According to Joseph Cummins, a researcher on adolescent rebellion in the 1950s and 1960s, in 1946, 3.4 million children were born in the United States, a figure never seen before. 3.8 million followed in 1947. After 1954, 4 million babies were born each year until 1964, when the baby boom faded. These children came of age in the 1950s and 1960s and immediately began to rebel. (Cummins) As parents they were faced with a new and more dangerous form of adolescent rebellion to adapt to historically tense times. While all attention was on maintaining new social norms and expelling communists from 1950s America, teenagers like Holden were allowed to simply slip through the cracks and watch as their mental states deteriorated without the adequate treatment. Although people claim that the book The Catcher in the Rye is not a social commentary on the evils of the 1950s, Salinger provides a first-hand account of the social norms, historical tensions, and psychological states of the era, demonstrating that responsibility promotes hypocrisy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay This period is infamous for its invisible war against communism and the disturbing need to live a cookie-cutter lifestyle after the economic boom. Parents found a safe place in the suburbs being able to provide more for their children than their parents had ever given them. There were certain rules to follow, and if they weren't followed, the children were sent away. Stanford professor Richard Powers says: “A significant part of the adult generation disapproved of adolescent values ​​and lifestyle and was doing something about it, including establishing new rules, restrictions and bans. The boy's hair was not allowed to touch his ears, under penalty of expulsion. Most girls were not allowed to wear pants. The new slang - hipster language - annoyed most adults. He was part African American, part beatnik, and part street gang... an offensive combination in the eyes of the status quo." (Powers) This seems extremely controlling and a bit hypocritical given that parents don't allow their children to be themselves. This is something that everyone has wanted and is entitled to, this has been taken away from them and this has led to isolation and loneliness among teenagers. Trying to juggle teenage rebellion and parents also had another concern growing, the spread of communism. Alan Nadel puts it this way: “All of this took place through publicized trials of suspected spies and subversives, loyalty oaths, academic and Hollywood purges, as well as extensive anti-communist legislation.” (Nadel) This has made this period very difficult for the average man because every citizen was both the threat and the threatened The constant thought that anyone around you could be an enemy waiting to strike could drive anyone crazy, as well as having no real proof of. loyalty. This emerges from Holden's speech and the continued use of the word "false" in reference to the need to always be on guard against one's friends, neighbors and family. Political tensions at the time were at an all-time high and the American administration's people reflected this in the way they behaved and in their rhetoric. Alan Nadel, author of "Rhetoric, Sanity, and the Cold War: The Significance of Holden Caulfield's Testimony," states: “This aspect of fiction could not be more emphasized than Holden Caulfield's speech, aa discourse which, moreover, reflects the pressures and contradictions prevalent in the Cold War society by which it was forged”. (Nadel) Holden's use of swear words throughout the book shows his growing irritation, this could reflect on politics in this time period. At one point, the United States and the Soviet Union were wartime allies, but in peacetime they quickly became enemies due to conflicting ideologies and competition.arrived at global interests. This generated a form of paranoia that reshaped foreign policy for years after the Cold War. History.com states, “Many people in the United States feared that communists, or “subversives,” could destroy American society from both within and without.” (History.com) Holden represents this paranoia that the American people felt at the time in The Catcher in the Rye when he heads to New York, harasses a taxi, then proceeds to ask the taxi driver many questions which only cause irritation in the driver as well as make him suddenly more paranoid and questionable towards Holden. (Salinger Page 82) At that time men were constantly on the alert, always looking for the hidden enemy. This reflects on the taxi driver because sometimes, in order not to be suspected of being in bed with the enemy, it was necessary to look and behave like everyone else. The 1950s were a time of great conformity in a political time of disorder and disloyalty. Everyone lived the same cookie-cutter lifestyle, some were afraid to step outside the lines for fear of being suspected of communism. This time period was also littered with unprofessional school environments and abstinence-only sex education that ultimately only harmed children. Despite many notable attempts by schools to improve their programs, they have still encountered difficulties in defining the goals of family life and sexuality education. According to Rose M. Somerville, author of family life and sex education, states: “The fact that some difficulties are contradictory only compounds the problems.” (Somerville) This alone is an indication of hypocrisy at the highest levels. To correctly define the goals of family life, the need for sexual education becomes even greater. How is a child expected to understand the gravity of their choices as an adult without having the knowledge of how to handle adult problems? Isn't this what the school system is paid for for American children? Not teaching children the importance of safe sex and how to avoid unwanted pregnancies can make or break their future as well as that of America's children. As baby boomers grew up and began to transform into individuals, parents began to put an end to things like boys with long hair, jeans, rock n roll, and fast cars because they were all considered unethical and not the social norm. This is questionable considering that when the parents of this generation were themselves teenagers they also desired freedom and individualism, in a sense you could say they were rebelling. If children did not respect their parents' wishes, they were packaged up and sent off to boarding school in the hope that they would be "molded" into a more productive member of society when, if put in their shoes, they would not wish this upon themselves. question their morals and their suitability to be parents. As Holden states in the book “They didn't mold at Pencey any more than they did at any other damn school” (Salinger Page 2) this shows that the schools themselves did not mold the students into anything special, they simply strongly encouraged the students to fall in line , which manythey did with ease. They attended every football match, sitting on the bench tirelessly cheering for their team, even though they didn't know why they liked them. They learned all the material simply because they were told to. They scored high on all state tests because they had been skillfully trained in how to pass them. You could argue that these days no one ever had a thought of their own. they were always told what to wear, what to say and what to do. Let's take this example from Salinger: “The game with Saxon Hall should have been a big deal for Pencey. It was the last game of the year and you would have had to kill yourself or something if old Pencey hadn't won. (Salinger Page 1) Once again the morality of these parents is up in the air once you encourage your child to live a life like they don't want to live and force them to participate in things they ultimately have no interest in. The theory alone is shaky, but it lacks evidence to support the argument for the cookie-cutter lifestyle beyond the simple “I told you so.” .” This in itself can be stressful for a child in addition to the rejection of who they truly are inside, and in Holden's case, the trauma of losing his brother drove him almost mad and the belief is that it was for the greater good. Well? If the reader really begins to analyze Holden it could be deduced that Salinger is referring to the end of the book where Holden suffers a nervous breakdown and is later sent to a mental hospital for treatment. Holden himself did not fit social norms, such as not going to the most important football match of the year, he did not take his own life, but a visit to a psychiatric hospital can still definitely be classified below, as Salinger states, "or something like that." (Salinger Page 1) Throughout the book, the reader watches as Holden's frustration begins to slowly eat away at him leading to the deterioration of his mental state. The book begins with Holden acting like a seemingly normal, angst-filled teenager, but as the book continues it becomes apparent that there is something wrong with Holden, not just normal teenage rebellion. However, no one else seems to recognize what Holden is going through and he is labeled as just another rebellious teenager, and because of this most adults choose not to care about him due to the difficulties he presents. Carl Pickhardt, a psychologist, puts it this way: "Parents usually don't like teenage rebellion; it's not just because it creates more resistance to their job of providing structure, guidance, and supervision." (Pickhardt) Holden was not the only teenager during this time with this problem, many teenagers found it difficult to express themselves and many mental illnesses were overlooked due to political tensions and the comfort provided by the economic boom. This raises questions about why his parents didn't get him help after his brother's death and before it was too late, at a time when grief counseling was badly needed. This causes a sense of selfishness prevalent in Cold War society which allowed a cycle of hypocrisy to survive even as it does in modern society today. Joseph Cummins, a researcher on teenage rebellion in the 1950s and 1960s, states: "As millions of baby boomers grew up in the affluent post-war suburbs, they began their own rebellion against the materialism of their youth." (Cummins) The differentiation between parent and child led to many disagreements and hypocrisy towards their children because parents thought they knew what was in the greatest good for their children. Many, however, rejected the,.