Through Holden’s perspective, children have a simple understanding of life and as they grow and mature, they become selfish and phony. Holden is walking through the zoo with his little sister, Phoebe, and he describes approaching the carousel and hearing the music that it is playing. “That's one nice thing about carousels, they always play the same song” (page 210). Holden desires stability in life and admires a lack of change. He appreciates both the museum and the carousel for remaining the same or having traits that never change every time he returns to them. More importantly, both of these places that Holden greatly admires are symbols of youth in the book. Childhood and stability are two important themes in the book because Holden wishes to preserve the innocence that gets lost in the transformation from childhood into the immoral adult world.
Through Holden’s perspective, children have a simple understanding of life and as they grow and mature, they become selfish and phony. Holden is walking through the zoo with his little sister, Phoebe, and he describes approaching the carousel and hearing