Critical Analysis Of The Catcher In The Rye

In the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”, Holden is deals with one of the largest obstacles one would ever face in one’s lifetime. He must deal with the concept of development and the idea that he’s growing up, that he’s no longer a child and must accept maturity. This internal struggle is evident in multiple aspects of this novel, particularly highlighted when Holden visits the museum and the carousel at the conclusion of the novel.
Holden loves the museum and feels at peace there considering nothing ever changes; in fact, he stresses that each time he goes back, it looks just as he remembered, and the only thing that’s changed is him. "The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move."
Another poignant example of Holden’s penchant for stagnation is when he sits on the museum steps and two kids ask him for help to find the mummy exhibit. Strangely enough, he is able to find it quickly regardless of the fact that he hadn’t been there in years. The boys are driven away by fear of the dead bodies that hadn’t decayed and Holden is left alone with the preserved corpses. He experiences a moment of peace there, possibly due to the silence and being encompassed by humans whose bodies are frozen in

time, and in a way that comforts him. He must feel as though he, too, is frozen in time, and doesn’t need to face the substantial issue of chronology.
Although he struggles constantly against the concept of the future and adulthood, this conflict is never resolved at the conclusion. When he and Phoebe visit the carousel he “felt so damn happy all of a sudden, the way old Phoebe kept going around and around.” This yet again alludes to his proclivity towards monotony and uniformity and is further supported by his reflection on how lovely it was that carousels always played the same songs. He’s elated at how the carousel never changes and is comforted by the idea of little children circling around and around for eternity, never growing up and dealing with their lives and adulthood.
In a way this causes him to retreat back into the shelter of childhood, living in denial and using alienation as a coping mechanism.

In fact, he’s so conflicted during his mental breakdown it has a physical toll on his body. He gets sick and returns to his parents who thereupon check him into a psychiatric institution, where he recounts this tale. Even at the culmination, while he receives treatment, Caulfield detests the prospect of sophistication and maturation, telling us that he still doesn’t understand anything, still unable to come to terms with his future. “ I mean, how do you know what you’re going to do until you do it? The answer is, you don’t. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it’s a stupid

question.”