Salinger's Censorship

An author’s use of diction and syntax can dictate the meaning of a text as a whole. In The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Salinger uses these literary devices to establish the message in his novel. Salinger tells Holden Caulfield’s story in three days, showing the struggle of the desire to grow up but failure to act upon this maturity. One page from each of these days exemplifies the literary devices to shape the theme of the novel. Salinger’s use of diction and syntax aids his message of the preservation of innocence in a world that forces its children to grow up.

Jonathan Yardley was a book critic for the Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism. In an occasional series from The Post, Yardley critics one of the most notable novels from the past: The Catcher in the Rye. His objective is to persuade his readers that The Catcher in the Rye is neither a well written book --as many claim it is-- nor a book that is deserving enough to be labeled an “American classic.” Yardley uses a sardonic, yet criticizing tone along with rhetorical devices such as antithesis, hypophora, understatements, and epithets to support his thesis and help the reader perceive the book from his position.

In “Censorship: A Personal View”, the author, Judy Blume, argues that the censorship is the biggest restrictions that turn young people away from books that they are interested in. Blume first indicates that the censorship already existed while she was a kid. She provides her personal experience as a kid toward the curiosity about adult world that she wanted to read from books, but her parents and school were very careful and selective about what books she could read. Blume then expresses her own views on censorship while she likes to write the controversial topics as a writer. She provides her own experience while many of her books were banned because the topics in her book were dangerous to young people, and the censorship proposed the alternative

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger’s American classic that has found itself on many “Banned Books” lists because of its profane language and seemingly dark concepts, raises many questions for readers and critics alike surrounding antihero, Holden Caulfield’s cynical disposition. Alex Pitofsky, a professor of English at Appalachian State University, explores a potential cause for Caulfield’s temperament in his 2011 review, “Masculine Competition and Boarding School Culture in The Catcher in the Rye.” By analyzing how Caulfield responds to certain characters and situations in the novel, Pitofsky concludes that a major source of Caulfield’s dissatisfaction with society stems from the importance of materialistic success and masculine competition that is imposed on students in private Boarding Schools.

The novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, has been battling censorship attempts for many years, and the attempts are downright absurd. Books usually get censored for the use of explicit language, disagreement with the political or religious standpoints of a reader, or depictions of inappropriate actions. Books throughout libraries receive so many censorship complaints, that the Intellectual Freedom gets 3-5 reports or Censorship activities, per day. Nonetheless, Of Mice and Men should not be one of these victims of censorship, since it opens young adult readers to the use of profanity, a discouraging time in America, and it exposes the readers to the hardships of life.

For many years people have argued about the inclusion of The Cather in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger in the high school english curriculum. This is such due to the inappropriate and adult oriented themes within If considered, many times within the novel the main character will face situations in which that the negative and vulgar themes will blossom into something meaningful that the reader can benefit from as a person and as a student. While the vulgarity and adult themes in The Catcher in the Rye are indeed inappropriate for adolescent students, ultimately its underlying themes of self discovery and possessing moral values provides life and ethical lessons that can be applied in the classroom as well as on a daily basis and therefore, the

There are people who would like to see The Catcher in the Rye banned from our schools because it contains disturbing issues. In my opinion they are overlooking the message that J.D. Salinger was trying to communicate. In this novel, the characters exhibit a wide scope of behaviors from honorable to ignominious. The novel presents issues such as respect for religion, or lack thereof. As though these issues were not enough by themselves, there is also the subject of intolerance of others. How, may you ask, should this novel be allowed in our schools? Well, the answer lies deep within the symbolism of the novel,

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel about a teen/adult named Holden Caulfield that took place in the 1950’s in New York which is the perfect setting for a kid to become an adult because of its size, but Holden Caulfield was telling the story in a mental hospital in California. Throughout the novel Holden is transitioning from a kid to an adult and he takes us along with him to experience what it is like to become an adult. Due to the fact that Holden is maturing, J.D. Salinger, the author of the Catcher in the Rye, decides it is appropriate to disregard censorship and so the book contains a lot of vulgar and inappropriate scenes. J.D. Salinger published the Catcher in the Rye and about ten years

One of the main themes of the novel Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. Censorship is n: the action of a censor esp. in stopping the transmission or publication of matter considered objectionable. That is, of course, according to the guys over at Merriam-Webster.

In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, critically acclaimed author Ray Bradbury asks the controversial question, what would a world where censorship of creative and differing Ideas is the norm resemble? In Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury envisions a dystopian America in which not only books are censored, but personal thoughts and individuality are constrained in this world as well. Although there are many ways in which Bradbury presents and develops the themes in Fahrenheit 451, the most effective way Bradbury does this is through deft characterizations, he does this specifically through Clarisse Mcclellan and Mildred Montag

    Ray Bradbury criticizes the censorship of the early 1950's by displaying these same themes in a futuristic dystopia novel called Fahrenheit 451. In the early 1950's Ray Bradbury writes this novel as an extended version of "The Fireman", a short story which first appears in Galaxy magazine. He tries to show the readers how terrible censorship and mindless conformity is by writing about this in his novel.

Censorship is the prohibition of any parts of books, films, or more, that are politically unacceptable or a threat to security. Censorship is often to benefit someone. However, the objects that end up being censored, are often censored to further political values. Similarly, in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the dystopian society that Montag lives in censors everything, to protect their power, to the point where there is nothing of any importance or value shown to the people. However, The fireman can’t stop people from having conflicting theories and thought. There will always be different sides to everything, but conflicting ideas aren’t the only source of unhappiness in the story. there is approximately ten suicide calls a night, on a normal basis. There is no way to make everyone think the same thing,

Have you ever The world-famous movie, Remember the Titans, cost $30 million to make in the year 2000. This documentary will demonstrate the importance of the allegories to modern times, and will not be as costly but will display an equally as important message and theme. Many themes present in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 are shown to be relevant today. Since Plato and Bradbury both emphasized the negative effects of censorship on society, modern times must become aware of how it affects their everyday lives. To prevent modern society from facing the same problems as the allegories, we must demonstrate the dangers of censorship to educate humankind.

The use of censorship to examine and eliminate elements in media that are found to be unorthodox or radical has been prevalent in society for centuries. Through censorship, ideas found to be objectionable or offensive are repressed. In his prophetic novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury denotes the common practice of government censorship of books as a suppressive and marginalizing concept for humans because it strips them of the realities, truths, and meaning behind books and deprives them the freedom to deliberate and act on them. The protagonist, Guy Montag lives in a futuristic, American society and is a ‘firemen’; a group of men that deflect the old conventional purpose of stopping fires, to creating

George Orwell’s 1984, a utopian fiction novel, illustrates what its like to live in a society with unrealistic amounts of censorship. The censorship is taken to the extreme and controls everything, even the society’s history. The Party of Oceania even forces a created language called Newspeak, in attempts to stop political rebellion by eliminating rebellious words from their vocabulary. The people are not allowed to express individuality, engage in sex, disagree with the Party, or have their own personal thoughts. Winston goes against the Party and illegally purchases a diary. In this diary he writes what he cannot speak.