Going to all these locations was a huge eye-opener for me, as was reading the book. Now, in my everyday life, I look around and without realizing it, connect what I see to The Catcher in the Rye.
This has most definitely been the best book I’ve read in English. Ever.
-Ella
All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. 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.
A video of shots of both the exhibits that resembled the one’s Holden described seeing on his trips to the museum, and children I saw at the museum. The song is “When I Was a Young Girl (VV Mix)” by Feist.
“You had to go through the Indian Room to get to the auditorium…You’d pass by this long, long Indian war canoe, about as long as three goddam Cadillacs in a row, with about twenty Indians in it, some of them paddling, some of them just standing around looking tough, and they all had war paint all over their faces…Then you’d pass by this big glass case, with Indians inside it rubbing sticks together to make a fire, and a squaw weaving a blanket. The squaw that was weaving the blanket was sort of bending over, and you could see her bosom and all…then, just before you went inside the auditorium, right near the doors, you passed this Eskimo. He was sitting over a hole in this icy lake, and he was fishing through it. He had about two fish right next to the hole, that he’d already caught. Boy, that museum was full of glass cases.”
The Museum of Natural History
The Museum of Natural History was my second Holden location.
“I get very happy when I think about it. Even now. I remember we looked at all the Indian stuff, usually we went to see some movie in this big auditorium…It always smelled like it was raining outside, even if it wasn’t and you were in the only nice, dry, cosy place in the world. I loved that damn museum. I remember you had to go through the Indian Room to get to the auditorium”
Going to the museum was different than my other two locations, because I still go there all the time with my family or on school trips. Still, the experience was much different than it is when I go there on a weekend or with a school group, because I was looking for completely different things and with a different state of mind.
“Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you”
Up until today, I always believed that adults and more mature minds appreciated art and history more than younger children—it had always come across that way by media and culture, and in some ways I had felt the same way.
After going to the Museum of Natural History today with my mom, my opinion on that matter has changed. I’m not saying that children appreciate art much more than adults do, but I think there’s more to the situation than just “Kids find it boring and adults find it intriguing”.
Although it’s true that there were exhibits that even I found boring, I noticed that when all the children at the museum found something interesting, they really found it interesting. They would read the description (or have a parent read it for them) and observe it for a while. This made me realize that children are very true to themselves and know when they see something they like.
At the same time, some adults seemed like they were either trying to seem interested in everything, either to impress the people they were with or just seem wise and thoughtful to everyone around them.
Others just seemed totally uninterested in what the museum was really about, and spent all their time taking photographs of them making peace-signs with their fingers in front of the dinosaurs, or posing their sock monkey with all the animals (I actually did see a group do that).
Although I’m sure there were more than a few adults who came to the museum to see the exhibits, the majority only seemed to be going there because it was a popular tourist attraction, not because they were interested. I even saw one couple come into the museum, pose for a few photos in front of the big elephant display in the Hall of African Mammals, and then sit down and text friends on their phones. I’m sure they’re very nice people, but why come to such a fantastic museum if all you care about is proving you were there?
The answer is society. Of course you can’t come to New York without visiting the Natural History Museum! Many people have stopped coming because they’re interested in what the museum has to offer, and only because their friends back home are expecting them to tell all about the exhibits they “saw”.
Now, I may be being a bit harsh on the tourists who visit the museums. I’m sure they really do all honestly want to go see the exhibits. At the same time, it feels like we’ve been brought up in such a way that the “of course we’re going to the Natural History Museum, silly! How could we not?” mind set is engraved into our minds. People wouldn’t conscientiously think that their friends would judge them if they didn’t go—they just think of it as the norm. We all think of it as the norm.
It isn’t just one person’s fault—we’ve all been brought up in such a way that to us, this is just part of everyday life. In reality, it’s society’s fault. And unless we cut someone out of society, we will never bring them up without influences and others’ concepts of “right” and “wrong”.
This is the real reason why children are so pure and honest. Although they are slowly becoming exposed and therefor eroded by society, they haven’t been around long enough to have all their opinions fully influenced by their parents, their friends, the TV, the media, and every other thing our culture puts in front of children, teens, and adults alike.
Overall, going to this museum was in some ways one of the richest of the three locations I’ve visited over the past two weeks.
“Young Folks”, by Peter Bjorn and John.
Also in the Rockefeller Center Video
“Kids”, by MGMT, is a song about, well, kids. It’s also a really good song!
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center was one of two Holden locations.
After visiting the 3rd Street playground, my dad and I took a train into the city. Standing over the rink with the tourists, I observed the skaters with Holden in mind.
Although skating is very hard, and everyone falls sometimes, it surprised me how much adults fell (as well as children).
Even though Holden views the rink as a place that enhances phoniness, to me it brought out the purity of the situation.
On solid ground, adults are labeled “better” at everything, while children aren’t supposed to be good—but on ice, age doesn’t make a difference, and it’s all about skill. Although some children fell, I also saw teens and adults fall too. For once, it didn’t matter if you had money or who your parents were or where you lived or what your school was like—it just depended on if you could skate or not.
“The funny party was, though, we were the worst skaters on the whole goddam rink. I mean the worst. And there were some lulus too. Old Sally’s ankles kept bending in till they were practically on the ice. They not only looked stupid as hell, but they probably hurt like hell, too. I know mine did. Mine were killing me. We must’ve looked gorgeous. And what made it worse, there were at least a couple of hundred rubbernecks that didn’t have anything better to do than stand around and watch everybody falling all over themselves.”
Those I was one of those “rubberneckers”, and I really was looking out for people falling so I could film them. (See video).
I saw a lot of kids fall, a lot of teens fall, and one or two adults fall (I couldn’t get them on film though). There were also a few adults showing off by dancing (which I did manage to get on film). So even though skating humbled some adults, it didn’t subdue all of them. There were still those adults that could skate, and they knew they could skate, too.
“Ernie was playing the piano. It was supposed to be something holy, for God’s sake, when he sat down at the piano. Nobody’s that good…He had a big damn mirror in front of he piano, with this big spotlight on him, so that everybody could watch his face while he played. You couldn’t see his fingers while he played—just his big old face. Big deal. I’m not too sure what the name of the song was that he was playing when I came in, but whatever it was, he was really stinking it up. He was putting all these dumb, show-offy ripples in the high notes, and a lot of other very tricky stuff that gives me a pain in the ass...When he was finished, and everybody was clapping their heads off, old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very phony, humble bow. Like as if he was a helluva humble guy, besides being a terrific piano player. It was very phony—I mean him being such a big snob and all. in a funny way, though, I felt sort of sorry for him when he was finished. I don’t even think he knows any more when he’s playing right or not. It isn’t all his fault. I partly blame all those dopes that clap their heads off—they’d foul up anybody, if you gave them a chance.”
The ice skating rink was a mixed bag. It both made children and adults equal, but it also heightened some adults pride and “show-offy”-ness, as Holden would say.
I definitely enjoyed coming to the rink, and wish that I could have stayed for another session of skating. Luckily, I did manage to get a few photographs of the Zamboni and some tourists, which are also posted. Check them out!
This video, mostly of people falling, was filmed at Rockefeller Center. There were a lot of tourists there, most of them taking pictures of skaters and buildings, but many groups were also skating.
There were definitely skaters there who seemed like they wanted to be good, but were terrible skaters—sort of like Sally.
The song is “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John.
