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