The Catcher in the Rye Persuasive Speech

666 Words3 Pages
Around 250,000 copies of The Catcher in the Rye are still sold each year with total sales of more than 65 million books. My name is Daniel Porter and today I’d like to present my opinion as to why classic literature should be retained in the curriculum of senior English students. Classic novels provide the reader with opportunities to explore moral dilemmas within society and reflect on our own personal experiences. They raise an awareness of controversial issues sometimes not up for discussion, such as mental illness. Classic novels are well written and provide readers with exposure to language not heard in our everyday lives. As an avid reader of many different genres I feel that I have noticed the classics still have relevance today and are discussed in detail by people of many generations. Some are entertaining enough to be made into movies. I strongly believe that there is a now a tendency in society to always discard the old for the new without thinking about how it is still useful today. The underlying messages outlined in many classic novels and discussed amongst readers haven’t changed over the years and are still relevant in today’s world. If it is a good message, it doesn’t matter when or where it was written, it will stand the test of time and be repeated for many generations. A good example of this are the parables found in the Bible. Many of the parables in the Bible discuss moral dilemmas faced by people which are still very much relevant in our modern world. We relate to these stories on a personal level and apply the messages into our daily lives. The Catcher in the Rye is like this and it gives us an opportunity to experience what it must have been like for a teenager growing up in New York in the 1950’s with a mental illness. Readers can then apply this knowledge to personal experiences and the way people with mental illnesses are treated in

More about The Catcher in the Rye Persuasive Speech

Open Document