Cosmic’s Comments (group member since Jan 17, 2014)

Cosmic’s comments from the Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye group.

I just read "A Perfect Day For Banana Fish".

I looked up "banana war" and found this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banan...

I think this quote is relevant to our discussion about The Catcher in the Rye:

Perhaps the single most active military officer in the Banana Wars was U.S. Marine Corps Major General, Smedley Butler, who saw action in Honduras in 1903, served in Nicaragua enforcing American policy from 1909–1912, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in Veracruz in 1914, and a second Medal of Honor for bravery while "crush(ing) the Caco resistance" in Haiti in 1915. In 1935, Butler wrote in his famous book War Is a Racket:

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Also see:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

How about Salinger's own books as literary references:


"Last Day of the Last Furlough" is a short story written by American writer J. D. Salinger in 1944 and published in the July 15th issue of Saturday Evening Post.[1] It covers the last days of furlough for Babe Gladwaller before he is shipped off to World War II.

"Babe spends most of the time with his little sister, Mattie, until his fellow soldier Vincent Caulfield comes over to spend the evening with them before departing in the morning. In this story, Vincent announces his brother Holden has been reported Missing in Action. Babe and Mattie's relationship mirrors the future relationship between Holden and Phoebe in The Catcher in the Rye.

I found this article in the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/cu...

I think it is interesting that he took 6 chapters of the Catcher with him to d-day.


"That rejection appeared to drive his writing as he started work on The Catcher in the Rye and according to some reports he carried six chapters of the unfinished book with him during the D-Day operations.

"But the war also dragged him down with what would now be diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “I dig my foxholes down to a cowardly depth,” he wrote in one letter to a friend."


Also this really points to the fact that The Catcher is about WW2 and war in general:

(I quote)
....following the screening, Mr Salerno, a Salinger aficionado who has also been working on a sequel to the blockbuster movie Avatar in his “day job”, discussed the challenges of researching such a secretive individual.
“Salinger was the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life,” he said. “It consumed ten years. Having people speak for the first time was a huge challenge… doors just slammed in your face for the first couple of years, but I was very grateful to finally have people come forward and share their stories.”
He also spoke at length about Salinger’s PTSD. “World War II really was the transformative trauma of JD Salinger’s life,” he said. “It made him as an artist, but it broke him as a man. He was living with PTSD throughout his life. This is something that we believe in very strongly.

“I do think that that is an area that is not associated with Salinger—that shell-shocked tone is directly from his experiences in WWII, and it really is the ghost in the machine of all his stories. When you re-read the work with that in mind, you even realize that The Catcher in the Rye is a disguised war novel.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_L...

In the unpublished short story of Salinger we see that war was the subject of the Catcher in The Rye. This short story has a lot of the same elements and even Holden himself in it.

I believe this short story makes a good case for the argument that The Catcher in the Rye is about war not teenage angst.

"The story centers on a conversation between Vincent Caulfield and his mother. His mother, an actress named Mary Moriarity, has hidden his draft survey. He finds it in the utensil drawer, and becomes angry at her for hiding it. As the conversation goes on, it is apparent his mother is just looking after his best interest. Her other son, Kenneth, was killed in the war and she wants to prevent this from happening again. Another sibling, a teenage boy named Holden, is mentioned. Interestingly, Vincent references his baseball mitt that is covered in poetry, similar to that of Allie in The Catcher in the Rye.[2] At the close of the story, Vincent understands his mother's concern, but feels sorry for her solicitous behavior, and expresses depression over the fact she worries so much, particularly over kids who are about to fall off a cliff."


I found lut about this book from reading J.D. Salinger: A Life Raised High

I have been reading J.D. Salinger: A Life

This is the first book that I have read about him. I have learned a few things that were interesting. Like how Salinger's mother used to send him news articles of different Hollywood stars. Or that he went to Poland before the war and worked in a pig butchering plant. Or that he signed up for the army but had a heart condition. The second time he signed up he answered that he was a "carpenter for the railroad, and that he only finished gramar school" he was drafted two weeks later.

What I don't like about this book is the author's commetary spin. He says that the first time he signed up was out of frustration and the second time was "patriotic". That doesn't make any sense...and this is how you can tell a "moron". They don't want to discuss anything they just want to state things the way that they wish things to appear. Much like the media.

The first time he signed up he had a heart condition that didn't make him ineligiboe but it did lower his odds of getting in. Maybe he already knew this and thought that would help him to avoid being drafted.

If he were so patriotic he wouldn't have signed up for the draft when the rules changed. He would have just signed up for service.

They want to paint Salinger in a particular light so when you read The Catcher you are smoke screened by a particular bias. I don't think Salinger every liked war. I don't think any reasonable person that loves their family can be for blowing up other peoples' mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters...without a media champaign to Con-vince you.

“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

When have you found this be true for you?

How do you think this was true for Salinger?

Personally when I have told people the truth about something they were not ready to accept i have found myself alienated. Learning so much about WW2 from TCITR I can certainly see why Salinger lived a lonely life. How can you have a meaningful conversation pretending nothing happened but just what and the way you imagined it to be. How do you pretend all the people that you knew that lost their life for all the people that you knew that made money off those lives...just didn't matter? And how do you remain human in light of war?

People are always at war with the truth. And truth is said to be the first victim of war.

One of the things i normally do when studying something about the Catcher is too look up the word and WW2. It doesn't always work but surprisingly it does most of the time. So this morning i decided to do that with "good luck" and i found this interesting reference:

The Good Luck flag.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_...

D.B. = noise

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwar...

Hollywood was just noise for the corporation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C...

https://m.youtube.com/#/playlist?list...

It was the corporations (General Motors and Standard Oil etc) that were going to make a lot of money off the war.

So Db is how we measure sound levels.

There are 13 luck(y) in TCITR.

One of the first is from Mr. Spencer:


"After I shut the door and started back to the living room, he yelled something at me, but I couldn't exactly hear him.
I'm pretty sure he yelled "Good luck!" at me, I hope to hell not.
I'd never yell "Good luck!" at anybody. It sounds terrible, when you think about it. "

When you think about it you usually say good luck when there is some kind of risk. Such as in a game. Holden and Spencer just got through talking about that here:


"What'd he say to you?" "Oh. . . well, about Life being a game and all. And how you should play it according to the rules. He was pretty nice about it. I mean he didn't hit the ceiling or anything. He just kept talking about Life being a game and all. You know." "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." "Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it." Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right--I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game. "

He then asked for some vial to pour it into, and as there was not one in the inn, he decided on putting it into a tin oil-bottle or flask of which the host made him a free gift; and over the flask he repeated more than eighty paternosters and as many more ave-marias, salves, and credos, accompanying each word with a cross by way of benediction, at all which there were present Sancho, the innkeeper, and the cuadrillero; for the carrier was now peacefully engaged in attending to the comfort of his mules.

This being accomplished, he felt anxious to make trial himself, on the spot, of the virtue of this precious balsam, as he considered it, and so he drank near a quart of what could not be put into the flask and remained in the pigskin in which it had been boiled; but scarcely had he done drinking when he began to vomit in such a way that nothing was left in his stomach, and with the pangs and spasms of vomiting he broke into a profuse sweat, on account of which he bade them cover him up and leave him alone. They did so, and he lay sleeping more than three hours, at the end of which he awoke and felt very great bodily relief and so much ease from his bruises that he thought himself quite cured, and verily believed he had hit upon the balsam of Fierabras; and that with this remedy he might thenceforward, without any fear, face any kind of destruction, battle, or combat, however perilous it might be.

Sancho Panza, who also regarded the amendment of his master as miraculous, begged him to give him what was left in the pigskin, which was no small quantity. Don Quixote consented, and he, taking it with both hands, in good faith and with a better will, gulped down and drained off very little less than his master. But the fact is, that the stomach of poor Sancho was of necessity not so delicate as that of his master, and so, before vomiting, he was seized with such gripings and retchings, and such sweats and faintness, that verily and truly be believed his last hour had come, and finding himself so racked and tormented he cursed the balsam and the thief that had given it to him.

Don Quixote seeing him in this state said, "It is my belief, Sancho, that this mischief comes of thy not being dubbed a knight, for I am persuaded this liquor cannot be good for those who are not so." "If your worship knew that," returned Sancho—"woe betide me and all my kindred!—why did you let me taste it?" At this moment the draught took effect, and the poor squire began to discharge both ways at such a rate that the rush mat on which he had thrown himself and the canvas blanket he had covering him were fit for nothing afterwards. He sweated and perspired with such paroxysms and convulsions that not only he himself but all present thought his end had come. This tempest and tribulation lasted about two hours, at the end of which he was left, not like his master, but so weak and exhausted that he could not stand.

Don Quixote, however, who, as has been said, felt himself relieved and well, was eager to take his departure at once in quest of adventures, as it seemed to him that all the time he loitered there was a fraud upon the world and those in it who stood in need of his help and protection, all the more when he had the security and confidence his balsam afforded him; and so, urged by this impulse, he saddled Rocinante himself and put the pack-saddle on his squire's beast, whom likewise he helped to dress and mount the ass; after which he mounted his horse and turning to a corner of the inn he laid hold of a pike that stood there, to serve him by way of a lance.

I have been reading Don QuixoteDon Quixote this month. Of course Salinger would have read this. But maybe he wouldn't full grasp the meaning of it till WW2.

This very funny tale is about a man that renames himself Don Quixote. He begins with a title or a character and then he begins acting the part of a knight-irritant. He has done all this because he has started to BELIEVE what he had been reading in the chivalry literature. It was his favorite thing to read. He had a whole library full of these kinds of books.

Over and over they talk about his "madness" and how he has gone mad.

I have been listening to Professor Roberto González Echevarría

"Don Quixote translates everything that reminds him of the world or romances of chivalry into their language. His arguments with Sancho and others about the nature of the real are one of the sources of humor in the novel, of course. Here, Cervantes displays his own gift for linguistic invention and parody. The names of the knights involved are hilarious, as is his description of the imaginary battle, has a mock epic quality. Don Quixote, hurt by stones whose names, almonds, they're called at one point, understate their ability to hurt, lose its teeth, as he had before lost part of an ear. These are the scars of time on his body that I have mentioned before. His body has diminished as the work progresses, contributing to his sorry appearance and leading to the name that Sancho gives him in the next episode. Notice that Don Quixote kills several sheep and that he has, again, been involved in a fight. Hence, he has committed crimes that come under the jurisdiction of the Holy Brotherhood, so besides the disputes about the real and the parody of the romances of chivalry it must be noted that Don Quixote and Sancho are criminals who are fugitives from justice."

Here is the reference to vomit:

" Now, I want you to — I'm sure you did — that Don Quixote and Sancho vomit on each other, here. And I want to ponder about this little episode. We already saw the purging involved in the character's evacuations, but here, I believe, that there is another suggestion. I was going to read you that passage, but the time is short, but I'm sure you remember it. Vomiting here and in the inn suggest the existence of a concretely repulsive language of pure meanings. The mouth, amidst concrete, it's a language whose effect is repulsion, mutual repulsion, but that is never a form of communication. One vomit elicits — that it is nevertheless, a form of communication — one vomit elicits the other. It is in this sense a pure language, an ironic fusion of words and things. If you think that words merely reflect reality, vomit is reality itself expressed as words, this is what I'm trying to say. Vomit contains objects, not signs, and produces bodily effects as when, in the case in the next episode, when Don Quixote smells Sancho's feces, another expression on the part of Sancho, and he asks him to move away. This consideration of language dovetails with all of the meditations about language and literature that are in the book, and it is very appropriate. I think that it should occur in an episode, where there is such a marvelous display of literary language in the description of these battles and all of these knights. So we have that literary language, and then, this concrete language of vomit, when they express each other in such a way."

http://oyc.yale.edu/spanish-and-portu...

Do you know other classic books that use vomit to convey a message? If so please comment.

Also i think it is interesting how this professor studies Don Quixote, because it is the way I am trying to study The Catcher In The Rye.

I wonder if anyone has purchased the notes from Harold Bloom on the Catcher In The Rye?

I am reading Don Quixote.
I am also listening to http://oyc.yale.edu/spanish-and-portu...
Since there are many references to horses i thought this was relevant, because it makes the case that the horse represents war:

"Well, William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings, the invasion of England by the French, and all of that which you learned in elementary school or high school, and the fact that French is one of these sources of modern English. But the horse was more than just a form of transportation. It was an instrument of warfare, a prized possession with each having a sonorous name if at all possible. The horse was part of the knight's identity; hence, the whole business about naming his horse at the beginning of the Quixote — now you understand that. Part of the culture of horses was a kind of courtesy, so we have in English also 'chivalrous,' for instance. Horses have always spawned a whole culture of their own and have left a large imprint on languages because they were the principle mode of transportation until part of the twentieth century, you can imagine. So technically, etymologically 'chivalric romance' is a horse romance or, more appropriately, romances about horsemen. In Spanish the etymology is clearer as the romances of chivalry are simply called 'novelas de caballerías' and 'caballo' is the word for horse in Spanish."

Maybe there are other classics that we can add here to expand on the symbol of horse.

William Rockefeller sold lies. He was a conman.

The Radio City Music Hall was also selling something....


http://www.illuminati-news.com/2007/0...
The history of the Rockefeller family began, not with Standard Oil and not with honor, but with a con man, womanizer and a thief. Various authors note that the Rockefeller "oil" beginnings were not solely from "crude oil." John D. Rockefeller Seniors father, , "Big Bill," was a traveling salesman who advertised himself as a "William Rockefeller, the Celebrated Cancer Specialist" and who hawked "herbal remedies" and other bottled medicines." He guaranteed "All Cases of Cancer Cured Unless They Are Too Far Gone". Those claims allowed him to charge $25 for his magic cancer, which he retailed for $25 a bottle, a sum then equivalent to two month's wages. The "cure" survived until quite recently as Nujol, consisting principally of petroleum and peddled as a laxative. Nujol was manufactured by a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, called Stanco, whose only other product, manufactured on the same premises, was the famous insecticide, Flit. [1]

"William posed as the town’s peddler that sold cheap novelties with a small board with the words "I am deaf and dumb" chalked across it, tied by a string to his shirt. Big Bill can be described as a faker that lived-off scamming from others, posing as mentally challenged" [2].

William Avery Rockefeller was a con-man. What did his son learn from him? Lives are not important, money is.

What do you think that the Radio City Music Hall was selling that Salinger would write:

"They were so ignorant, and they had those sad, fancy hats on and all. 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,

Hats in the Catcher when looking at the book from the point of view of an allegory on war are hunter...or soildiers.

I couldn't have said it better! Not only did he wish to hide but he had to tell...without destroying himself or those he loved. Salinger was the prostitute for Hollywood...but he knew, because of his privileged education and circle of friends (at Valley Forge Academy and beyond) that the war was a charade. A shell game for people to hide the true cause of the war while they focused on the man Hitler. Seems every war must have a face. But without money, and lots of it, there could beno wars. A license to steal. War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier...

I never really cared about studying war. I thought that was a man's area of interest. I was interested in kids and education. This is why i read TCITR. A friend heard my huge complaint about how i hated school and suggested that i read it. It didn't really say anything very profound to me about school and i was disappointed.

Here is an article that has resonated with me on that subject....just throwing this out there even though it is off topic, it is something i care about.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisf...

So i have been reading Self-Reliance: The Wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson as Inspiration for Daily Living

On page 51 it reads:
"Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened; then we behold them, and the time when we saw them is like a dream."

"...You have observed a skillful man reading Virgil. Well, that author is a thousand books to a thousand persons. Take the book into your two hands, and read your eyes out; you will never find what I find."

So is with The Catcher in the Rye.

Open your eyes!

"What I'd do, I figured, I'd go down to the Holland Tunnel and bum a ride, and then I'd bum another one, and another one, and another one, and in a few days I'd be somewhere out West where it was very pretty and sunny and where nobody'd know me and I'd get a job. I figured I could get a job at a filling station somewhere, putting gas and oil in people's cars. I didn't care what kind of job it was, though. Just so people didn't know me and I didn't know anybody. I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life. Everybody'd think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and they'd leave me alone. They'd let me put gas and oil in their stupid cars, and they'd pay me a salary and all for it, ..."

I was reading about Rockefeller. The one that made the Radio City Music Hall. When i came across a fact about his father.

http://www.illuminati-news.com/2007/0...
The history of the Rockefeller family began, not with Standard Oil and not with honor, but with a con man, womanizer and a thief. Various authors note that the Rockefeller "oil" beginnings were not solely from "crude oil." John D. Rockefeller Seniors father, , "Big Bill," was a traveling salesman who advertised himself as a "William Rockefeller, the Celebrated Cancer Specialist" and who hawked "herbal remedies" and other bottled medicines." He guaranteed "All Cases of Cancer Cured Unless They Are Too Far Gone". Those claims allowed him to charge $25 for his magic cancer, which he retailed for $25 a bottle, a sum then equivalent to two month's wages. The "cure" survived until quite recently as Nujol, consisting principally of petroleum and peddled as a laxative. Nujol was manufactured by a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, called Stanco, whose only other product, manufactured on the same premises, was the famous insecticide, Flit. [1]

"William posed as the town’s peddler that sold cheap novelties with a small board with the words "I am deaf and dumb" chalked across it, tied by a string to his shirt. Big Bill can be described as a faker that lived-off scamming from others, posing as mentally challenged" [2].

"He fled from a number of indictments for horse stealing, eventually disappearing altogether as William Rockefeller and magically re-emerging as a Dr. William Levingston of Philadelphia, a name which he retained for the rest of his life. An investigative reporter at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World received a tip that was followed up. The World then disclosed that William Avery Rockefeller had died May 11, 1906 in Freeport, Illinois, where he was interred in an unmarked grave as Dr. William Levingston." [3] He married Eliza Davison in 1837, and shortly thereafter brought Nancy Brown home, as a "housekeeper" who became an alternate lover and who also bore his children. [4]"



I was reading about Rockefeller. The one that made the Radio City Music Hall. When i came across a fact about his father.

http://www.illuminati-news.com/2007/0...
The history of the Rockefeller family began, not with Standard Oil and not with honor, but with a con man, womanizer and a thief. Various authors note that the Rockefeller "oil" beginnings were not solely from "crude oil." John D. Rockefeller Seniors father, , "Big Bill," was a traveling salesman who advertised himself as a "William Rockefeller, the Celebrated Cancer Specialist" and who hawked "herbal remedies" and other bottled medicines." He guaranteed "All Cases of Cancer Cured Unless They Are Too Far Gone". Those claims allowed him to charge $25 for his magic cancer, which he retailed for $25 a bottle, a sum then equivalent to two month's wages. The "cure" survived until quite recently as Nujol, consisting principally of petroleum and peddled as a laxative. Nujol was manufactured by a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, called Stanco, whose only other product, manufactured on the same premises, was the famous insecticide, Flit. [1]

"William posed as the town’s peddler that sold cheap novelties with a small board with the words "I am deaf and dumb" chalked across it, tied by a string to his shirt. Big Bill can be described as a faker that lived-off scamming from others, posing as mentally challenged" [2].

"He fled from a number of indictments for horse stealing, eventually disappearing altogether as William Rockefeller and magically re-emerging as a Dr. William Levingston of Philadelphia, a name which he retained for the rest of his life. An investigative reporter at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World received a tip that was followed up. The World then disclosed that William Avery Rockefeller had died May 11, 1906 in Freeport, Illinois, where he was interred in an unmarked grave as Dr. William Levingston." [3] He married Eliza Davison in 1837, and shortly thereafter brought Nancy Brown home, as a "housekeeper" who became an alternate lover and who also bore his children. [4]

"What I'd do, I figured, I'd go down to the Holland Tunnel and bum a ride, and then I'd bum another one, and another one, and another one, and in a few days I'd be somewhere out West where it was very pretty and sunny and where nobody'd know me and I'd get a job. I figured I could get a job at a filling station somewhere, putting gasand oil in people's cars. I didn't care what kind of job it was, though. Just so people didn't know me and I didn't know anybody. I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life. Everybody'd think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and they'd leave me alone. They'd let me put gas and oil in their stupid cars, and they'd pay me a salary and all for it, ..."

I was reading about Rockefeller. The one that made the Radio City Music Hall. When i came across a fact about his father.

http://www.illuminati-news.com/2007/0...
The history of the Rockefeller family began, not with Standard Oil and not with honor, but with a con man, womanizer and a thief. Various authors note that the Rockefeller "oil" beginnings were not solely from "crude oil." John D. Rockefeller Seniors father, , "Big Bill," was a traveling salesman who advertised himself as a "William Rockefeller, the Celebrated Cancer Specialist" and who hawked "herbal remedies" and other bottled medicines." He guaranteed "All Cases of Cancer Cured Unless They Are Too Far Gone". Those claims allowed him to charge $25 for his magic cancer, which he retailed for $25 a bottle, a sum then equivalent to two month's wages. The "cure" survived until quite recently as Nujol, consisting principally of petroleum and peddled as a laxative. Nujol was manufactured by a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, called Stanco, whose only other product, manufactured on the same premises, was the famous insecticide, Flit. [1]

"William posed as the town’s peddler that sold cheap novelties with a small board with the words "I am deaf and dumb" chalked across it, tied by a string to his shirt. Big Bill can be described as a faker that lived-off scamming from others, posing as mentally challenged" [2].

"He fled from a number of indictments for horse stealing, eventually disappearing altogether as William Rockefeller and magically re-emerging as a Dr. William Levingston of Philadelphia, a name which he retained for the rest of his life. An investigative reporter at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World received a tip that was followed up. The World then disclosed that William Avery Rockefeller had died May 11, 1906 in Freeport, Illinois, where he was interred in an unmarked grave as Dr. William Levingston." [3] He married Eliza Davison in 1837, and shortly thereafter brought Nancy Brown home, as a "housekeeper" who became an alternate lover and who also bore his children. [4]

William Avery Rockefeller was a con-man. What did his son learn from him? Lives are not important, money is.

What do you think that the Radio City Music Hall was selling that Salinger would write:

"They were so ignorant, and they had those sad, fancy hats on and all. 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,

Hats in the Catcher when looking at the book from the point of view of an allegory on war are hunter...or soildiers.
See:

Girls are those that are not privileged like those in Pency Prep.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K1AB62C...

Interesting because he built RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL before in 1930. He was probably one of the secret financiers that financed Germany in the 20's so they could build theaters and stadiums. Certainly he benefited greatly from the war.War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier.

When we think of ignorant and niave that is different from the word "moron" as Holden defined it. "Someone who never wants to discuss anything."

Would like to hear your thoughts on this? After reading my different post has it allowed you to see the possibility of an allegory about war and that he felt betrayed by his education and his country when he was at the concentration camps because those caualties were at the expence of some land and inustry and intellectual technology grabbers. Robber Barons Indeed.

Holden Caulfield - Hold-ing. Caul - a veil that was supposed to bring luck and keep it's possessor from drowning.

In the stock market you want to floating sink.

Holden held Phoebe -Feeble's money.

He gave her her money so she could get on a carousel that looks like a roulette wheel. The wheel of fortune, plays the song "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". It is a confidence song. The market is a confidence game.

When there is a storm...everyone but Holden runs to the bank...I mean the stock market. But Holden just puts on the "people hunting hat". He laughs because he is going to make a killing in the war.

He has a Jaguar.

While the jaguar often employs the deep throat-bite and suffocation technique typical among Panthera, it sometimes uses a killing method unique amongst cats: it pierces directly through the temporal bones of the skull between the ears of prey (especially the capybara) with its canine teeth, piercing the brain.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar...

So he is driving something that can make you lose your head.

The book has so many references and that it resembles an allegory.

The names in the story give it away that something is hidden and that if you possess this truth you might be "saved", thus the name The Catcher In The Rye (Rhine, or the three power of axis, where they grow rye)...

Holden is the name of a car/company in Australia, bought by GM in the depression, to make war supplies.

Caulfield read the first page in David Copperfield

Titchner...when Holden is trying to get a good goodbye.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

As well as Zambezi name when Holden wants quite "good goodbye" and in the The Thirty-Nine Steps
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

D.B. = Deschutes Bank

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockd...


Jaguar top of the food chain and "an English job"
The "madman" Hitler..."years"
Christmas time (when we entered the war)
Allie = allies
Stradlater Strad-later. Violin later. He, Holden wanted to "play" the prostitute because it was supposed to be like playing a violin. America helps Germany build industry and then enters the war strategically at the end
Selma (a Masonic Lodge in North Carolina that lays the corner stone for the lodge in Alexandria, Virginia where we built our military complex. It was laid in 1922 and the lodge is Lodge 22.
Thurmer the first phony listed. It is the name of a chisel that "molds"....in the Masonic tradition.
Spencer - coined the phrase "survival of the fittest". He is the History Teacher because history repeats itself.
Ackley a reference to Romeo and Juliet. A reference to the priest that marries and then gives a poison to Juliet. So the church is used ....look at Holden's take on Romeo and Juliet. Also look at The Return of the Native Holden says he likes the least likeable character.
Ducks....was a slang name forhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUKW
Also made by GM
Ed Bank-y drives a Buick also made by GM
ED CONSOLIDATED EDISON INC http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/stockd...

Which he lets Stradlater who plays on the "god damn football team" football was a simulation of war. It is about propelling the ball in a guarded territory in order to take advantage of the other teams position or acquiring land (yardage).

Jane - a military supply catalog.
Phoebe - feeble. She get on a beaten up old horse and goes around and around and when there is a financial crisis Holden puts on his hat (its a people shooting hat, l shoot people). A reference to the book that every one would have read that Salinger was writing to because it is a children's classic allegory called Bambi
Read the History of this book and story line and you will see this "isn't your Disney movie book". Banned by Hitler.

I found another movie that Holden mentions. It is on page 120. Holden talks about Miss Aigletinger taking them to the Natural History Museum. "Usually we went to see some movie in the big auditorium. Columbus."

Why do you think he mentions him?