Holden’s refusal to grow up manifests itself into several events which occur throughout the novel. One such event is Holden’s visit and description of the Museum of Natural History in New York. Holden tells the reader of the symbolic meaning of the museum’s displays: they are frozen and unchanging. He also mentions that he is troubled by the fact that he has changed every time he returns to the museum. The museum represents the world Holden wishes he could live in: a world where nothing ever changes, where everything is simple, understandable, and definite. Holden claims that “The best thing...in the museum was that everything always stayed right where it was.” However, during Holden’s visit there, he becomes all too aware of the changes in the museum, especially the addition of profane graffiti. For Holden, the museum has changed, and this represents the continuation of his downward spiral into insanity. The fact that Holden has returned to a place where he has happy memories as a child only consolidates the fact that Holden wants to remain a child for as long as possible.
As his thoughts about the Museum of Natural History demonstrate, Holden fears change and is overwhelmed by complexity. He wants everything to be easily understandable and eternally fixed, like the statues of Eskimos and Indians in the museum. Instead of acknowledging that adulthood scares and mystifies him, Holden invents a fantasy that adulthood is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy, while childhood is a world of innocence, curiosity, and honesty. His created understandings of childhood and adulthood allow Holden to cut himself off from the world. However, as the book progresses, Holden’s experiences, particularly his encounters with Mr. Antolini and Phoebe, reveal the shallowness of his conceptions.
Holden’s curiosity regarding the ducks in Central Park is another event which symbolises his fear and refusal of change. Holden’s concern as to where the ducks go during the winter reveals a more authentic side to his character. This is such an important event in the novel as Holden does not show curiosity similar to this, in any other aspect of his life. The ducks and their pond are symbolic in several ways. Their mysterious perseverance in the face of an inhospitable environment resonates with Holden’s understanding of his own situation. In addition, the ducks prove that some vanishings are only temporary. Traumatised by his brother Allie’s death, Holden is terrified by the idea of change and disappearance. The ducks vanish every winter, but they return every spring, thus symbolising change that isn’t permanent, but cyclical. Finally, the pond itself becomes a minor metaphor for the world as Holden sees it because it is, to quote Holden, “…partly frozen and partly not frozen.” The pond is in transition between two states, just as Holden is in transition between childhood and adulthood.
Holden resents the adult world and resists entry into it, however he has little choice but to mature. Society and his own body are telling him that it is time for him to change. He is attracted to the some parts of adulthood: alcohol, cigarettes, the idea of sex, and a kind of independence. But he despises the compromises, loss of innocence, absence of integrity, and loss of authenticity in the grown-up world. Holden’s fear of change leads to his resistance to growing up however, by the end of the novel, Holden appears to have matured and evolved somewhat.
Only at the very end of the novel does Holden accept that growing up is something that has to happen. Only at the very end does he stop resisting change – and even this may be a false dawn. This event – which is possibly the most symbolically important event in the entire novel – is when Holden is watching Phoebe on the carousel. This event is important because it is the first time in the novel where Holden appears to accept that growing up is something everyone has to do. As Holden watches Phoebe grabbing for the gold ring, and Holden thinks “…the thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them.” This scene indicates that he sees her as a maturing individual who must be allowed to live her own life and take her own risks. At this point, Holden finally accepts that children have to do this, and adults must let them. This is an indication he no longer believes that he must be their protector.
The gold ring is a game played on carousels where you are supposed to reach for the gold ring as it passes you on your horse. Usually, if you grabbed it, you received a free ride. When Holden concludes that you have to just let a kid reach, even though they might get hurt doing so, he might be admitting that growing up is in fact necessary – for Phoebe and for himself – and that you can't really protect a kid from it, so it's better to just accept it as it is. Holden may or may not have progressed enough, learned enough, and matured enough at the sanatorium to be successful in the future – that we will never know – and Salinger does not give the reader a definitive ‘happy’ ending, which, in my opinion, is for the better. But, as Holden says in the final chapter, “…I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it?”
