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CATCHER OF THE WORDLE
Phony Baloney
Banning books makes us all phony.
When I solved today’s Wordle, my mind immediately went to Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. I remember reading that book in high school and how he often called people PHONY when he didn’t like them or didn’t agree with them.
The Catcher in the Rye is one of those books that is an American Icon. It’s deep red cover with yellow letters almost immediately recognizable. I don’t remember everything about the book, but I remember that it seemed a little edgy when I read it. The language, the discussions of sex, fighting, and drinking and general misbehavior were somewhat foreign to me. I was young and so far in my life the fighting was the only thing I could really identify with.
Even though that book was a little above my personal experience, it was important for me to read it. It came with a class discussion where a trusted teacher offered to answer questions for any who were brave enough to ask. It gave me a different perspective than what I had seen so far in my life.
According to The Banned Books Project, this book has been challenged many times by various districts and schools. There have been nine different instances where schools have tried to remove it due to language and content.
