Read No Evil, Do No Evil

The first time I read Catcher in the Rye freshman year of high school it instantly became one of my favorite books. Perhaps I was identifying with Holden’s lost sense of self or his inability to cope with growing up, but nonetheless it spoke to me. If you asked me what I remembered from the book or what spoke to me most, I would not tell you that I wanted to rebel or thought the whole world was “phony.” I would tell you that I enjoyed the book because here was a character who didn’t try to over-impress me with his goodness or extreme badness. I felt he was real and identifiable. But then you examine Holden’s background and well what did I have in common with a rich prep school kid from New York who flunked out of an all boys school? I have come to question this myself and why this character spoke to me in order to understand how censorship of this book was developed.
I believe the censorship issue goes along with the idea of when are kids able to interpret information and possible adult topics in a manner which they can fully understand good choices versus bad ones. The issue with this novel I think has a lot to do with the case of Grease being banned in Missouri. Adults see adult topics like prostitution and sex and believe that kids and young adults do not have the capacity to differentiate right from wrong. It is easy for me to say that this is a ridiculous notion but then I think to myself of the idea of having my own children one day and subjecting them to this type of literature, and I do get a bit more skeptical of letting kids read this novel. However, the ability to learn and grow as a young adult can be a rupturing and inspiring time something that Catcher in the Rye seems to capture and allure readers with. I think that rather than shying away from sensitive topics like sex, we need to speak and communicate with the younger community in order to establish an open a discussion on right versus wrong for them. Let them read and learn and engage in the literature and the touchy subject matter but have someone there to guide them on their journey. But then again, I did not have this guidance and neither did my peers while reading this book and we were able to develop without the foreseen negative consequences of reading this novel. Perhaps we should have a little more faith in our youth and their mental capacity as well as engage with them in discussions on these matters rather than hide them from the world.