Friday, January 6, 2012

What does the green dress the prositute wears symbolizes?

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden
Caufield can't bring himself to have sex with Sunny because he imagines her going into a
store and buying a green dress without anyone realizing she's a prostitute.  In this
way, Holden sees her as a human, with emotional depth, instead of an object for
pleasure.


Sunny's dress is green because she should
symbolize youth, spring, fertility, inexperience.  Because she's a prostitute, she
doesn't, but Holden (green himself) sees her in this
way.


Young soldiers are considered green (untested) until
they've experienced combat.  In the same way, Holden is considered sexually
inexperienced.  He has yet to cross this threshold into
manhood.


Sunny's a kid, like Holden.  Holden has problems
communicating with girls his own age and older.  He feels he has to lie to them in order
for them to like him.   It is only with girls younger than him, like Phoebe and Jane
(when she was younger), that he understands.  Why?  Because they're
green--uncorrupted.


So, her dress is green because he wants
her to be green--a virgin.  He wants to talk to her instead of have sex.  He is in
denial of who she really is.  Maybe her dress was red or black, symbolic of lust and
death, but Holden sees her through rose-colored glasses and chooses green instead.  Just
as he idealizes the younger Jane and is denial of the sexually active Jane who dates
Stradlater, Holden wants Sunny to be like his sister Phoebe instead of the girls in the
Lavender room and the hotel.

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