The Catcher in the Rye and Philosophy by Salter Heather Dromm Keith

Author:Salter, Heather, Dromm, Keith [Dromm Keith; Salter Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812698022
Publisher: Open Court

Mummies and Baseball Gloves

The theory of radical change serves a deeper purpose, since it allows Heraclitus to show that opposites are inseparable. One contrary must replace the other. Day and night, for example, are linked by their succession. They continually replace each other, and are only found as a pair. The same is true of death replacing life. This happens everywhere, except in the objects that Holden loves. Holden’s obsession with static Being is made clear by his attraction to objects that symbolize stasis. When he is confused or unsure of himself, Holden turns to one of these objects and finds support in it. His hat, his baseball glove, and the mummies at the Museum of Natural History are a few of the objects he latches onto as a way of fighting change. They seem to defy the logic of Heraclitus’s argument, since they are not like night and day; they are eternally in one state.

Holden reveals his fascination with mummies early in the book. After an entire semester of history, the only thing he considered worth remembering was about mummies. He’s so amazed by them that he writes about nothing but mummies on his history exam (2, p. 16). Holden’s disdain for history and love of mummies is revealing. Few subjects are more antithetical to Holden’s view of the world than one that is often concerned with change over time. Many historians assume the Heraclitian view and describe history as a sequence of events that unfold over time. Describing history in terms of change is a threat to Holden’s identity and leads him to despise everything about the subject, except for the stories about the Egyptians who attempted to preserve themselves forever.

Mummies are unchanging in a way that seems magical. Even modern science, which has solved countless puzzles, is powerless to discover how the mummies were made (2, p. 16). Mummies challenge the common-sense understanding of the world, even its highest expression, science. The fact that the mummies’ secret to longevity cannot be understood makes them even more compelling, since Holden is in search of something so powerful that it can contradict what his senses tell him. Near the end of the book, he finds two boys who are curious about the museum’s mummies (25, p. 263). He’s eager to take them to the mummies, since seeing the mummies might provide him a sense of comfort and contact with the past. They do this, at least for him. The boys are frightened. They realize that the mummy is a dead body. Its stability does not change the fact that the body represents death. They are, like most people, curious and repulsed by the idea of achieving permanence if the only way to obtain it is through denying your own power to change.

Allie’s baseball glove is an even more powerful symbol of permanence. The mummies are public, on display for everyone to see. The baseball glove is unique and therefore more authentic for Holden. When someone dies, their friends and family often try to remember them in objects.

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