Catcher In The Rye Loss Of Innocence Analysis

Children are Safe in Glass Cases

Much like the social mood in Europe after the Napoleonic wars, the globe after both World Wars I and II was left reeling in the wake of horrors both experienced and committed between 1914 and 1945. Written in the appalled aftermath of World War II, J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, explores the loss of innocence acutely felt by all through Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old boy trying to make the most of three days of freedom. Throughout the book, the downwards spiral of his mental health is as violent and devastating as the planes falling out of the sky in the war, and after reminiscing about his unmarred childhood, the glass cases at the Natural History Museum become symbolic for Holden’s struggle

Holden finds solace in knowing that even if everything else around and inside him changes, he can always return to the museum and find it perfectly as he remembers. To Holden, “[c]ertain things they [sic] should stay as the way they are. [He] ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone” (136), as otherwise, Holden would have to continually reevaluate the world around him, and the world before his brother, Allie, died would slowly disappear. The glass cases in the museum preserve this place for Holden throughout his life, and he uses it as a security blanket both in times of sickness, like when “the kid that was [his] partner the last time got scarlet fever” (135), and in conflict, like when “[he’d] hear [his] mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom”(135). Therefore, Holden’s fascination with the preservation of the museum's exhibits began with his enjoyment of its stability during his childhood and now extends to create his need to maintain the world as he knows it while he struggles with Allie’s death and his own failures in school and towards his