Examples Of Inferences In Catcher In The Rye

1) Page 16: Holden explains that his hat represents his individuality. Even though his hat looks “very corny” turned around, he likes that it looks different from the way anyone else would wear

Throughout the novel, Holden seems to be excluded from and victimized by the world around him. As he says to Mr. Spencer, he feels trapped on “the other side” of life, and he continually attempts to find his way in a world in which he feels he doesn’t belong. The red hunting hat is a symbol of Holden’s individuality. As the novel progresses, we begin to perceive that Holden’s alienation is his way of protecting himself. Just as he wears his hunting hat to advertise his uniqueness, he uses his isolation as proof that he is better than everyone else around him and therefore above interacting with them, even though his perspective isn’t necessarily true. Throughout the text he puts on the hat to get a sense of security. He does this because, he lives in a world of “phonies”, and sometimes it is hard to retain all of your traits and characteristics.

During his journey in New York we see that Whenever Holden feels uncomfortable, not in control or isolated he puts on his red hunting hat. It’s clear that Holden finds comfort in his red hunting hat when he is confronted with difficult situations. When Holden gets punched by Stradlater and decides to leave Pencey that night he is very isolated, he had just got beaten up by Stradlater, the closest thing he had to a friend. He is isolated that night because he is about to leave to go to New York alone and have no friends or comfort until he decides to go home. When he's about to leave he says "I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, ‘Sleep tight, ya morons!’

His hat serves as a symbol for identity and individuality. Holden desires to be unique in every way (his own self) and to be authentic. After this quote he mentions that the hat is used to shoot people or in other words mentally judge their opinions as irrelevant as well as absurd.

Holden’s red hunting hat is his way of expressing that he is different from everyone else. In the beginning of the book, right after he met with Mr. Spencer, Holden

Phoebe, the youngest member of the family, contains a vast amount of maturity for her age. Although she is 7 years younger than Holden is, Phoebe seems to hold the role as the more mature one of the two. Throughout the novel Phoebe lends advice, comfort and a sense of reality to Holden. Phoebe voiced the opinion of the reader when she finally said, "You don't like anything that's happening" (Salinger 220). Holden's negative adittude is a very mature thing for her to pick up on. Holden's maturity level is nowhere near Phoebe's, creating a separation between them. D.B., Holden's older brother, is separated from Holden by his success. D.B is a very successful Hollywood screenwriter. His success is not clearly stated, but instead is implied when Holden says, "[D.B.] has got a lot of dough, now" (Salinger 4). The reader can use this statement to make the inference that D.B. is good at his job and is therefore successful. Holden on the other hand is a failure. Holden has flunked out of multiple schools and has no plans for the future, nor does he have any ambition to succeed. Throughout the novel it seems that he cannot do anything successfully. At the beginning of the story Holden fails to fulfill his responsibility of providing the fencing foils after he "left the goddam foils and stuff on the subway"(Salinger 27). Later on in the story Holden breaks

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger writes about Holden’s life and how he is remembering his past when he went to Pencey Prep, the last of four boarding schools that he has attended. Holden is seventeen when he tells the story but the part of the story he is telling, he is sixteen, the novel also follows Holden after he has left Pencey Prep. Throughout the novel Holden slowly reveals how he feels towards his roommates, Stradlater and Ackley, and how he feels towards his siblings, D.B., who is a writer in Hollywood and Allie, who passed away from leukemia. Holden shows his lonely, short tempered, and insecure characteristics through name calling and descriptive diction.

There is also a sense of self-consciousness that surrounds the hat as well. Holden never fails to mention when he is going to wear the hat and even removes the hat when he is going to be around people he knows, because "it was corny" but he "liked it that way." His self-consciousness of his hat therefore introduces a new component to the theme: Holden's want for isolation versus his desire for companionship.

The hat represents his deceased brother because it’s red like Allie’s hair, and just as Holden always keeps his hat with him, he holds onto his sadness over Allie’s death. So, Holden contemplates more than just his hat itself when he says, “I was out of my breathe anyway, so I quit horsing around. I took off my hat and looked at it for about the ninetieth time” (34). In this moment, Stradlater is attempting to have Holden write a paper for him, but the conversation never becomes serious for Holden until Stradlater brings up his hat. That’s because the hat holds meaning for him, and when he looks at it he’s thinking about Allie and his death, and the times when he was still around. This quote also purposeful in the way it puts even further emphasis on Holden’s focus on the past, similarly to other symbols from the book.

Holden Caulfield and Phoebe Caulfield are siblings in the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Being siblings, they have many similarities as well as differences. Holden is the main character in the novel, and the narrator of the story. Holden is writing from a mental hospital about his experience, “around last Christmas just before I got run down.” (Salinger, 1) He writes about his journey from Pencey Prep School, in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, to his home in New York City. Along the way he encounters many different important people to the story, one of the most important characters he encounters along the way is his sister Phoebe who teaches Holden what it means to be mature.

Holden's hunting hat also shows symbolism of different moods and feelings he may be experiencing. First, the fact that it was a "hunting hat" symbolizes that he is searching for himself. And second, there is a pattern as to the way he wears he hat. When he is in a lost and depressed mood he would "turn peak around to the back" (Salinger 45), when he was in a good mood he would "pull the peak…around to the front" (Salinger 34). There is no specific sequence in these changes, his hat turns with his mood. It is as if the hat is directing him and comforting him in his quest to find himself.

In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden is a rather unique character. He has several complications with other characters that he runs into, and does not seem that he is able to relate to anyone. However, Holden has a younger sister named Phoebe, and he seems to connect with her in a way that he does not with anyone else. She is only ten years old, so she and Holden both have a childlike mind. On the other hand, Phoebe seems to have a positive outlook on life while Holden sees most things in a negative light. Another contrast between them is that Phoebe puts in effort at school, and Holden is clearly not concerned his performance at school.

Holden’s red hunting hat is one of the main symbols in the book, The Catcher in the Rye. The hat represents individuality and uniqueness. It symbolizes the confidence, self esteem, and comfort in who someone is. Holden is only willing to express himself when he is alone, with no one around. He looks for approval. Holden does not want to be seen negatively in any way. The hat is a symbol that Holden uses to tell Phoebe that she should always stay the same. Also, to tell her that she should be confident in whom she is, but, as Holden knows, Confidence and self-esteem can be easily broken. In The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger uses Holden’s red hunting hat to symbolize Holden’s uniqueness and a sense security and comfort.

In this quote we can see that Holden’s mood changed immediately after he put on his red hunting hat. His unstable sense of self has adjusted from being sad and discouraged to being confident so quickly which is out of the ordinary for normal people to happen. Because of Holden’s insecurity of himself, putting on this hat changes his appearance, which he likes, and makes him feel better about himself at that moment until he takes it off. It’s an ongoing cycle of security and insecurity causing Holden to have this unsure thought about himself as he is not sure who he really is with all these multiple identities. Another great example of Holden’s insecure sense of self is that he has the ability to be vulnerable to the influence since he does not feel that he may be educated enough to make the right decision or the fact that he is too put down on himself to stick up and fight for his decision. For instance, when staying in a hotel he was offered by an unknown man if he wanted to pay for an experience with a prostitute. Because of his state of being, Holden could not answer the way he wanted to, "'Okay,' I said. It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn't even think" (Salinger

One of the literary devices in this novel is symbolism. Holden’s red hunting hat is the symbolic feature that alienates him from society. Ackley tells Holden “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake… That’s a deer shooting hat” (Salinger 30), meaning Holden’s hat is only worn while hunting. Holden does not seem to care much for Ackley’s opinion and he wears it anyways. This shows Holden’s individuality and his uncommon desire compared