What is it about Holden Caulfield that made him so controversial?
In the 1950's there was a huge uproar of outrage towards the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" but what about it is wrong?
Public Comments
- maybe b/c he was mentally ill and the reader was meant to sympathize with him.
- the fact that hes like 15, gets kicked out of school, doesn't tell his parents, lives in new york by himself, gets drunk, gets a prostitute, ect. it does not seem so bad nowadays but the 50's were a different time.
- Holden Caulfield wasn't controversial. The book was controversial at the time because it openly described "personal" (including sexual) topics. Those descriptions seem tame by modern standards, but these things were not discussed in "polite company" back then.
- At the time is was uncommon for people to do the stuff in the book that Caulfield did. I mean really the book said god damn around 100 times. We're talking the 1950s, old fashioned. People aren't used to all the swearing and sexual innuendos used in the book as like todays culture. Caulfield was rebelling and at that time it was very opposed to rebel. Today I don't think there is anything wrong with it, but back then people may have thrown a fit about it. I think it's just people as a culture were different back then as compared to today's time. Plus it had a gay moment and that really scared people!
- i think its because of holden's rebel type attitude on things and his teen angst
Powered by Yahoo! Answers