http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/books/review/do-we-read-differently-at-different-ages.html?_r=0
In the above-referenced October 14, 2014, article in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, the article's author Daniel Mendelshon asserts that Holden is resisting adulthood, citing as evidence Holden's comment about a diorama exhibit with a bare-breasted squaw. Holden: “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. . . . You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, . . . and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”
Mendelshon says, "The all-too-evident regret in that last sentence is striking — one of the novel’s many markers of Holden’s problem, which is a refusal to grow up."
In the above-referenced October 14, 2014, article in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, the article's author Daniel Mendelshon asserts that Holden is resisting adulthood, citing as evidence Holden's comment about a diorama exhibit with a bare-breasted squaw. Holden: “The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. . . . You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, . . . and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.”
Mendelshon says, "The all-too-evident regret in that last sentence is striking — one of the novel’s many markers of Holden’s problem, which is a refusal to grow up."
The above illustrates a common interpretation of Holden that I find hard to support in the actual text. Practically everyone, Youtube star John Green included, parses out this passage about "that squaw with the naked bosom" and Holden's liberal use of the word "phony" as concrete evidence Holden doesn't want to grow up, while overlooking a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
Holden smokes, drinks, lies about his age, critiques theater performances, frequents museums, hires a prostitute, repeatedly seeks out adult conversation with peer-level engagement, acts protectively toward children. How many examples are needed to prove Holden is experimenting with adulthood? Criticizing adults as phony means he's evaluating adult behavior, not resisting. This is engagement, not avoidance.
It shouldn't escape notice that Holden was eagerly embracing the candy of adulthood--sex, smoking, booze, nightclub music, dancing, flirting, dating, critiquing literature and the dramatic arts--while agonizing over the spinach of social hypocrisy and rationalization.
So, how DO we interpret Holden's comment about the bare-breasted Native American?
The key is in that last sentence, underlined above: "The only thing that would be different would be you." Holden is telling us he is aware that he is changing. This level of intuitive self-reflection is adult thinking. It also shows maturity to appreciate that some things don't change and never should, because they are part of our cultural identity.
Nostalgic awareness is mature thinking. Mature people want to protect and preserve cultural icons.
Think of the loss and disorientation after the Twin Towers were destroyed. Icons like the Statue of Liberty are signposts reminding us of who and where we are. Holden was feeling lost. In his agitated state he desperately needed that bare-breasted squaw to be right where she had always been. That's all he was getting at with his comment. Give the kid a break.
Holden pondered and wrote down the Wilhelm Stekel quote Mr. Antollini gave him: "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." This is another sign he was putting a lot of serious thought into growing up.
To wax psychological, there are teenagers and even some adults, who resist growing up because their parents don't want to let go. They've been infantalized, encouraging dependency. Holden shows no evidence of having been infantalized. Quite the contrary, ending a kid to a military-style prep school could be evidence that Holden was too independent and possibly hard to control.
The evidence on the page shows that Holden was not resisting adulthood, he was aggressively embracing it.
Holden smokes, drinks, lies about his age, critiques theater performances, frequents museums, hires a prostitute, repeatedly seeks out adult conversation with peer-level engagement, acts protectively toward children. How many examples are needed to prove Holden is experimenting with adulthood? Criticizing adults as phony means he's evaluating adult behavior, not resisting. This is engagement, not avoidance.
It shouldn't escape notice that Holden was eagerly embracing the candy of adulthood--sex, smoking, booze, nightclub music, dancing, flirting, dating, critiquing literature and the dramatic arts--while agonizing over the spinach of social hypocrisy and rationalization.
So, how DO we interpret Holden's comment about the bare-breasted Native American?
The key is in that last sentence, underlined above: "The only thing that would be different would be you." Holden is telling us he is aware that he is changing. This level of intuitive self-reflection is adult thinking. It also shows maturity to appreciate that some things don't change and never should, because they are part of our cultural identity.
Nostalgic awareness is mature thinking. Mature people want to protect and preserve cultural icons.
Think of the loss and disorientation after the Twin Towers were destroyed. Icons like the Statue of Liberty are signposts reminding us of who and where we are. Holden was feeling lost. In his agitated state he desperately needed that bare-breasted squaw to be right where she had always been. That's all he was getting at with his comment. Give the kid a break.
Holden pondered and wrote down the Wilhelm Stekel quote Mr. Antollini gave him: "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." This is another sign he was putting a lot of serious thought into growing up.
To wax psychological, there are teenagers and even some adults, who resist growing up because their parents don't want to let go. They've been infantalized, encouraging dependency. Holden shows no evidence of having been infantalized. Quite the contrary, ending a kid to a military-style prep school could be evidence that Holden was too independent and possibly hard to control.
The evidence on the page shows that Holden was not resisting adulthood, he was aggressively embracing it.
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