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 Prep school puts out. "They advertise in about a thousand magazines, always showing some hot-shot guy on a horse jumping over a fence. Like as if all you ever did at Pencey was play polo all the time. I never even once saw a horse anywhere near the place." (Salinger 1) 

I thought the emphasis on him never having seen a horse near the place was some kind of foreshadowing, that eventually there would be a horse spotted near Pencey. Of course, this was a completely baseless assumption from a line that would probably never pay off. But I had never heard anything about the plot of this book. I only knew that Holden was probably in a psych ward after the events of the book, and that something drastic would happen to do with mental illness that changed him forever. I thought of all the absurd turns the book could take.

After this mention, there are multiple mentions of him 'horsing around'. When Holden is bothering Stradlater while he's shaving, he says, "Sometimes I horse around quite a lot, just to keep from getting bored." (Salinger 12) A direct parallel to Holden and a horse. He 'horses around' a lot, just to keep himself entertained, maybe a reference to an incident that would happen later in the book. 

The piece of evidence that solidified the Holden Horse Hypothesis in my mind was during his talk with Sally at the ice skating rink. At this point in the book, the story was reaching a midpoint that I took as the calm before the storm, that after Holden's relatively normal date with Sally he would act on his emotions in some way. Of course, he ends up expressing his emotions very clearly on his date. During his little manic monologues at the rink, he says, "'I don't even like old cars. I mean they don't even interest me. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake. A horse you can at least--'" (Salinger 70). A horse is at least human? 

At this time, I had 3 horse theories that I was vaguely entertaining in my mind, ranked in terms of probability that they would actually happen: 

a) Holden's constant desires to run away get to him and he ends up following through on a messy plan to get to some horse place, which ends up with him realizing he needs his family/friends. This theory goes either of two ways: One, he goes out West to be at a horse ranch, and after realizing his mistake, goes to California to find D.B., where he's put in the mental hospital for running away. Or two, he goes to a horse-back-riding place near Pencey, where after realizing he wants to see his friends again, rides a horse back to Pencey, wherein there would finally be a horse near the school. 

This theory is the most likely because it lines up with his constant running-away urge, and also doesn't involve any crazy mental episodes. The next two were always not likely at all to happen, but I couldn't help but think about if  they happened. I was just in "The Short Story" as an English class, and in that class, whatever crazy twist you think couldn't possibly happen at the end of the story happens.

b) Holden would have some sort of vision or hallucination of a horse that pushes him to make a decision. Maybe him seeing the horse makes him realize that he shouldn't be running away, or that he should run away further, or that he needs to go to a hospital. 

c) Holden has an episode in New York where he either thinks he is a horse or he sees himself as being represented by horses. This is the equestrian lycanthropy I was talking about before. I wasn't picturing a clear case of clinical lycanthropy where he genuinely starts acting like a horse, but more so an episode where he thinks of himself as a horse. This would either manifest in him believing he's like a horse because of his innate desire to run away, or in him thinking he would be better off as a horse free from societal restraints. Holden's line "A horse is at least human" mainly prodded my imagination into this theory. 

All of these theories were not true at all, and the horse on the front 'being stabbed with a pole' was really to do with the carousel ride at the end of the book. But, I think personally as long as you don't hold the story to high standards and make it disappoint you, coming up with conspiracy theories while reading novels is part of the fun of it. It helps you to notice small details and think about what the characters mean when they say things. Catcher In The Rye isn't really a book that hinges on one event or twist, but more so a series of things that come together to form a full story. Holden was never going to be a horse or have much to do with horses in the first place. But dammit, you have to admit that front cover drawing is creepy.