re: hunting hat
Jon Tveite (jontv@ksu.edu)
Wed, 11 Mar 1998 08:57:42 -0600
Rachel J Macdonald <macdon50@pilot.msu.edu> wrote:
> I always thought the hunting hat symbolized Holden's desire to protect
> everything...the ducks, kids, etc.
The hunters I've met don't seem that interested in protecting ducks. If
you have more positive associations with hunters, well -- great: chalk
it up to the genius of Salinger's writing.
Holden is a hunter. He's hunting for a way to live in society. The
problem is that his upper-middle-class society doesn't have a place for
a sensitive person who's uncomfortable with "phony" behavior -- or at
least he hasn't found one by the end of the book. He doesn't really
want the things that his peers want: money, sexual conquest, prestige;
maybe that's why he wears the cap backwards. I suppose if you wanted to
get Freudian you could see its long bill as a phallic symbol which
Holden immasculates by turning it around. If you wanted to.
You could also see the inverted hat as a sign that Holden is
unconsciously looking backward, to a simpler way of life -- e.g. living
in a shack in the woods with a deaf-mute woman, not speaking (i.e.
living in a state of grace that recalls humanity before The Fall: before
language, knowledge, and self-awareness -- i.e. The Garden of Eden). Of
course, if he just turns his *hat* around, he's not going to see much of
anything.
If all this seems a little far-fetched, cut me a break -- I've been into
Joseph Campbell lately.
Jon