What Is Holden's Red Hunting Hat Symbolize

Holden Caulfield: The Modern Peter Pan In the coming of age novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger a boy named Holden Caulfield talks about his fear of growing up and how he comes to peace with this. Many things symbolize this and how he tries to prevent it, such as his red hunting hat and the Museum of Natural History, but he ultimately accepts the idea, as seen through water. One example that helps Holden push through his ongoing struggle of wanting to be in his own, safe world is his red hunting hat. Holden gets kicked of his school, Pencey, and goes to talk to his English teacher, Mr. Spencer. When he gets back to his dorm room after discussing that, he “put on this hat that…[he’d] bought in New York that morning. It was this red hunting hat, with one of those very, very long peaks” (21). After Holden and Mr. Spencer have the conversation about leaving Pencey and going through his school career and beyond, he puts on his hat. Because he is about to leave Pencey, a big change in his life, Holden puts on his hat as a sense of familiarity and is comforted in this moment by this motif. To Holden, having this red hunting hat is a feeling of safety and reassurance.

When he is waiting to meet his sister Phoebe, he goes inside the museum to show two kids the mummy exhibit. In the museum, there are relics and old artifacts, like the mummy. This portrays something being preserved and unchanging. Holden finds the museum ideal because, “everything always stayed right where it was” (135). Since the museum never adapted into something new, this is the idyllic world Holden wishes he could stay in. Holden is terrified of the complexity of the outside world and dreams that it could be just like a museum that is frozen in time. Holden wants everything to be simple, understandable, and stay the same over the years, like a museum, even though that is an unrealistic