The Museum

As you walk down the road you spot a quaint ice cream shop you used to visit regularly in your childhood. Reminiscences are revealed in your mind and you start traveling down Memory Lane. You are filled with fond recollections of laughing, smiling, and the sweet taste of vanilla. Now you wish to, someway, somehow, travel back to those care-free times. This event happens to Holden Caulfield as he passes by the local museum he visited every Saturday as a child. He knows the interior like a book and would always cherish his visits. His little facts about the museum show of the dreaded road from innocence to experience that he is traveling on.

The Catcher in the Rye has a different take on a common theme from the time period it was written in. Innocence to experience has always had the main character wanting to become experienced and wise, but in this novel it is quite the opposite. Holden Caulfield is afraid of maturity and losing his childhood. In cause, he tries everything to prevent himself from going down that path. In the end this leads him to a tragic fall and is put into an asylum. He sees proof of the starting of his journey while he visits the museum. He sees that his knowledge has grown from the first time he set foot in the beautiful exhibits to the present, and he becomes scared because of this and then goes absolutely insane.

This may happen also with average citizens that are stubborn and unwilling to gain experience. You can fight it, but in the end you will lose more than just your childhood. You must make sure you keep on going with innocence to experience even though you may lose some ecstasy along the way. It is an important part of life and you must not fight, because if you do, you will end up like Holden, in a dark and miserable place.