FREE ESSAY ON CATCHER IN THE RYE

CATCHER IN THE RYE

'The novel has long ignited disapproval, and it was the most frequently banned book in
schools between 1966 and 1975. Even before that time,
however, the work was a favorite target of sensors. In 1957, Australian Customs seized a
shipment of the novels that had been presented as a
gift to the government by the U.S. ambassador. The books were later released, but Customs
had made its point that the book contained
obscene language and actions that were not appropriate behavior for an adolescent. In
1960, a teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was fired for
assigning the book to an eleventh-grade English class. The teacher was appealed and was
reinstated by the school board, but the book was
removed from use in the school.' 
'The following year in Oklahoma City, the novel became the focus of a legislative hearing
in which a locally organized censorship group sought
to stop the Mid-Continent News Company, a book wholesaler, from carrying the novel.
Members of the group parked a Smutmobile outside
the capital building during the hearing and displayed the novel with others. As a result
of public pressure, the wholesaler dropped the critcized
books from its inventory. In 1963 a delegation of parents of high school students in
Columbus, Ohio, asked the school board to ban Catcher in
the Rye, BRAVE NEW WORLD and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD for being anti-white and obscene.' 
'After a decade of quiet, objections arose again in 1975 in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania,
and the novel was removed from the suggested reading
list for an elective course entitled  Searching for Values and Identity Through
Literature. Based on parents' objections to the language and
content of the book, the school board voted 5-4 to ban the book. The book was later
reinstated in the curriculum when the board learned that
the vote was illegal because they needed a two-thirds vote for removal of the text.' 
'In 1977 parents in Pittsgrove Township, New Jersey, challenged the assignment of the
novel in an American literature class. They charged that
the book included considerable profanity and filthy and profane language that premoted
premarital sex, homosexuality, and perversion, as
well as claiming that it was explicitly pornographic and immoral. After months of
controversy, the board ruled that the novel could be read
in the advanced placement class for its universal message, not for its profanity, but
they gave parents the right to decide whether or not their
children would read it.' 
'In 1978 parents in Issaquah, Washington, became upset with the rebellious views
expressed in the novel by Holden Caulfield and with the
profanity he uses. The woman who led the parents' group asserted that she had counted 785
uses of profanity, and she alleged that the
philosophy of the book marked it as part of a Communist plot that was gaining a foothold
in the schools, in which a lot of people are used and
may not even be aware of it. The school board voted to ban the book, but the decision was
later reversed when the three members who had
voted against the book were recalled due to illegal deal-making. In 1979, the
Middleville, Michigan, school district removed the novel from the
required reading list after parents objected to the content.' 
'Objections in the novel have been numerous throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. In
1980, the Jacksonville-Milton School libraries in North
Jackson, Ohio, removed the book, as did two high school libraries in Anniston, Alabama.
In 1982, school officials removed the book from all
school libraries because it contained excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, and things
concerning moral issues. In 1983, parents in Libby,
Montana, challenged the assignment of the book in the high school due to the book's
contents. Deemed unacceptable and obscene, the
novel was banned from use in English classes at Freeport High School in De Funiak
Springs, Florida, in 1985, and it was removed from the
required reading list in 1986 in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, Senior High School because of
sexual references and profanity. In 1987, parents and
the local Knights of Columbus chapter in Napoleon, North Dakota, complained about
profanity and sexual references in the book, which was
banned from a required sophomore English reading list. Parents of students attending
Linton-Stockton (Indiana) High School challenged the
book in 1988 because it undermines morality, and profanity was the reason for which the
book was banned from classrooms in the Boron,
California, high school in 1989.' 
'The challenges to the novel have continued well into the 1990s. In 1991, the novel was
challenged at Grayslake (Illinois) Community High
School for profanity, and students in Jamaica High School in Sidell, Illinois, cited
profanities and the depiction of premarital sex, alcohol abuse
and prostitution as the basis for their 1992 challenge. Three other major challenges to
the novel occurred in 1992. The novel was challenged and
removed from the Waterloo, Iowa, public schools and the Duval County, Florida, public
school libraries because of the lurid passages about
sex and profanity, while a parent in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, objected to the book because
it was immoral and contained profanity. In 1993,
parents in the Corona-Norco (California) School District protested the use of the novel
as a required reading, because it was centered around
negative activity. The school board voted to retain the novel but instructed teachers to
select alternative readings if students objected to it.
The novel was challenged but retained for use in select English classes at New Richmond
(Wisconsin) High School in 1994, but it was removed
as mandatory reading from the Goffstown, New Hampshire, schools the same year because
parents charged that it contained vulgar words
and presented the main character's sexual exploits.'