The Worth and Curse of Fiction Reading in J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye

Abstract

Fiction reading has been examined from a multitude of angles and approached from a variety of disciplines, each seeking to investigate one of their target inquiries. Disciplines such as Cognitive Psychology have discovered some interesting results about the affective and cognitive effects reading fictional literature evokes in readers’minds and behaviours. However, most of their investigations end up praising literature and encouraging people to read more. In contrast, this research attempts to expose a literary phenomenon that does not treat literature with similar positivity for it strives to reveal the extent of harm reading novels may cast at the level of readership. The consequences that were discovered initially range from propagating stereotypes and prejudices to inspiring violence and murder. It compares the media contagion effect of the copycat effect; trying to conclude the same for reading fiction. Based on the history of some novels and following New Historicism as an analytical methodology, The Catcher in the Rye is taken as an exemplary novel that has been linked to some crimes; the most important of which is the murder of one member of the Beatles, John Lennon, and the attempted assassination of the American President, Ronald Reagan. As this paper submits, future research may find new grounds of examining the edgy side of literature and its potential distorted influence; Criminology, legislation, and detective offices may locate new sources to relate the crimes they may encounter; and readers could be more cautious and aware in choosing and handling their reading materials. Authors, as well, will be more inclined to pay more attention while writing.