Catcher In The Rye Controversy

Salinas 2Holden to go through loneliness, but it causes him to act in an immoral fashion and have vulgarlanguage towards others.Even though the book wasn’t approved by many, J.D. Salinger (1919-2010) did become apowerful 20th century American writer because of The Catcher in the Rye’s fame. J.D. Salingeralso attended different schools, alike Holden, and after graduating he went to Europe to pursue acareer in writing. While at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, J.D. Salinger met Professor WhitBurnett, who pushed him into creating more work. Although Salinger was starting of an amazingcareer in writing, he left to participate in World War II, like many other men in those times.Throughout war, Salinger still wrote a new novel: The Catcher in the

Way before all of this, the real problem occurred in1960. An English teacher was fired, later reestablished, for assigning this book to a class. Thiswas just the beginning from 1961- 1982, The Catcher in the Rye developed into the furthermostchallenged/banned book in high schools and libraries. The irony in all of this is how The Catcherin the Rye, then, in 1981, was the most censored book and the second most shown book in publicschools. (R.W. Baldassarro)The question here is evident: why did so many teachers took the effort to risk their jobsjust to teach the students about a book? The key word here is “book”, for if its content hassomething to inspire and help the students succeed, it should be worth teaching. The Catcher inthe Rye, as many others would also agree, shouldn’t be challenged/ banned from schools for itrelates to “broadly anxieties about a conformist culture” and relates to the young audience.(Aubry, Timothy)“Partly because I have a lousy vocabulary and partly because I actquite young for my age sometimes. I was sixteen then, and I’m seventeennow, and sometimes I act like I’m about thirteen. It’s really ironical,because I’m six foot two and a half and I have gray hair. I really do. Theone side of my head- the right side- is full of millions of gray hairs. I’vehad them ever since I was a kid. And yet I still act sometimes like I wasonly about twelve.” (Salinger 9)Many teenagers are going through the same phase that Holden went through in this novel,some might not be as extreme but have some similarities, and can relate with Holden’stransition from childhood to adulthood. This can “help readers understand that