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Why Is The Catcher In The Rye Banned

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J.D. Salinger’s classic novel The Catcher in the Rye has old over sixty-five million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. The Catcher in the Rye is also one of the most cherished books in the history of American literature, and the novel is taught in many schools across the nation. Salinger’s book is filled with valuable lessons about growing up, but has been the subject of controversy for many years because of its frequent references to premarital sex, underage drinking, and profane language. The Catcher in the Rye has been banned several times in some school districts for its use of adult material, but it always seems to find a way back into classrooms because of its importance to American literature. Still, …show more content…

The novel contains a lot of profanity 一 that’s no lie, and many parents fear that their kids reading the book will be overexposed to the curse words that Salinger uses. For example, when Holden is in the school visiting Phoebe, he sees the same vulgar word written on the wall several times, making him mad. “Somebody had written ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy … I went down a different staircase, and I saw another ‘Fuck you’ on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on … If you had a million years to do it, you couldn’t even rub out half of the ‘Fuck you’ signs in the world. It is impossible” (Doc 1). While some may think the “‘Fuck you’s’” are nothing more than vulgarity that does nothing but violate reader’s minds, with the correct teaching and guidance that schools offer, students will realize that they’re actually creative literary symbols. The repetitive use of “‘Fuck you’” in this passage is on symbol that Salinger uses to teach a lesson. The world isn’t always going to be one hundred percent “clean” or “pure,” and that’s one aspect of life that everyone has to grasp as they get older. Furthermore, a 2012 edition of the magazine Teen Ink had an article concerning on the issue of banning The Catcher in the Rye. The article says, “In 1985, it [the novel] was banned in a high school in Florida for being “unacceptable”. But what is interesting is that in many occurrences, after the book was banned, it was later reinstated … Not even its vulgar language … can stop teachers from teaching this American classic” (Doc 3). The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most important books in the history of American literature, so schools almost feel obligated to teach it. Salinger may have used profanity pretty liberally in the

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