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It was the first book that used profanity, and sexual situations. In America post world war 2 children were suppose to be grateful for all that the grownups did for them but the book challenges the fact that life was not all it was cracked up to be for children after the war. Mark Chapman read the book before killing John Lennon, that sparked many people to want to read it to figure out what drove Mark Chapman to kill
 * Why did this book have such an effect on Americans of the 20th century? **

“The Catcher in the Rye” was a rite of passage for generations of teenagers who saw in Holden Caulfield, the high school truant, an enemy of adult phoniness and hypocrisy. It is the way teenagers think, someone says. It is connecting to teens even today because we still face authority that sometimes can be overwhelming or hypocritical. On the other hand other people believes that teenager to day are not the teenagers of the 20. Sure they are teenagers but their focus has shifted. Teenagers today rebel differently.
 * Why does it continue to have an effect on young readers now in the 21st century? **

**How did teenagers react to the book when it was first published?**
The children of the 50’s were seduced to the books controversy and many shard it with friend. It is such a coming of age rebellious book.

Sexual content and offensive language in the book has contributed to the banning of the book. In the story the main character talks and thinks like a teenager. He thinks of sex often and talks about his sexually active friends. The book has 224 examples of bad language. There are a few f bombs but most of the curse words used in the book have become more accepted in today’s society. The book has been fought against since the beginning. In 1960 a schoolteacher was fired for assigning the book to his 11th grade class. He won the court case but the book still continued to be banned. A community in Columbus Ohio said it was “anti-white.” J.D. Salinger was upset with the ban, "Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach." In 1980 Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon and as a motive for shooting him he handed the police Salinger’s book. The main character of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caufield, is most often the symbol of teenage angst
 * Why was the book banned?**

Mark David Chapman assassinated John Lennon on December 8, 1980. After he shot Lennon outside his apartment in New York City he took out a copy of the Catcher in the Rye and was reading it when the police came to arrest him. It was said that Mark David Chapman was obsessive about the novel and signed most of his letters he wrote as “the catcher in the rye” or “Holden Caulfield”. It is said that a man named John Hinkley was motivated by The Catcher in the Rye to assassinate Ronald Reagan. He was obsessed with Jodie Foster. He thought that killing Ronald Reagan would get her attention. They found the book in his hotel room after he was arrested
 * __Famous people connected to the Catcher in the Rye__**