The Red Hat

For crying out loud, The Red Hat.

So, I’m reading The Catcher in the Rye for like the 60 millionth time and all, and I start thinking about Holden’s Red Hat!
I mean, the red hat symbolizes Holden’s alienation from society and his deliberate isolation from people. Purchasing the hat is Holden’s way of trying to protect himself from society’s consequences and all. Holden seems to get a sense of comfort or satisfaction from the sartorial uniqueness the hat brings him. It also provides him protection against his impending adulthood which he is unable and unwilling to confront. This trapping of youth sends the signal that he is not quite ready for adulting. A sort of Regressive Restoration of the Persona?

Perhaps on a subconscious level, the cap is worn to honor God as yarmulkes are or the red skull-caps worn by Christian clerics.

Declaring that it’s “a people shooting hat” reveals feelings of rage toward a society that, in his eyes, continuously reminds him that he doesn’t quite fit in. MAGA haters will love this reference as it echoes the toxic-bitter-and-dangerous-white-males-with-guns (and red hats) stereotype.

The “phonies” Holden sees populating the world live beneath his moral standards. He imagines that he is better than them and is terrified because he understands that he will eventually be assimilated into the collective, no matter how long he resists. Integration is his fate.
The red hat is symbolic of Holden’s struggle between a desire to be a unique individual and a fear of becoming an outlier and deviating from the norm. If only there were an army of red-hatted ones, his sense of aloneness would become a shared experience. We gravitate towards groups not because we want to fight shared enemies, but because we have an existential need to belong to something greater than ourselves.

Holden cannot discard his red hunting hat just like he can’t rid himself of social norms or the reality of a society he is battling with.

THE Red Hat ™ has become a potent symbol of the divide in this country. A red Rorschach Test. In our current integrated system of hate or adversarial symbiosis, the hat either represents good or evil depending on the perspective of the viewer.

But the conviction of his Orangeness has created a shift in perception. For the first time recently I saw a young black man casually and proudly walking down 7th Avenue in Manhattan wearing a bright, red MAGA hat. There was something electric about his simple but provocative statement and everyone on 7th Avenue sensed the shift.
The Red Hat, for crying out loud, I keep thinking…the red hat.

This illustration was originally commissioned by The New York Times and created by myself and Dan Zollinger to accompany an opinion piece titled The Perverse Thrill of Chaotic Times by Teddy Wayne.