Catcher In The Rye Censorship

Censorship has been a topic of debate within the United States when it comes to books and the education system. Censorship is the practice of examining books, movies, poetry, and music and banning such material that is deemed inappropriate. The Catcher in the Rye has been censored due to its controversial content. The Catcher in the Rye was written by J.D. Salinger and published in 1951 by Little, Brown, and Company. The novel is a Bildungsroman about a sixteen year old, Holden, who has just been expelled from another boarding school. This novel is told from the perspective of Holden in a mental institution. As a therapeutic exercise, Holden is retelling the events leading up to his mental breakdown. These events vary from him being expelled

Holden meets a man on the elevator of a hotel he has just checked into, Maurice. Maurice is a pimp in the sense that he is the one who controls prostitutes. On the elevator, Maurice offers to send one of the prostitutes to Holden. The prostitute goes to Holden’s room, yet they do not have sex. Holden and the prostitute spend a majority of the evening just talking. Even though they do not actually have sex there is still a lot of content within this scene that would cause a lot of parents to not want their children to read this. It is not the fact that Holden was going to have sex that is the uncomfortable part to most people. The uncomfortable part is that Holden is a 16 year old boy and was going to have sex with a prostitute in a hotel. There is something that is not quite right about

Holden contemplates killing his roommate, Stradlater, at Pency Prep because of a girl (Salinger 57). This girl is someone that Holden has known since his childhood and is someone whom he has feelings for. Holden and Stradlater had proceeded to get involved in a nasty fight. The fight had gotten to the point where Stradlater was scared that he had broken Holden’s skull due to the force he had used when fighting Holden (Salinger 58). These scenes do become very violent. This is not something that is appropriate for a classroom setting. Holden was very upset that Stradlater had gone out with a girl Holden had liked, but that does not give any reason for either of them to get into a physical fight. It is understandable for Holden to be upset with Stradlater’s actions, but there are many other ways in which both of the boys could have handled the situation. Holden could have had a discussion with Stradlater on why he was upset with him. Holden handled the situation in a way that is not the most appropriate. The lesson that this scene is teaching people is that violence is the answer to everything which in reality is not the