Original artwork, not a still
The Catcher in the Rye • 1951
Certain things should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker imagines protecting selected things from change by placing them behind glass. A display case becomes a means of keeping them intact and undisturbed. The wish concerns particular things worth preserving, rather than a claim that all of life should remain fixed.
Context reviewed
