Catcher In the Rye: Good or Evil?

Should J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye be taught in school? 60 years ago the first copy of this polemic book was published and it was soon in the “banned lists” of most states for its use of profanity and sexuality, but what people don’t know is that Catcher in the Rye contains much more than meets the eye and I believe this book is sure to be taught in schools.

People like me often wonder why this book, being so old, is still causing uneasiness and feelings of rejection when usually most books written more than have a century ago are no longer relevant to our time and age. The truth is, everything this book evokes in our generation is very much relevant even though it was written such a while ago. I believe this is so, because it projects the real picture of a teenager even more today when profanity and sexuality are much, much more common.

The themes of this book and Holden’s journey contain coming-of-age issues the ALL teenagers can relate to. Holden achieves maturity gradually and with difficulty, he breaks the rules, uses unnecessary profanity, defies authority, is confused about his future, he’s learning to be responsible, and he’s looking for answers and experience. Isn’t this how most teenagers feel and go through in this day and age? Isn’t this what we can actually relate to?

Should we really stop reading a book based on a few people’s opinion and decision to put it in a “banned” list? According to Daniel Jack Chasen in his article ”why J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye still provokes bans” This book is still banned in many states because of the language, sexual references, and obscenities, but I believe books should be judged based on their literal content, what the author is really trying to convey, and if they did a good job doing so. Another one of the reasons this book is not accepted in many places is because it goes against the picture perfect American family with apple-pie and Sunday Church, when in reality it shows the imperfect yet true picture of a coming-of-age teenager.

The teaching of Catcher in the Rye in schools is something I definitely agree with. Apart from its humongous teachings about that transition between teenage and adulthood, it definitely taught me to be much more open minded about books, taking what the author is saying and really reading between the lines, because J.D. Salinger’s not much accepted way of writing has much more to say than just profanity.