Profanity

I have not thought about The Catcher In The Rye for many, many years.  J.D. Salinger's death announcement took me back to my sophomore year in high school. The Catcher In The Rye was required reading. There was always a debate about if the book should be required, optional or banned entirely. It is full of  the things that teenagers think about all the time, sex, profanity, anxiety and the hypocrisy of the adult world; those being exactly the things that when we become adults we deny having thought about and insist our own teenagers don't think about.  I think adult denial is a little less than it was in 1972.  Many taboos have fallen by the wayside since that time. Whether something is considered wrong or right or moral or immoral isn't even the point.  I think a book like The Catcher In The Rye might have much less impact on teenagers now because Holden Caulfield's issues would not be whispered about today. Teenage angst is shouted from the rooftops, sung about at least as often as love in popular music, and is on display by fashion of choice.  A teenager who is sullen and swears just seems like rather ordinary fare.  I'm not making a literary judgment about the book, only  thinking about how it's message may have become diluted over time. I am pretty sure the novel has not been on the required reading list in our local high school for many years. I don't remember my kids talking about it and it wasn't on the list when I was substituting regularly in the high school english classes just a few years ago.

 When things become common they lose their shock value.  I don't like the use of profanity. I find it rather infantile but I don't find it shocking. It is so common that once a child has attended a year of school they have  pretty much heard all the forbidden words and phrases, especially if that child rides the school bus with older children. When an adorable child in the grocery store lets go with a string of words befitting a seasoned sailor, I am annoyed but not shocked. When pimply faced high school boys insert their favorite four letter word after every third word spoken and their gum smacking female counterparts reply in kind, I find it tragically comic, but not shocking.  I do remember a time when I wanted to test drive these same words.  Although I don't think I was overly naive at the time, I recall being in high school and  hearing a swear word that was new to me. I was with a group of friends as we walked from the main high school building to an old administration building that was being used for art classes.  I overheard one of the guys use this new word and when I asked him what it meant he blushed and said he really could not tell me. Not being one to easily back down, (and I wonder where my children get these unattractive personality traits) I started repeating the word over and over again while increasing the loudness of my voice with each repetition. By the time we reached the art building, I was veritably shouting. A different boy than the one who had originally used the word (who was now beside himself with embarrassment)  pulled me aside, whispered the meaning of the word in my ear, and then asked me if I would just shut up.  I was glad to oblige since I then  understood that this was not a word suitable for  yelling  in public places.  The point I was trying to make before that little trip down memory lane is that I now have no use for profanity.  These words might have been powerful once; but that was when they were saved up for the rare times we really wanted to make a dramatic or highly emotionally charged statement. There is no power left in profanity when little girls who are disappointed because Captain Crunch Cereal  didn't make it into the grocery cart swear just like Holden Caulfield.