Why is the catcher in the rye a banned book
Banned Book Talk: Catcher in the Rye
probably my favorite novel of all time
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
this is a book you will either love to
love or love to hate
I have very rarely spoken with people
that have a middle ground there so a
little bit about this author JD Salinger
was drafted to fight in World War two
while he was fighting overseas Salinger
began to write The Catcher in the Rye
which was then finally published in 1951
so this is our kind of
middle-of-the-road book as far as our
timeline Salinger did not escape the war
without some trauma and he was
hospitalized afterward for a nervous
breakdown if any of you have ever seen
Saving Private Ryan it shows them
storming the beaches of Normandy
Salinger did not storm the beaches of
Normandy but he did fight in the second
bloodiest battle in World War two which
of course right now I can't remember
what it was called off the top of my
head but we could certainly look it up
if you're interested two years after the
publication of Catcher JD Salinger left
New York City and he retreated to this
secluded farm in New Hampshire Salinger
then did his very best to cut off
contact with the public completely why
was it banned well The Catcher in the
Rye is one of the most controversial
books ever written but it still taught
in many English classes including this
one all around the United States and has
still be loved by many teenagers and
adults because it has some rebellious
characteristics in the 60s it was banned
for its profanity sexual content and
violence by many schools it is still
banned by some schools today there have
also been some interesting conspiracy
theories out there about this book
brainwashing people because the men who
assassinated John Lennon who was the
frontman for the Beatles and former
president JFK as well as the man who
attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan
they all owned copies of this book no
evidence has been found to suggest that
there is any truth to these theories
about brainwashing I've read this book
like
500 times and I am definitely not
homicidal I would say those people they
all had a screw loose to begin with if
you know what I'm saying
additionally Catcher in the Rye is a
classic and it's probably on a lot of
people's bookshelves along with a lot of
other classic books so I don't know how
much you could string together there but
if you're interested in researching that
you certainly can many schools later
reinstated the book to its list its
reading lists because they recognize its
literary importance it is a book with a
lot of literary merit which we'll get
into in a little bit thirty-five million
copies were sold in total a quarter of a
million copies are sold every year and
Catcher in the Rye
you will meet seventeen-year-old Holden
Caulfield he's got a lot of attitude and
a lot of dated profanity because it's
the 50s and he wants to tell us all
about this madman stuff that happened to
him around last Christmas his story
begins on a December Saturday at Pencey
prep school in Pennsylvania where he's
just been kicked out for failing all of
his classes except of course English the
problem is that he can't go home for a
few more days until Christmas break
starts because he really does not want
have to break it to his parents that he
has been expelled yet again so instead
he decides he's gonna spend the next few
days gallivanting around Manhattan
soul-searching and then eventually
deciding to run away so your protagonist
here Holden is a 17 year old rich white
kid who lives in New York City
he is constantly expelled from school he
wears this weird red hunting cap like
the one you can see in this picture here
all the time he's depressed and angry he
hates people and things that he deems to
be phony or fake which honestly ends up
being almost everyone and everything he
encounters Holden is he's incredibly
idealistic he struggles really hard to
reconcile his view of the way the world
ought to be with its harsh realities and
he's struggling just like ender to kind
of figure out who he is
and where his places in the world he
also really wants to protect innocence
and goodness especially that of his
little sister some of the big ideas that
you'll see in this novel Holden he
perceives childhood and adulthood it's
two very separate realms but are they
truly separate where does Holden fit in
where do you fit in
is it possible to fully separate our
individual identity from our culture our
peers and our family or if it is is it
even desirable to do so Holden has this
unhealthy obsession with faux ninis or
fake like fake people and Ed wickedness
and it leads him to make some
questionable decisions so you have to
wonder how this will affect his psyche
if you're interested in psychology this
is a this is a good book choice for you
Holden is is grieving over the loss of a
loved one throughout the course of this
novel the author was dealing with
post-traumatic stress syndrome from
fighting in world war two when he wrote
it and there's just a lot of
psychological kind of unraveling that's
going on in this book which which I
think makes it very interesting how does
one how do we how do we handle all the
fake people and all of the wickedness
that that exists in this world and is it
possible for anyone to ever be truly
genuine and never ever commit a
hypocritical act some quotes from
Catcher just so you can kind of get a
feel for the writing style one thing
that's interesting here is is the the
narrative style is called stream of
consciousness which basically is the
rambling of someone's brain that's how
the whole book is written it's just
written like the ramblings of set of
what's going on in someone's head all of
their thoughts stream of consciousness
it's exactly what it sounds like and
it's really interesting because of that
and then the style is very unique as
well so here here are some quotes from
the book to kind of give you a feel for
it all morons hate it when you call them
a [ __ ] grand
there's a word I really hate it's a
phony I could puke every time I hear it
it was that kind of a crazy afternoon
terrifically cold and no Sun out or
anything and you felt like you were
disappearing every time you cross the
road I think that one of these days he
said you're going to have to find out
where you want to go and then you've got
to start getting there but immediately
you can't afford to lose a minute
not you so my recommendation here
well people generally either love this
book or loathe it
and it almost always comes down to how
they feel about our dear protagonists
because we're in his head the entire
time Holden Caulfield so I would say to
you yes please come along for the ride
if you relate to Holden's rage toward
hypocrisy and his quest to find his
identity in his place in the world then
you're gonna like this book Catcher in
the Rye is what's called a coming-of-age
novel as are all three of these and so
this entire journey that he goes on from
adolescence to adulthood is something
that you guys are in the middle of going
through and basically he just kind of
deals with the questions and struggles
that naturally arise from that
transition from childhood to adulthood
Holden is angry with the world and he
expresses his anger and this unique
stream of consciousness narration which
I really like it's very easy and fun to
read because of that despite the fact
that it's also kind of dark and he uses
a lot of foul language like it said
under reasons that it was banned
profanity yes lots of profanity f-bombs
gd's like there's a lot of profanity
Holden cusses a lot like a sailor and
then there's also 50 slang which is kind
of funny just because it's different we
don't know about it so um I would say to
you maybe you should fly off and find a
different book if you think Holden
sounds annoying because if he is already
sounding annoying to you and we haven't
even started reading it you're probably
not going to like this book the
narration style reads the whole time
like your hat
conversation with this kid and he may
just come across as a whiny jerk to you
so if that's the case this could be a
really long ride of you just wanting to
punch him in the face the entire time I
will say you would enjoy the multiple
scenes and which Holden does actually
get punched in the face by someone else
so there's that for you but otherwise
you're probably not gonna like it
another thing that would mean you
probably won't like it is if you lack
patience for other people's issues you
might want to steer clear so you don't
have to deal with Holden's because this
kid has a lot of baggage like I said
he's dealing with grief over the loss of
a loved one the author had PTSD all of
this comes across very clearly in the
book and yeah so that's a reason to to
read or not to read depending on how you
feel about psychology you're interested
in psychology and grief and PTSD then
read it and if not yeah
probably look elsewhere
