In “The Catcher in the Rye” a coming of age story is told of Holden Caulfield. Many conflicts with maturity arise in coming of age literature. Throughout the reading of the text a large amount of graphic language is used by the narrator. The constant cursing and references to classes of people in derogatory terms permeate throughout the reading. This fact alone causes the book to be controversial and in turn banned from many curriculums. The language is often called into question of necessity especially when exposing younger readers to literature. In Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” the vulgarity of the chosen language is necessary to show the character’s multiple inner conflicts.
The death of Holden Caulfield’s little brother, Allie, proves to be a conflict that Holden struggles with throughout the story. At one point Holden recalls “I …show more content…
Upon arriving in New York, Holden leaves his hotel to go out to drink. Caulfield meets a group of three women that he considers “phonies” and dances with them and buys their drinks. Holden thought “the whole three of them kept looking all around the goddam room, like as if they expected a flock of goddam movie stars to come in” (Salinger, 73). The whole time with these women, Holden is trying to interact and even pretended to have seen a movie star for their enjoyment. Holden protects himself with such cynicism he is not able to see his own faults since his thoughts are always on other people. The language he uses to describe the women shows his obvious disdain for their actions. It seems that the more often he curses it only justifies Holden’s stance to himself, so that he can only think of others and how he views them. The language that Holden uses throughout the text successfully alienate him from any and all groups he seeks out leading to his eventual