The History Paper

Holden receives a letter from his History professor, Mr. Spencer. Holden obliges because he does feel respect for Mr. Spencer. While at Spencer's old cabin he notes the sickness hanging about and how there is nothing sadder than an old mans robe. Through the course of the meeting Spencer gives Holden back his final essay on which he received an F. While most regard failing grades as proof that those receiving them are stupid, which is far from what Holden is. On the contrary, Holden is quite intelligent, he just doesn't care about school.


"I can't seem to get very interested in them although your lectures are very interesting. It is all right with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything else except English anyway."


"I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot."

The Red Hunting Hat

Holden gets a fair kick out of a red hunting hat he had purchased in New York City while with the fencing team. Holden often conflicts with himself about wearing the hat in public or not. A symbol for individuality he recognizes that sometimes standing out in the crowd is not always the best thing, and sometimes it can be. Holden's struggle with the hat can also symbolize his struggle with society. The everlasting battle against phonies. 

"I took it off an 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.""

"My hunting hat really gave me quite a lot of protection, in a way; but I got soaked anyway"

The Catcher's Glove

Holden speaks fondly of his deceased younger brother, Allie. He says that Allie was extremely smart for a kid his age, as well as his younger sister Phoebe, but is innocent at the same time. He writes an English composition for Stradlater focusing on an old, left-handed, catcher glove of Allie's. The glove is covered in poems scribbled in green ink. Holden muses that it was to keep Allie from getting bored when playing outfield. When Holden is describing Allie's glove is the first time the reader sees anything other than anger from him. Allie is a very emotional subject for Holden and the loss of his brother might just be what fuels most of his anger towards the world.


"So what I did, I wrote about my brother Allie's baseball mitt. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. My brother Allie had this left-handed fielder's mitt. He was left-handed. The thing that was descriptive about it, though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere. In green ink. He wrote them on it so that he'd have something to read when he was in the field and nobody was up at bat. He's dead now. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You'd have liked him."


"God, he was a nice kid, though. He used to laugh so hard at something he thought of at the dinner table that he just about fell off his chair."