the catcher in the rye?

Question

does anyone know why this book was banned??? i read it and had no clue as to why it was once banned.

Answer 1

Because it has an encounter with a prostitute. Of course, the way it's presented in the book would pretty much scare any teenager away from prostitutes for good, but there are some humorless people who think it's better to pretend things don't exist rather than try to explain them.

Banning books is the response of weak minded individuals who for some reason assume that other people's minds are weaker still, and they want to keep it that way.

Answer 2

While the other answers to your question are correct, it's not that simple. People that ban books may point to specific things in the book such as profanity or overt sexual situations as the reason for the banning. However more often the real reason is that the book offends their sense of morality or ethics or philosophy. Both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain have been banned in various parts of the country. Explanation - racist attitudes that disagreed with what the author was presenting. The Harry Potter series has been banned in parts of the country because religious fanatics claimed that the magic in the books represented evil and Satanism and they didn't want their children exposed to it. Same thing is true of The Witches by Roald Dahl, a well known author of many children's books. The list of banned books is just amazing.

I think the best example of this comes from the lips of Kurt Vonnegut. His book Slaughterhouse-Five was banned in parts of the country. In an interview he said that the book was not banned due to the profanity or overt sexual situations that were in the book. Vonnegut said that the book was banned because of what was termed his flippant attitude toward Jesus Christ.

Some of us think it's a big enough job just trying to live our own lives in an ethical and moral manner. Other people seem to think they know how all of us should live and are determined to force their sense of right and wrong down everyone else's throat.

Answer 3

Yes, The Catcher and the Rye was banned for some years, although it is one of my favorite books (and a great piece of literature) for having the ability to influence young people to go out and act "unresponsible" (i.e.-"Like Holden") . Some other books that I was surprised that were banned were Moll of Flanders and Harriet the Spy.

Answer 4

Because it contains the F-word and because Holden Caulfield solicits sex from a prostitute.

Answer 5

Sex and language. Pretty dumb, huh. What are they afraid of?