SMASH! Like the blood-stained glass plummeting to the ground, Holden’s whole life is shattered. When he was just 13 years old, his younger brother Allie died and Holden’s whole life changed for the worse. Holden hates, and even possibly is scared of change, and because of this fear he cant seem to fit in. Just like the ducks in the park Holden is only revealing only half of his personality to the public, deep down he is a good, kind person, but he hides under his hat trying to protect himself from change. Holden views change in a negative way which is why; he loves the museum, tries to run away with sally, and why he is so worried about Jane.

Museums are timeless and are a never-changing window into the past. Holden loves the museum because of its unchanging trait. He loves the fact that no matter how many years go by, what happens to you, or what you’ve done, it never changes. this shows that Holden is scared of change and wants to preserve things the way there once were when everything was better, almost like how Holden tries to run away from the world with Sally Hayes.

When a child runs away from home its to get away from your parents who you are either unhappy with, or scared of-when Holden tries to run away with Sally, he is really trying to get away from society and from change. Holden is scared of change to he tries to get away from it all together and live a life of solitude, he is traumatized by the thought of anything changing. To Holden, he feels he needs to take a picture in time and just try to keep things the same, his plans to change didn’t include telling his friends and family he was going, just to leave and image nothing will change.

Jane represents a time in Holden’s life that was good. when Holden heard that Stradlater went on a date with Jane, Holden feared something might have changed. On the surface it seems as though Holden was worried that Stradlater had preformed the “horizontal mombo” with Jane, which was true in a sense, but what he was really worried about was that it might have changed Jane. Holden spends the whole book trying to get in touch with Jane, but never once succeeds. This is a symbol that change is un-avoidable and no matter how hard Holden tries, change will always win.

Holden is so scared of change he even worries about it in conversation. When he is talking to the two nuns by the train station over breakfast he is worried they will bring up religion and ruin the conversation. He is scared that the nuns will change the conversation and ruin it like everything else if change ever occurs in Holden’s life.Holden views change in a negative way which is why; he loves the museum, tries to run away with sally, and why he is so worried about Jane.