting with the symbolic red hunting hat. “Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be (Salinger 173)." The red hunting hat illustrates Holden as a catcher in the rye, which denotes that he wants to prevent little kids from being hurt by facing reality as they mature.

In the book Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, the red hunting cap affects Holden countless times. The red hunting cap shows how Allie was connected and implicated with Holden throughout the novel. Holden’s red hunting also helped him to persevere in difficult situations and gave him the correct decisions to make. In addition, the red hunting cap provides a wall of metal fortitude. In conclusion, the red hunting hat symbolizes many things throughout the entire novel, such as Holden's confidence, Holden's protection, and Holden's brother Allie.