Holden's Suitcase

Holden's Suitcase

Pencey Prep was Holden's home for a while and it greatly impacted his life while he was there. He made several friends and he reflects back on his experiences there many times throughout the novel. Although he wasn't exactly there for a long time in the novel due to him getting kicked out, it definitely impacted his life and changed who he is. When he got kicked out and had to live on his own for a while, it was another instance in which he was trying to be independent, as many people do during their transition between childhood and adulthood.

The ducks in the Central Park Lagoon are important in the book. His curiosity about where the ducks go in the winter shows us a youthful, genuinely curious side of Holden. For most of the book is like an old man who is angry at the world and he is just bitter. Seeing the ducks gave him curiosity and it shows us that he is still a curious child who likes mysteries. He isn't as bitter as we or maybe he even thinks he is. The ducks leaving in the winter and coming back is a transition that he is curious about and it can be related to the transition he is going through. He is sort of in between childhood and adulthood.

Radio City was important to him because he went ice skating with Sally Hayes there. He was also dancing with some girls in the Lavender Room who mentioned that they were going there. This bothers him and he says "And that business about getting up early to see the first show at Radio City Music Hall depressed me. If somebody, some girl in an awful-looking hat, for instance, comes all the way to New York--from Seattle, Washington, for God's sake--and ends up getting up early in the morning to see the goddam first show at Radio City Music Hall, it makes me so depressed I can't stand it. I'd've bought the whole three of them a hundred drinks if only they hadn't told me that."

The American Museum of Natural History. This museum appeals to him because of what the exhibits are. The exhibits are things that never change, they stay the same. This appeals to him because it represents a world that he would like to be apart of. One that is unchanging, a simpler world, one that is more understandable and is without unpredictable events and changes. He explains this when he is looking at one of the exhibits, "You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south,

the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be

you"

Holden's red hunting hat is an item that he carries around wherever he goes. It gives him a sense of security and it is his favorite thing to wear. Several times throughout the novel, we see him wearing it and we know it is important to him because he wouldn't have kept it around so long if it wasn't. Nearly everytime it is mentioned, he talks about how he likes to wear it, with the long peak in the back. This $1 hat is now something he can't go anywhere without.

-Ray Charles

An address book is something that the popular Holden Caulfield would need to have in order to keep track of the girls he likes. As well as his good friends that he wants to keep in touch with. When he has moments of lonliness and wants to call or spend time with people, he consults his address book. The address book is important to him because without it, he is essentially alone because he has no one to contact.

This baseball glove is incredibly important to Holden because it belonged to his brother Allie who died from Leukemia at a young age. Caulfield mentions that he "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." Holden cared a lot for his brother and whenever he thinks about Allie, he gets really depressed and angry about his death. We know that Allie's death really hurt Holden because the night Allie died, Holden went to the hospital because he broke all the windows in his garage during a fit of anger and sadness.