Banned book review: The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, has, like most of our reviewed books, been banned almost from its pub­li­ca­tion in 1951.

In spite of (or more prob­a­bly, because of) this, it keeps find­ing its way into ado­les­cent hands, main­ly as assigned read­ing by high school English teach­ers. I myself, to my mother’s sur­prise, was assigned it by Sister Hyacinth when I was in tenth grade at Villa Joseph Marie Academy for Girls in the ear­ly sev­en­ties.  We had a young and pro­gres­sive prin­ci­pal, Sister Mary Balkus, who believed it was best to show us “grit­ty real­ism” in lit­er­a­ture.  Perhaps she believed it would not sur­prise us so much when we met it in real life.

Holden Caulfield, the pro­tag­o­nist, is quick­ly per­ceived by the read­er as a flip­pant rebel with plen­ty of irrev­er­ence to go around and not much of a per­son­al hon­or code.  However, as the sto­ry deep­ens, so does our look into Holden’s reflec­tive life. Turns out, he is deeply, dark­ly trou­bled; he is a prime can­di­date for men­tal health assis­tance. Like so many teens of his time and niche in soci­ety, his emo­tion­al needs are bleak­ly neglected.

This anti-hero is him­self a somber con­dem­na­tion of 1950s America.  Unlike Madison Avenue’s pro­jec­tion of an inef­fa­bly cheery post-war Utopia, Holden’s emo­tion­al dark­ness reminds us that famil­ial dys­func­tion exists, it is seri­ous, and left unad­dressed, it becomes tragic.

The author’s use of foul lan­guage, con­ver­sa­tions that include sex­u­al over­tones, painful­ly accu­rate descrip­tions of sui­ci­dal thoughts, and the mock­ery direct­ed at author­i­ty quick­ly brought this book under the gun of cen­sor­ship. Even as a teen myself, while I acknowl­edged that Holden’s lan­guage, thoughts, and goals seemed pret­ty ordi­nary, I recall being sur­prised at see­ing them in print, in a book actu­al­ly hand­ed to me by a sil­ver-haired nun.  I also remem­ber being upset and con­fused by the sui­ci­dal med­i­ta­tions pre­sent­ed. I am thank­ful that the same sil­ver-haired nun drew us out, and made us talk about it.

Again, I main­tain that most of us should re-read most of what we were assigned in high school and col­lege.  As a Jones-Era Boomer myself, I got so much more from this book in the last few years than I did as a teen read­er.  I learned from it, yes; but with many life expe­ri­ences behind me now, the truths expressed in The Catcher in the Rye touched deep­er chords and stirred a com­pas­sion that my ado­les­cent self had not yet gained.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is avail­able in dig­i­tal and book form at the Clark County Public Library. It can be pur­chased at most book­stores or online from Bookshop.org, a con­ve­nient way to buy books and sup­port inde­pen­dent booksellers.