Your world is spiraling out of control, and you can’t seem to pull yourself out of it. You are living are living in your worst nightmare. Holden Caulfield is a young man on his way to adulthood but he is so afraid of change and growing up that he cannot move forward in his life without any help.
Holden’s red hunting hat acts as a tool to protect himself against the harsh reality of the adult world. Many times throughout the book Holden is struggling with the fact he has to grow up. When he is in a state of confusion and sadness he takes out his red hunting hat and puts it on his head. He uses his hat for comfort, and to shield him from the world. However, Holden uses this as a security blanket only around people he is comfortable with. While at the club Holden has one of his nights where he is drunk, depressed, and lonely. As he is being escorted out by the hat-check woman he even showed her his goddamn red hunting hat. Later that night he has thoughts of…show more content… Holden has some protection from the real world although it won’t keep him a kid forever. When Holden dropped his record “It broke into about fifty pieces. It was in a big envelope and all, but it broke anyway”(170) Even though the record was hidden inside the envelope it still shattered, this is just like Holden. After this Holden was hysterical when he realized that the record could never be put back together. Holden's innocence was stripped from him and that can never be recovered. He wants to hold on to his childhood as long as he can. He doesn’t throw away the pieces because it doesn’t feel right to him(170). Holden is preserving the remains because he doesn’t want to grow up, and be exposed to all the cruelties in society. The way Holden reacts after breaking the record shows that he has realized that he is going to have to get his stuff together, but it’s not going to be
