As one would expect from the 1950s setting, nearly everyone in this story drinks mixed drinks and smokes, both to excess. Holden gets quite drunk in one scene. But none of this is gratuitous: A) Some of the smoking relates to the time in which the book was written, and b) getting drunk is a huge rite of passage for kids and thus it's critically important to explore in literature. There is also an instance in which Holden overhears a story about someone attempting to commit suicide by taking aspirin.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
Near constant mild to moderate swearing, with a few instances of "f--k." Holden throws out the word "goddam" when referring to objects and events he feels strongly about. The language makes the book relatable for teens.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.
Teens think about sex. The sex here isn't explicit, but there are sexual references: Holden thinks, worries about, and talks about sex frequently and believes some of his teen friends to have had sex. In one scene, out of loneliness he agrees to have a prostitute visit his hotel room but then only wants to talk to her and ends up humiliated. In another he sees a couple engaged in foreplay and a man dressing up in women's clothes. Compared to today's TV and movie fare, sexual references in this book are tame.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Teen boys express themselves with violence at times. Holden is punched several times and remembers a boy at his boarding school who committed suicide by jumping out a window.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
This book is a textbook for adolescence and helps kids really grapple with the anxieties of being a teen. See our "Families Can Talk About" section for some ideas for helping your kids delve more deeply into this classic.
Positive Messages
some
Even though Holden sees the world as a cruel, lonely, and uncaring place, the book offers a way for kids to delve safely into the real issues at the heart of being an adolescent. Some of the best books use anti-heroes to teach their lessons -- this book is exhibit A.
Positive Role Models
a little
Holden is the real anti-hero of teen literature. Kids learn so much about what kind of people they want to be by living through his actions and dilemmas. They can relate to Holden, who is on the verge of a breakdown and behaves bizarrely at times, including lying quite a bit. He runs away from school and lives on his own in New York City for several days. Although his behavior is often rather extreme, Holden's character lets kids examine their own as well as their insight into the world of adolescence and adulthood.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this book remains one of the best books about adolescence ever written. Any language used -- and it is chock full of mild to moderate swearing, and "f--k" is used several times -- is in the service of being true to the nature of a rebellious teen. There are also lots of sexual references, and everyone smokes and drinks -- including the underage protagonist. Holden refers to homosexuals as "flits." People have used these instances in an effort to have the book banned. But those who would do so miss the point of the book, which is a compassionate tale of a child adrift in the world. It's an American classic that everyone should read.
Dear Parents and Students,
While Catcher in the Rye remains one of my favored American Classics, it is not for classroom instruction.
First, Salinger never intended it for an adolescent reading audience. It has always been a book written for adults. In fact, the story's theme resonates the ideal of protecting childhood innocence through the main character's struggled and hurried existence of developmental life experiences. His intense suffering, due to the abandonment of developmental theory, sadly embodies an overwhelming majority of our American youth.
If we want to best serve our children's social-emotional and cognitive growth, we need to be on point with their stages of development. The continuum of adolescent development is so wide and unique to each child. Thus, as pillars of educational excellence, we need to be mindful of the materials we choose for learning.
Guidance required for sensitive issues as is threaded throughout this story (suicide, rebellion, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, pedophilia, homosexuality, and vulgar language content) is beyond teacher training. The social-emotional well being of students should always front load instructional practice. Literary learning targets can be met through alternate texts.
Parents and educators alike should champion the simple message J.D. Salinger penned... Provide your children with developmental stages of experiences that fit their unique needs. This is how we will together move our youth forward with greater sensitivity and care.
I read this book in high school and was so disgusted by it in a number of ways.
For this review, I am going to take this from the viewpoint of someone having watched people that HAVE mental health challenges read this. Because we all do tend to read and relate to characters and content, based on how our own lives are, this book can actually feed problems for people struggling with certain mental health issues.
If you have someone that is struggling with severe depression , it is not going to always produce a situation where they feel somehow "connected" with this damaged young man. I have seen it feed depression and trigger reckless behaviors in some with mental health issues , I will leave specific diagnoses out. If we are taking an honest look at the whole picture of those who are reading this, it can be be something that causes more destruction for an individual, rather than be some kind of an iconic novel. Sexual abuse and severe mental health conversations because of a book, are not something I feel should be led by a teacher in a classroom, there needs to be other people involved. I personally feel, that there are far greater "American Classics", that should be read in high schools nowadays, that are worth the time to contemplate and learn from.
These are challenging times . There are many things that are negative in the world around us and bad things that do happen. HOWEVER, there are many positive changes occuring as well and people who choose to make it so, and share HOW they did, even when dealing with their own struggles.
I think that we should be helping our young people people today with literature that can uplift and teach, without all the vulgarity and unnecessary darkness that they are affected by in other sources. It's all about choice. I feel we can make better ones, with some of the books required for young people to read in school.
What's the Story?
Holden Caulfield, about to be kicked out of yet another boarding school for flunking most of his courses, decides not to wait until the end of term and takes off for his hometown, Manhattan, a few days early. He figures he'll hole up in a cheap hotel, look up a few friends, then arrive home on time. But Holden is deeply troubled by the death of his beloved younger brother from leukemia, as well as a classmate's suicide. Alone in an uncaring city, his already fragile psyche begins to unravel.
Holden Caulfield holds a place in the American psyche akin to Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer: an exquisitely rendered character with whom nearly anyone can identify. There are three true things that can be said about J.D. Salinger's masterpiece: It is one of the great works of American literature, it is one of the most frequently challenged by would-be book-banners, and, therefore, it is one of the most misunderstood books of the 20th century. It has been challenged and banned for all of the reasons mentioned above in the content advisories. But those who challenge it fail to see the forest for the little swearword trees. They have called Holden a cynical teenager, when in fact he's such a compassionate innocent abroad that he can hardly cope with the cynical world at all: He's so innocent and so alone that he tries to get a prostitute to just chat and keep him company (alas, no heart of gold here). Desperately lonely, adrift in what seems to him an uncaring world, he has been through some terrible experiences, and no one at all seems to have noticed that he's crumbling.
It's true that much of it is somewhat dated now. Yet there's a reason this book has stayed in print, is stocked in nearly every bookstore, and has been assigned in nearly every high school for the past 60-plus years: Its emotional power and poignancy are still as strong as ever, and Holden's inner self is just as recognizable to teens today as it has ever been. This is one of those books that everyone should read as a teen. At a time (1951) when "teen" and "adolescent" were barely concepts in the American mind, Salinger captured the adolescent voice and way of thinking more perfectly -- and more poignantly -- than just about anyone before or since.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the ways in which the content of the book, which is set in New York City in the early 1950s, might be considered dated by today's standards. How are Holden's experiences different from those of a modern teenager? If there are differences, are there also things in Holden's world that have largely stayed the same in terms of teenage life?
Do you relate to Holden in any way? Do you admire him, or do you pity him? Or is it a little of both?
Why do you think this book is considered so important -- and why do you think it's been one of the most frequently challenged books when it comes to censorship?
Available on:
Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), iBooks, Kindle
Last updated:
August 2, 2021
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