Safe and Sound

Safe and Sound Take a minute to think about one thing from your childhood you still have an endless love for. How does it make you feel? Happy? Joyful? Safe? For Holden Caulfield, the exhibits in the Natural History museum are what make him feel safe. The museum scene in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, shows how someone changes throughout life, but memories remain the same and stick with us forever. There are some things in life that change, like our hair or clothes, and other things that remain the same, like the memories we have created throughout life. Holden says: “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was… Nobody’d be different. The only thing different would be you.” (121) What Holden is saying, is that one changes throughout life. As one grows older they change their hair, their style, who they hang out with and even how they act. No matter how many changes one goes through, like the memories of a bad bowl cut, wearing overalls, going through an emo or hippie stage and being best friends with someone who won’t even talk to you now, the memories will always be the same. When I was younger I had bangs, wore ponchos, and had a best friend named Bailey. Now I am almost eighteen-years-old with long hair, living in sweatpants, and the girl who was once my best friend is just someone I just pass in the hallway. I had some of the best memories with her and thinking back to them, then fast forwarding to where we are now depresses me. I can relate to when Holden exclaims some things he reminisces on depress him. The memories we have throughout life are like the exhibits in the museum. They remain the same, but a person changes on the outside world beyond the glass of the exhibit. The glass-framed exhibits in the Natural History museum are like a safe spot for Holden. When Holden exclaims that in the museum, everything remained the same. “The only thing that would be different was you.” (121)