American Library Association Vs. Salinger 's ' The Catcher 's The Rye '

If a controversial book will be read in the classroom, it is the teacher’s responsibility to prepare the student for it. The teacher must ensure that the book is age-appropriate for the student, and is appropriate for the subject matter that the teacher is covering. Reading books such as Catcher in The Rye without discussion can be more harmful than helpful to a student. The Catcher in The Rye has obscene language, violence, occult practices, and sexual references (Doyle 2010). This book should only be read by a mature age group with a

The narrator and protagonist, Holden, in J.D Salinger’s the Catcher in the Rye, flunks out of school and finds himself walking carelessly around New York city. At 17-years-old, Holden is stuck in the middle of his transition from childhood to adulthood. His use of the word “pervert” exposes his underlying fears of expressing sexuality and trying to simplify what it means to be imtimate. Through these symbols we see an important transition from desiring childhood to having a realization only an adult could have

The reader often searches for a glimpse of himself in the characters he is reading about, and this is especially true with the adolescent readers of The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. The author paints a picture of a conflicted youth by emphasizing his idiosyncrasies, and although Caulfield’s traits may seem exaggerated and alien at times, he is a character who is relatable to American youth today. Holden Caulfield has a strong sense of civic duty that is overshadowed only by his suicidal tendencies, is exceedingly sensitive to the evil in the world and prone to angst, yet empathetic to the emotional upheaval other children will experience when entering adulthood.

To begin, Holden’s use of profanity and alcohol at a young age plays a substantially large role in the diction that he uses. Since this novel takes place during the 1950’s, Salinger consistently weaves words such as “goddamn” and “bastard” into Holden’s everyday language. His little sister, Phoebe, even tells him to “[not] swear so much” (218). Although peers and adults constantly tell Holden to stop such frugal language, Salinger views it as necessary to accurately depict a rebellious teenage boy of the current time period. Furthermore, Salinger’s lingual decisions regarding alcohol affect how the reader sees Holden as a person. Alcohol is very easy to get in the 1950’s, and frankly, it is what Holden turns to every time he gets depressed. One instance is in the Lavender Room, when Holden asks the waiter to “stick a little rum in it” (91) because he “can’t sit in a corny place like this cold sober” (91). Despite the fact that liquor is easy to procure,

J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye features a complex narrative surrounding a troubled young student, Holden Caulfield. Difficulties he faces throughout the story force Holden to confront his fears of adulthood and maturation and the responsibilities therein through the difficulties he faces throughout the story. Academic controversy surrounds whether Holden learns from these confrontations and adjust accordingly, maturing throughout the story. While initially this seems rather subjective, a thorough analysis of Holden’s actions throughout the story as well as of the symbolism injected by Salinger makes it quite clear that Holden does undergo a significant maturity arc as the story progresses. Holden’s social development and maturation

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy, transitions from childhood to adulthood. The death of Holden’s little brother signifies the beginning his loss of innocence and growth of maturity. As he enters adulthood, Holden views society differently from his peers by characterizing most of his peers and adults he meets as “phonies.” Thus, Holden takes the impossible challenge of preserving the innocence in children because he wants to prevent children from experiencing the corruption in society. The Catcher In The Rye embodies Holden’s struggle to preserve the innocence of children and reveals the inevitability of and the necessity of encountering the harsh realities of life.

“Don’t tell people what you are thinking, or you will miss them terribly when you are away” (Salinger 214) says Holden Caulfeild as he warns the world. Salingers novel pinpoints the many fears and phobias of growing up from an immature, pessimistic, “everybody’s a goddam phony” perspective that makes it relate-able to young transitioning teenagers. Salinger's Caulfeild is afraid of growing up and the unknown prospects of entering the adult world after experiencing a life changing event. Holden, clinging to his innocence, most importantly learns how the Phony adult world not only treats people like HC poorly, but it kills them.

J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye presents a look into the mind of Holden Caulfield, a popular literary icon numerous teenagers have rightfully found themselves relating to at some point. While the familiar emotions of Holden were welcoming for me, his anecdotes and witty remarks proved entertaining as well. The story chronicles Holden’s exploration through New York post-expulsion, with his point of view influenced by his growing alienation with the world. He represents that growing sense of unease at growing up and facing a reality that is not always pretty, and, in his case, a need to save children from having to face that reality. I personally admired the fact that he was not just an angry teenager in the world as stereotypes suggest.

In the fiction novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the author perfectly captures Holden Caulfield who is a troubled teen trying to work his way through adolescence in a world peopled by “phonies” and is trying to rescue others, while failing to rescue himself. Along with these two themes, Salinger depicts the behavior of how people are what they want to be, and they should live a life which makes them happy. In this novel, the main character seventeen year old Holden Caulfield finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost intolerable. Therefore, he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world.

The Catcher in the Rye, a classic book written by JD Salinger, depicts the life of a troubled teenage boy named Holden Caulfield who recalls the events in his life that led up to where he is now. The Catcher in the Rye is considered to be one of the most controversial books in classic literature for dealing with such topics as profanity, teen sex, underage drinking, and immoral activity. I’m here to tell you today that these disputed topics are more beneficial for the development of teens than harmful.

Holden Caulfield, a boy who struggles with his mental health, starts his story by saying, “I’m not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything. I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas” (Salinger 3). Published in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger depicts a three-day journey of Holden as he tries to find out more about himself. Through his struggle, Holden experiences many obstacles and events, such as depression and profanity, that take place in most teenager’s lives, making the book a primary target for banning due to offensive language, suicidal tendencies, sexual content, violence, and outright negativity (Information). Though The Catcher in the Rye contains controversial topics, such as depression, vulgar language, and sexual discrimination, the novel is still relevant and relatable to teens today; therefore, the story should remain an option for students to read.

Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been pronounced a literary classic for its atypical portrayal of adolescence, to effectively convey the protagonist’s alienation and confusion. The introduction of The Catcher in the Rye is underpinned by disorder and confusion through a stream-of-consciousness narration, which digresses from one subject to another. Consequently, Holden’s multitudinous thoughts and feelings appear to lack a cohesive pattern. Additionally, Holden’s prevalent ascription of other students as “phony” (Salinger, p.3) alludes to his alienation and isolation as a form of self-protection; he rejects those he does not understand. Furthermore, the vocabulary encapsulates typical adolescence dialect of the 1940s, and resultantly, alienates contemporary reader. This is typified through Holden’s use of colloquial speech, in particular, his exclamation “that killed me” (Salinger, p.42) to express his amusement. Therefore, the introduction of Holden’s disjointed monologue in The Catcher in the Rye foreshadows Salinger’s unique interpretation of adolescence.

Though these books pioneer to a different time, these novels should be banned due to the incorporation of topics that are too mature for students because morbidity, sexual violence, and harsh language are included in these books, depicting themes too dark for school aged children. Since The Bell Jar and The Catcher In The Rye have been published in the 50’s and 60’s, these books have been banned from schools, rightfully so. These books are unacceptable for young children to read. Actions banned for students in school are portrayed in these books, such as drinking, cursing, and self harm. Since these actions are rightfully banned in school, they should not be portrayed in books students read, creating exposure to new and unacceptable activities and actions. Not only are these actions shown, but the

the language of Holden Caulfield,the book's sixteen-year-old narrator,struck the ear of the contemporaryreader as an accurate rendering of the informal speech of an intelligent, educated, Northeastern American adolescent.2 In addition to commentingon its authenticity, critics have often remarked 'daring,' 'obscene,' 'blasphemous' features of Holden's lan-uneasily-the Another commonly noted feature of the book's language has been its guage. comic effect. And yet there has never been an extensive investigation of the language itself. That is what this paper proposes to do. Even though Holden's language is authentic teenage speech, recording it was certainly not the major intention of Salinger. He was faced with the artistic task of creating an individual character, not with the linguistic task of reproducingthe exact speech of teenagers in general: Yet Holden had to speak a recognizableteenage language, and at the same time had to be identifiable as an individual.This difficult task Salinger achieved by giving Holden an extremely trite and typical teenage speech, overlaid with strong personal idiosyncrasies. There are two major speech habits which are Holden's own, which are endlessly

According to the American Library Association, more than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982. This staggering number reflects thousands of students being denied the rewarding benefits associated with reading complex forms of literature that convey important messages about life and its various problematic, profane, and distasteful aspects. Specifically, the inclusion of banned books in a high school curriculum containing obscene aspects would not only strengthen comprehensive reading skills, but more importantly, increase students ' exposure to complex ideas that depict a gruesome, yet extremely realistic portrayal of life. Among the novels that have been banned is The Catcher in The Rye, written by J.D Salinger, which describes