79 pages • 2 hours read
Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake
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Symbols & Motifs
Mirrors
In keeping with Frank Abagnale’s explorations of identity, mirrors (and reflections) have a strong symbolic presence in Catch Me if You Can. The book opens with a scene wherein Abagnale looks at himself in a hotel mirror wearing his Pan Am copilot’s uniform. He reflects that “a man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself” (1). While open to interpretation, this line suggests that Abagnale seeks the ideal aspects of himself in this reflection, even if his outward appearance is that of a false persona.
Chapter Nine offers the reader an interesting inversion of this mirror scene. Herein, Abagnale looks at his reflection for the first time in many months upon his release from the harsh French prison. He is frightened by the dirty, unkempt, and starvation-thinned person he sees in the mirror: “It was a man. It had to be a man, but God in heaven, what manner of man was this? (240). This moment establishes a direct contrast and psychological tension with the opening scene of the book.
Uniforms
Abagnale explains that in his Pan Am uniform (as with the numerous other uniforms he dons), he feels more confidence than he feels in his ordinary street clothes: “There is enchantment in a uniform, especially one that marks the wearer as a person of rare skills, courage, or achievement” (45). Clerks, tellers, stewardesses, and other professionals Abagnale cons all respond strongly to his uniform. Whether they feel attraction, admiration, or implicit trust, individuals assume that a man in uniform is a good person. This assumption allows Abagnale’s scams to go undetected, or at least unsuspected.
Abagnale also more broadly applies the idea of uniforms to the tools used for his scams. Reflecting on his first forged check—a relatively sloppy job—Abagnale imparts that “a thrift store dress is usually taken for high fashion when it’s revealed under a mink coat” (119). Herein, the “mink coat” refers to a standard window envelope, the legitimizing “uniform” of a payroll check.
Identification Cards
Throughout Catch Me if You Can, Abagnale creates numerous fake identification cards using clever strategies and improvised materials (such as the Pan Am logo sticker taken from a toy airplane in a hobby shop). The ease with which Abagnale constructs these false IDs raises questions of the many social arenas which require formal identification. Not only are Abagnale’s false IDs readily accepted, he notes that on many occasions he is never even asked to present an ID.
Interestingly, when explaining his lack of desire to escape from the Swedish prison—an escape that Abagnale believes would have been easy—Abagnale cites that all Swedish citizens are required to have IDs. This detail raises questions of Abagnale’s beneath-the-surface reasoning, as he has successfully forged so many IDs before that point.
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