The Phony Theme of The Catcher In The Rye Essay Sample

Throughout Catcher in The Rye, a novel written by J.D Salinger, the main character, Holden, battles with the internal struggle of feeling like he doesn’t fit in with the “phoniness” of the world as he deals with being expelled from his boarding school. One symbol that shows change throughout the novel is Holden’s red hunting hat, a hat he bought in New York City after he realized he lost his fencing team's equipment at the beginning of the novel. Holden’s hat represents change because at the beginning of the novel his hat represents protection & comfort, as the novel progresses his hat holds a different meaning because Holden begins to question the purpose of his hat, and at the end of the novel his hat represents his “transition into adulthood”.

Holden’s red hunting hat shows change throughout the novel because at the beginning of the novel the hat represents protection and comfort. For example, in chapter 4 when Holden is asking Stradlater, his roommate, where he’s going to take his date, Holden takes the action of “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”(39). This represents how when Holden felt uncomfortable, he would use his red hunting hat to provide comfort to him. Another example is when Holden is leaving Pencey Prep on page 59. “I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it…”(59). Whenever Holden feels uneasy, he reaches for his red hunting hat to provide him the comfort that was missing. Additionally, when Holden arrives in New York City and is walking back to his hotel "... it was freezing cold, and I took my red hunting hat out of my pocket and put it on--I didn't give a damn how I looked. I even put the earlaps down”(88). Holden understands that his hat looks weird to other people, but he doesn’t care about what people think of him because it provides comfort.

As the novel progresses, Holden’s red hunting hat holds a different meaning than at the beginning of the novel because Holden begins to question the purpose of his hat. When Holden is in New York City after he revisits the Museum of Natural History, “I took my old hunting hat out of my pocket and put it on. I knew I wouldn’t meet anybody that knew me, and it was pretty damp out”(135). This is important because it shows that Holden struggles with self-confidence. After all, he feels embarrassed to wear his hat around people he knows. Another example is when Holden visits a lake in Central Park that’s frozen over. Holden describes himself as “Boy I was still shivering like a bastard and the back of my hair, even though I had my hunting hat on, was still sort of full of little chunks of ice. That worried me. I thought probably I would get pneumonia and die”(171). This part is important because at the beginning of the novel Holden’s red hunting hat would protect him from everything. As the novel progresses, his hat provides him with less protection because even when he had the physical protection of the hat on, his hair was still freezing. Holden stated that he was worried about dying which displays that he believes more in the importance of life than he had in the past.  

At the end of the novel, the red hunting hat represents Holden’s transition into adulthood. When  Holden was  getting ready to leave his house where he visited his sister Phoebe, Holden “ … took my hunting hat out of my coat pocket and gave it to her. She liked those types of crazy hats”(188-189). Holden gave his sister his one prized possession, his red hunting hat that represented Holden’s protection from the adult world, as well as the desire to be separate from everyone else. The action of giving his hunting hat away shows that Holden is trying to pass along the protection to his younger sister. When Holden meets Phoebe at the Museum of Natural History so she can give back Holden’s suitcase, Phoebe“... took off my red hunting hat-the one I gave her-and practically chucked it right in my face”(228). Phoebe giving back the hat that Holden gifted her displays that Phoebe does not want the protection of the hat, so she tries to throw the protection back to Holden, and protect his innocence. Phoebe does not want to go back to school so Holden agrees to take her to Central Park and to go on the carousel. Before Phoebe gets on “... what she did-it damn near killed me-she reached in my coat pocket and took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head”(233). This demonstrates that Phoebe wants Holden to be protected because even when Holden does not have his own protection on, she still wants him to have it. Metaphorically, Phoebe is trying to hand Holden back his childhood before his innocence is lost. All of a sudden at this moment it begins to rain down and Holden thinks “My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way, but I got soaked anyway. I didn’t care, though”(233). This quote transforms the symbolism of the red hunting hat because throughout the beginning and middle of the novel Holden used his hat as protection, but now he does not think he needs to be protected anymore, so when his hat gets soaked, it represents Holden being ready to transition into adulthood. More importantly, he states that “I didn’t care, though” which shows that Holden is not trying to fight the adult world anymore, but rather is ready to transition into it.

Overall, throughout “Catcher in The Rye'', a novel written by J.D Salinger, Holden struggles with the “phoniness” of adulthood, so uses his red hunting hat to provide himself safety and comfort. Throughout the book, the red hunting hat holds tremendous symbolism and meaning. The beginning, middle, and end of the book make a difference in what the red hunting hat really means. The red hunting hat develops from being a hat used solely for protection and comfort, to Holden  questioning the purpose of the red hunting hat, and eventually allowing Holden to discover what life is really about and allowing him to transition into adulthood. I think that one theme in Catcher in The Rye is … because throughout the entire novel Holden fought the adult world through his cynical viewpoint, and would rely on his red hunting hat to allow him to hide from it. Eventually though, Holden learns that it is okay to not always fight the reality and that at a certain point you don’t need to hide from the real world.