Catcher In The Rye Banning Analysis

In his analysis of Catcher in the Rye’s ban history, Norbert Blei makes valid points about how preventing teenagers or young adults from reading the book makes no sense. When growing up, education wasn’t too important, so neither was reading. This was true until he found Catcher in the Rye, which lead him to other great classics. It had a positive effect on his life because he was allowed to read it, and as a teenager he could relate. He then goes on to explain how he believes that no one should have the power to decide when a person is prepared or too immature to read a book by censoring it. A scholar should be able to decide on their own whether they should read a book or not, banning it outright will no help. He furthers his point by saying

Lastly he points out how banning this book will not protect children from everywhere else they can learn about the “cons” of the book in a different environment. Blei’s view on the topic of banning opens one's eyes to the reality of how information about profanities and other obscenities can be transferred to teenagers in ways that may pose a bigger danger than a book. He ties it to Catcher by stating that the book has been thoroughly inspected over the years, so all the themes and messages of the book have been revealed, so there is nothing to hide from parents and teachers. The point of the book has been made clear, and it is a just one, so hiding this book from children is having the opposite effect from what the people banning it want. Catcher in the Rye is a book about a teenager discovering himself, and shouldn’t be censored as it can be very useful and insightful for teenagers or people of the right mental capacity, as to appreciate the book. Blei’s argument, as to why banning the book is counter productive, is very insightful. While other critics argue that the profanities in the book should be ignored when considering banning the book, Blei accepts the profanities and points out that there are a multitude of other ways for kids to be exposed to such things in their