The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

    The Catcher in the Rye was banned shortly after publication. It was banned for sexual themes and prostitution, anti-white, communism, and vulgar language such as slang and profanity.

Since then many libraries have lifted banning and have allowed people to read the book. The Catcher in the Rye should not be banned because it opens reader’s eyes to the moral senses of the day, tells the truth about the adolescent experiences, and provides readers with sincere humor.

     Also, The Catcher in the Rye tells the truth about adolescent experience. Holden Caulfield knows there are two different groups of the in-crowd and the out-crowd.

            “Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules. Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it. Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right-I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot-shots, then what’s a game about it? Nothing. No game (pg.8).”

Holden Caulfield knows for the in-crowd life is a game, it’s fun. Ironically however, he’s not part of that group and find himself in the out-crowd. Where life is not a game.

      Throughout the book Holden Caulfield is running, wondering around, and not really talking to anyone but you as a reader. He’s like a nomad, but he is looking for something.

            “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all (pg. 173).”

Holden’s in a war and he’s trying to save others. He’s looking for kids to make sure they don’t fall off the cliff and lose their innocence, joyful spirit, and honesty. Holden’s like a vigilante and he’s lonely because he’s chosen this life to help many others. But in order to be a protector he has to be on the out-crowd. He’s transitioning from being this carefree person to seeing these kids  running to the cliff and that ages him a little outside of adolescent to adulthood. It makes Caulfield mature but with maturity comes responsibility and the weight of that.

    The Catcher in the Rye should not be banned because it opens reader’s eyes to the moral senses of the day, tells the truth about the adolescent experiences, and provides readers with sincere humor.

            “My parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything personal about them. They’re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They’re nice and all-I’m not saying that-but they’re also touchy as hell (pg. 1).”

It doesn’t seem like Holden’s parents are very close to him, which isn’t good, but he makes out of it something funny. Even through this unpleasant experience Holden finds something in it that he can laugh about. One good reason why not to ban this book is that my experience has shown me this is very similar and he’s telling nothing but the truth. Does J.D. Salinger feel that he is the catcher in the rye and his way of catching people is by giving them the book?