Kanashya

Chapter 13
Holden walks from the nightclub back to the hotel and along the way he acknowledges that he is a coward. This confession results from Holden thinking about his gloves and wondering who stole them at Pencey. Taking the elevator up to his room the elevator operator talks him into hiring a prostitute. When she is there and takes her dress off Holden begins to feel like a coward and backs out. He makes an excuse about an operation on his ‘clavichord’ which is why he can’t have sex. He pays her the five dollars he owes her and asks her to leave. She however, claimed the price was ten but since Holden refuses to pay more she leaves.
The chapter starts with Holden walking back from the nightclub and decides to put on his red hunting hat to protect himself from the wind. Although he says ‘I didn’t give a damn how I looked’, obviously he does care about what other people think of him or he wouldn’t keep trying to convince the reader otherwise. In earlier chapters it was also obvious that others’ opinions of him were important though he continually denied it. We find out that although he is self-conscious it’s clear that the hat provides comfort. Mainly due to the colour of the hat being red and Phoebe and Allie’s hair colour also being red and so the hat in a way personifies his siblings.
Holden calls himself a ‘yellow’ guy, which he describes as those people who do not willingly get into fights. He says this when he wants to pick up a fight with whoever stole his gloves although he would lose. He admits that he wouldn’t mind getting injured but he ‘can’t stand looking at the other guy’s face’. This represents a metaphor for Holden unable to look at the evil in the world. Yet he contradicts himself yet again to say that he may get into a fight to get his gloves back and that maybe he isn’t a yellow guy. But he soon changes his mind once again and confirms his ‘yellowness’. This colour comparison tells us that Holden sees things in a childish way and although considers him above adults, he still has habits of a child.
Sunny, the prostitute, resembles to Holden something he wants and doesn’t simultaneously. He ends up critisising her by thinking to himself how immature she seemed. She ends up with the same thoughts and asks him how old he is. Sunny brings upon Holden the notion of attending for his sexual needs but he refuses. This brings on him once again how he is a yellow guy.
Individual versus society is thoroughly explored in this chapter. This is evident when Holden wants to fight whoever stole his gloves. As explained earlier it shows he cannot look at evil in the world and has his own little sanctuary which is only of innocence. These thoughts normally occur to him when he has the red hunting cap on which distinguishes him from society. Also when Holden calls upon the prostitute and doesn’t do anything, it shows that he is scared to sleep with Sunny and takes the path of refuge only resulting in isolation.