Reasons For Banning Catcher In The Rye

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Kaedin Rosling Cleveland English 3 February 14, 2017 The Greatest Book of All Time The Catcher in the Rye was a novel written by J. D. Salinger sometime in the 40’s, but it was not published until 1951. The Catcher in the Rye has been banned throughout schools multiple times, for its profanity alone. The levels of profanity vary, but it is not just the actual language that got the book banned. It will always be an important book in American literature, banning it is just keeping students away from one of the best books ever written. The Catcher in the Rye should be kept in classrooms throughout schools because it teaches us so many life lessons. A few lessons that this novel teaches are that profanity and violence are everywhere, things will …show more content…

Profanity and violence are everywhere. The same profanity used in The Catcher in the Rye is used in PG-13 movies which are recommended to kids 13 and older. In this novel, Holden Caulfield says things such as, “You never know where the hell you are”, and “I swear to God I don't” (63). Because of this use of profanity, many schools have banned The Catcher in the Rye, but many of those schools have reinstated the book due to them recognising its literary importance. Excluding this novel in the curriculum will not protect students from profanity and violence that are shown daily in our lives. The Catcher in the Rye is a novel about a rebellious teenager facing psychological trouble, who gets expelled from his school at 16 and goes on a journey to New York City. It was not meant to teach children profanity and …show more content…

The author of The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger checked himself into a mental hospital, shortly after World War II. He had PTSD. Not long after he left, he wrote his first story narrated by Holden Caulfield. Holden Caulfield also portrayed J.D Salinger and his PTSD. “What I was really hanging around for, I was trying ... to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse”

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