Holden needs to hold his horses and be stable: The Holden Horse Hypothesis
I have to confess something to you. Maybe 6 or 7 chapters into Catcher in the Rye , I came under the impression of the Holden Horse Hypothesis. I'm sure many theories have been created during class readings of the book, maybe even about horses, but I'm not sure if anybody jumped to the theory of equestrian lycanthropy as fast as I did. First, some backstory. Horses in relation to Holden were introduced to me the second I saw the book, with a deranged-looking pony soaked in red appearing to prance over a city. I know now that this is obviously a carousel ride drawn in a slightly darker art style, but I was under the impression the pony was getting stabbed with some sort of javelin. That intrigued me. Why a horse on the cover of a book that has barely anything to do with horses? Why was it so scary-looking? Why was there a pole going through it? Then within the 1st page there are direct references to a horse, while Holden is talking about the phony advertising Pencey Pre...