Tiffany Neuharth
Methods Book Rationale - The Catcher in the Rye
November 27, 2001
Julee Russell
Grade Level and Audience
Even after The Catcher in the Rye turned fifty this year, it still remains appropriate for an audience
consisting of individuals ranging from possibly fifteen to maybe nineteen years old. The narrator himself is
a young teenager of approximately the same age, and students who are at the same place in life as he would
be able to directly relate to the situations Holden Caulfield addresses in his narration.
The themes presented in this novel are precisely those which students of this age are questioning,
experiencing, and wondering about in the confusion that is adolescence. Students who are not yet or just
turning into teenagers may not understand the scenes and themes Holden addresses, and students beyond
their teenage years may just want to tell Holden to grow up.
With the age factor such an issue with this book, students in a junior or senior level class would find
this book most beneficial or applicable to their own challenges and feelings about life.
Plot Summary
The Catcher in the Rye is narrated by Holden Caulfield, a young teenage boy who has been
expelled from three very good prep schools and is on his way to being expelled from his fourth. The book
is set during the 1950s and Holden, at the time of telling the story, is seemingly undergoing treatment in a
mental hospital. The story he narrates is about him leaving Pency prep school in Pennsylvania a few days
before Christmas break and his expulsion. Since he is not expected to return home from break for a few
days, and is afraid of going home before his parents have received the letter about his expulsion, he decides
to spend a few days in New York instead of staying in the dorms or going home.
Holden experiences a wide variety of “grown-up” incidences and he reacts to them in a manner not
too untypical of a sixteen-year-old boy. He has experienced some serious emotional hardship in his life
between his brother’s death and his own inability to apply himself in life. Holden has an irresponsible and
immature nature and personality, but he is also making observation of the rawest yet seemingly truest kind
about his surroundings and other individuals who happen to come in contact with him throughout the book.
Theoretical Opposition of the Concept to Ban Books
The selection of novels to be used by teachers in order to educate their students would seem to be a
somewhat simple task, but unfortunately the curriculum is challenged based on specific objections to
content and other factors, which therefore make such a task quite complex. While it is important to
verbalize and evaluate the materials being used in the classroom, banning books should not be an option to
any individual, group, or organization. Reading should be included in the constitution as a personal
freedom, and that freedom shouldn’t be taken away due to someone’s view of objectionable material.
The Catcher in the Rye may be a fictional story of a young boy, but it is one that many young adults
can relate to and understand, which just might spark an interest in reading as a whole and change the
attitude of reading as a chore. While as parents, everyone wants to protect their children, banning books
does not do so. It may briefly shelter them from a harsh reality of such issues as sex, drugs, abuse,
abortion, vulgar language, incest, rape, adultery, homosexuality, violence, and the list goes on, but such is
the reality of the world in which everyone lives. It may be wiser to experience the exposure of older
students to such terrible factors of life while they are still in the proximity of the supervision of parents,
teachers and other influential adults to whom they can raise questions and receive informed, intelligent
information on horrifying realities.