Why did the catcher in the rye have such an impact on americans of the 20th century and today?

Question

Why did the catcher in the rye have such an impact on americans of the 20th century and today?

Answer 1

There are numerous online resources to help you with The Catcher in the Rye, most of which analyze the story, discuss themes and symbolism and other literary devices, and give character sketches.  If you do a search you will find many helpful resources.  Additionally hundreds of questions have been asked here on Y!A about The Catcher in the Rye so do a search for it in the Yahoo Answers search window and you will find lots of Q’s and A’s that should help you.    A couple of these links have quite a few quotes from the novel.

http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/ca...

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/t...

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guide...

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/catcher_in...

http://classiclit.about.com/od/catcherin...

Answer 2

John Lennon was murdered over 30 years after this book was released, and while the impact was pretty severe on him, that's not really an answer to this question.

Catcher in the Rye broke new ground in literature because it broke so many conventions and challenged the conservative values of the late 1940's-1950s mainstream.  It featured a young protagonist thinking and speaking like a typical teenager--which was pretty shocking to those who had never read such language in print.

The book continues to have an impact today, and will continue to have an impact as long as there are young people who feel disenfranchised by society.  People strongly relate to Holden Caufield because he recognizes a lot of negative things about society and desires to protect the helpless and innocent from them.  His voice is the same voice as anyone who's ever been frustrated by his/her rather helpless role in the world, and he speaks strongly to those like him--on the cusp of adulthood and scared to death of entering the real nasty world.

Answer 3

There was this big thing that happened when the book came out, Someone who read the book shot John Lennon because he thought he was a phony, and alot of people think it is very consrovertial.