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"Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone" (122)
"'Don't touch anything children'" (120)
Conclusion
Before this quote, he was speaking of his sister. Not only does he not want to change, he doesn't want anyone around him changing.
The Museum represents Holden's hesitation to grow up. He can not handle change, and as a result yearns for the real world to be like the museum associated with his childhood: frozen and never-changing.
Rachelle Crow
Kiyomi Tachibana
Taylor Lavey
Holden finally learns to accept the change that is inevitably ahead of him.
Holden is not afraid to grow up, he is scared to learn the imperfections of the world
"The birds nearest you were all stuffed and hung up on wires, and the ones in back were just painted on the wall, but they all looked like they were really flying south" (121)
"The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. You'd be different, that's all... you'd heard your mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them" (121-122)
The birds parallel Holden's amazement with the central park ducks
The museum symbolizes Holden's fear of the future and the unpredictable change that it brings
Second appearance of the museum
"The best thing though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was... the only thing that would be different would be you" (Salinger 121)