Aleksandar’s comment > Likes and Comments

"... one can't exactly go ahead and say Salinger is vulgar in his books."

I din't mean to infer judgement of Salinger or the character. A character is who he/she is. Holden's swearing stood out, for me, as authentically representative of a boy who's under a lot of stress and about to blow or something has to give. Which it does.

It helps to define Holden as a character. If the swearing didn't stand out, that meaning (of his crisis mental state) wouldn't come across as well.

People who go out in public cursing are regarded as looney, as in tourette syndrome. Holden doesn't come across that way because the vast majority of his cursing is done in his head as first-person narrator.

It the swearing weren't considered excessive, the book wouldn't be banned, as it still is in some places, for foul language.

You might be wrong. The main protagonist of the book is a 16-year-old boy who is flunked out from school, but doesn't care too much, he smokes and drinks like a madman, he invites hookers to his hotel room, lies a lot, respects absolutely no authority, undermines family values, he wants to run away and live the life of a hermit. And yet you think the book has been challenged only for its excessive swearing. Please tell me you are joking. You're from the US, you should know more about the reception of such books back in the day than I do