The Catcher in the Rye: The Hunting Hat

A quote that I not only thought was hilarious, but also I thought really described Holden comes one night when Holden returns to his dorm at Pencey Prep., and old Ackley Kid is bothering him. He says, “[Ackley] took another look at my hat . . . ‘Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,’ he said. ‘That’s a deer shooting hat.’
‘Like hell it is.’ I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. ‘This is a people shooting hat,’ I said. ‘I shoot people in this hat.’” This quote is funny to me because Holden is being so sarcastic, and he is just playing with Ackley like he loves to do. But this quote also has a deeper meaning to it. It is apparent from the beginning of the novel that Holden strives for independence and individuality, and the hunting hat definitely accentuates that. He supposedly got it while on a trip to New York with the fencing team he was part of, and he loves it more than any other piece of clothing he owns. I cannot exactly imagine what it looks like, but I am confident that it makes him stick out of a crowd. He always says how he swings “the peak” around to the back which makes me not understand what this hat looks like. I have a hunting hat myself, but it certainly does not have any sort of “peak” on it. Oh well, the appearance of the hat is not all that important. Holden obviously does not shoot people in the hat, but it represents the fact that Holden hates the conventionality, or “phoniness” of things. I enjoy the fact that Holden wears the hat so much. I, like Holden, believe that in this world of ordinary people, one should be an individual, and they should stick out of a crowd.