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