The Catcher in the Rye Should Be Banned

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Catcher In The Rye was written in 1951 and for this time period, the book’s content was extremely ahead of its time. Its frequent foul language and sex-driven themes led it to be banned by several school systems across the country since its release. Some people may question why Salinger has Holden Caulfiend cursing so much. Some may see Caulfield’s persistent offensive language as unnecessary and unbecoming for a young person of Holden’s age. As an example, on page 129 when Caulfield is comparing his and Sally’s skating skills to the rest of the people at the ice-skating rink in Radio City. He says “...we were the worst skaters on the whole goddam rink.” He further accounts about Sally’s ankles bending under her weight in the ice skates saying, “They not only looked stupid as hell, but they probably hurt like hell, too.” These three cases of offensive language were all within the same paragraph. Which would obviously lead some parents to question the necessity of this overflow of profanity. If I were to make an assertion as to why Salinger gave Caulfield the mouth of a sailor it would be because that most young adults do actually use profanity this much. Granted, it does not add much, in terms of meaning, to the sentence, nor does it make the sentence more interesting aside from getting a chuckle from the reader every so often. In that respect, I can see both why Salinger made his character like this, but I can also understand why people would be offended by Holden’s language. Perhaps another option is to partially censor the book. Release a “PG version” that would omit the uses of “G.D.” but leave uses of milder curse words like “Hell” or “damn”. This way if people are choosing not to read the book because of corse, offensive... ... middle of paper ... ...he starts to think about what would be considered “mature” matters in life. Therefore they may be a little less offended by Holden’s frequent cursing. I believe that Catcher In The Rye needs to be partially banned. By that, I mean that its contents possess very mature themes that children under the age of 12 probably should not be exposed to in public schools. Now if their parents want to let them read it on their own then that is none of the school’s or anyone else’s concern. Elementary schools should not carry the book because there will always be the chance of a child getting their hands on the book and bringing it home subsequently having their parents see what they have been reading in turn making the parents upset by what the school is allowing their child to read. Works Cited Salinger, J. D.The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. 63. Print.

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