Reading Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger made me think about the time when it was published. People back then were completely conservative and would be scared to find out their children were reading about Holden’s crazy and obscene adventures. We all know this topic has been discussed many times and we all know that this book may instill the wrong ideas into kids’ minds. Therefore, I was finally asked if this book was still relevant to our time and if it should be taught and read to young adults all over the world. My answer before and after reading this book has always been the same.
Whenever people say books are inappropriate, I get extremely angry. Before I read Catcher in the Rye, about three or four people told me I shouldn’t be reading that. And I kind of understand what they’re trying to say. Holden is not the best protagonist or the best example that teenagers can learn from but one thing he does right, he’s realistic. For those of you that haven’t read this amazing coming of age novel, Holden is usually criticizing the outside world. The typical American family. Where kids go to prep school, grow up to be wealthy and have a perfect family where everyone seems to be happy. What most people don’t notice is that for decades, the world has showed its population what a family looks like. Either in movies, books, news, etc. Mom and dad living in a big blue house, next to a tall tree, where dad built a tree house for his children to play. Family coming home for the holidays, eating turkey in a big round table. That is what I grew up watching and learning from what a real family was. What Holden does, is only stating what no one has been brave enough to state. The life a so called happy family lives is not what it seems to be. It may be what 20% of America is, or what 40% of European families represent, but it is not what 80% of families look like. Not even half of what families out there have to go through in order to at least, have food, education and health. Holden Caulfield gives teenagers and parents an insight of what the world really is. We live in a world where teenagers are criticized, where 1.3 billion people live on less than a dollar a day. Where two billion people have no sanitation or electricity and where 40 million girls and women are prostitutes. That is the real world. That is what Holden refers to throughout the book. Maybe not the soft, easy way most people would want a book to teach but in a way where the reader finally understands and realizes what is out there.
I remember when I read the part where Holden is hanging Sunny’s dress. Sunny is a prostitute and it made me so sad to read what Holden said. Not because it was obscene, or inappropriate, but because it was true (125).
“I was only too glad to get up and do something. I took her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny. It made me feel sort of sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell-I don’t know why exactly”.
I am a very dedicated reader, and I’m really strict when I read a book. There are two things that I look for. Two things that make me want to read, enjoy, and recommend the book. One, it has to be realistic. Unless it’s Harry Potter, or something that I know is clearly impossible, I expect a book to be real. To have its “feet on the ground” and to stop creating a world where the girl meets the boy, where the family is happy, where the whole environment is cliché. The second thing I look for, and that is not always there, I really love it when you read a sentence, a chapter and all you can say is “I know how that feels” or “That always happens to me”. Connection. It helps the reader understand the characters; it helps the reader learn a lesson that could someday be necessary in their own lives. Something I can tell you as a fact: Thousands of teenagers go through what Holden went through, and I know that despite the inappropriate vocabulary, the obscene environment and the crazy thoughts that go through Holden’s mind, it may be the inspiration and the help one can need. So why would you want to ban, hide, and prevent teenagers in help, to actually know what people out there go through? To actually open their eyes and see that life goes beyond eating turkey in a round table, playing outside the blue house and having a family where everyone seems to be happy?
In 1961, a teacher was fired because she assigned Catcher in the Rye to her students. Since the book was published it has been on the list of censored books, and has received critics such as being a “filthy book”, an “obscene book”, “inappropriate” and many others that to me seem irrelevant to what the real point of this book is. People that read and criticize this book might be too busy looking for its mistakes and obscenity scenes to actually realize that all Holden was trying to do was to eliminate and get rid of the mean people, the phony people, and the fake people in this world. He was a catcher in the rye. He wanted to catch the innocence, the kids, before they fell into what adulthood was all about (262).
“I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another "Fuck you" on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn't come off. It's hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world. It's impossible”.
When I read this part, I thought about what the “Fuck You” really meant. It means haters. It means imperfection; it means people that are just messed up. What he tries to tell the reader is that not even with the innocence and patience one could have, would they be able to erase all the Fuck You’s out there.
There is a journey when you read a book. There is a path were different feelings might be found, but at the end there is one question to answer. Did you like the book? Every time we discussed a chapter or a part from Catcher in the Rye, half of us said “Well, it’s all because Holden’s crazy” or “Ah! He’s so bipolar!” I’m not saying I take it back because Holden is kind of crazy. His decisions are sometimes strange and his sense of humor and criticism might show hate and rudeness instead and thinking about this amazing novel being banned seems completely ignorant and unfair. If you were looking for a yes or no answer, my answer is no. I don’t think they should ban this book. It is a great example of real life, coming of age issues such as drinking, smoking and sex. Do I think it should be taught nowadays? Yes, yes and yes. Teenagers don’t need anymore white lies, endless tirades, and cliché examples of what life is like. What we need is a real, honest, and clear as water example of what life is like. What we are going to have to deal with when we’re adults. What people are up to, what some teenagers are going through, what we can do to help and what we should see now, instead of 30 years later when it’ll be too late to change. That is what Catcher in the Rye is. Life in 1951 may have had different teenagers, with different backgrounds and different ideas of life. But time is no reason for someone to stop showing kids and teenagers what life is all about. Once, someone said: “The players might change but the game remains the same”. And to me, that is what this novel represents. No matter how much time goes by, we’ll find haters, we’ll find influences and wrong ideas in the wrong places. No matter how good it looks, and how right it seems, we need to know what our consequences will be. Hiding the truth from us, is not preparing us for what we will eventually have to see.
“To ban a great literary work like this is to keep teenagers sheltered from the truth of the "real world."
-Kristina Jones (what she thinks about banning Catcher in the Rye)
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