Sunday, May 12, 2013

What does "yellow" mean and why does Holden describe himself as "one of those very yellow guys"?

During Chapter 13, Holden admits to readers that he is "yellow". From the content yellow means that he is scared of fights and that he pretends to be tough. The informal definition on dictionary.com is cowardly. Holden describes himself as "yellow" when he is explaining to the reader that his gloves were stolen and that even if he knew who took them, he wouldn't fight for them. Maybe because his parents are rich and can just buy him new ones, but he leads readers to believe that it is because, for all his talk, he does not act. He goes on to tell us how he doesn't mind the fact that he'll get punched, so much as he doesn't want to look at the other person while he punches. Once again Holden shows us his compassion, he would rather be hurt than see the pain on another persons face. While Holden, and many others call this cowardice, I feel that if any one were ever in a dire situation, Holden would do all he could to help them, rather than run away screaming.

2 comments:

  1. On Urban Dictionary, it says "A word meaning a pussy or pacifist."

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