Why do we still read Catcher in the Rye?

Catcher in the Rye is a novel on a young angsty boy growing up in a less than perfect situation and having to embrace that and move on with things. The novel is set in the 50's and has been a staple of high school reading lists for many years since its publishing. I like Catcher and by no means am I saying it should not be read but I often wonder why no more relatable or relevant novels have replaced it as a cry to youth rejecting growing up in classrooms. The novel is very old, old enough that a boy under 18 is able to rent a hotel room in New York City among other things that just aren’t feasible to most modern high schoolers. So in this wondering the question of what can replace Catcher is raised and moreover what can replace, in the high school required reading lists, all the classics that distance readers with their age to bring in more relatable and relevant work?

David Mitchell is the author of award winning novels like Cloud Atlas among others and seems to answer the question of what novel could better replace Catcher with his own novel Black Swan Green. The story follows a young boy growing up in the 1980’s with a knack for stuttering and stammering, a hard-ass dad who can’t remain faithful to his wife as well as a rough relationship with his fellow classmates who are keen to bare down on him for his stuttering. The novel also deals with growing up during wartime and many other parallels. This novel brings so much more in terms of topics to explore and opens a world of relevant discussion up to readers but you wouldn’t find it in any high school classroom throughout America, rather there would be stacks of beat up copies of Catcher that have been passed through seven generations of students all while becoming increasingly more irrelevant.  

           

             Catcher in the Rye has a lot of merit, and I am very glad I had to read it in high school but I often see myself wondering if a better book could have made a more interesting, relevant discussion. If maybe instead of The Scarlet Letter a more recent,more relatable plunge into Sin and Puritanism. There's merit in the classics, from Homer to Hemingway but I often wonder if those famous writers of high school classrooms couldn’t be better paired with more relevant works to engage in and create an environment more prone to not only reading but also enjoying it and being affected by it.