The Catcher in the Rye

Is this book appropriate for high school seniors or juniors?

I am a high school teacher and we use this book in English 11. But I would think that it is appropriate for Grade 12 as well. It is a coming of age story about a boy who is in high school.  It is widely read in Junior year in my area in New York

I teach this book as part of a unit with my juniors. They have the choice of Bean Trees, Catcher in the Rye or Brave New World. For my students, this works even with the prostitution and profanity because we've read other works with controversal language. When we read Of Mice and Men, we look at who swears and when they swear and how this affects our interpretation of the characters. When we read "The Adventure of the German Student" (Irving) and "Cask of Amontillado" (Poe), we talk about the sexual subtext. So, by the time the students reach the end of the year with either Catcher or Brave New World, I've modelled good reading habits with them, focusing them on the thematic meanings and discouraging the more salacious comments, usually by ignoring them or telling the students to show more maturity.

So, if you're planning on being a teacher, my advice would be to slowly increase the controversy of the material you present to students. If you do this, I think Catcher is very appropriate. My students who read it still identify with the hopelessness and frustration (even though I think it's a bit dated), and many name the book as one of their favorites.

I'm probably the only person in the universe who thinks this, but I've never considered The Catcher in the Rye to be a particularly good book.  I don't think it's very well-written, and I honestly believe that all the controversy about it (the language and subject matter) is what propelled it to being considered a "classic" - if people had ignored it back when it was first published, I don't think it would even be taught or read very much anymore.

I think with all of the great works of literature out there, this is a pretty poor choice to add to any high school reading list, regardless of grade level or age of students.