Among the titles on the list of most contested books in the United States, we find Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. These American classics, however controversial, delve into the essence of identifying as an American. Catch-22, a novel about soldiers serving in the US Air Force during World War II, and The Catcher in the Rye, a book about a seventeen-year-old social outcast living in New York, express American society through the American spirit, culture, identity and values. First, both authors have distinctly different ideologies that pertain to their perspective as an American; in Catch-22 an American remains sane, yet surrounded by madmen, while in The Catcher in the Rye the Americans give off a false and eerie air. An example in Catch-22 where Yossarian realizes that he is the only sane person among the insane occurs when he realizes, "The night was full of horrors, and he thought he knew what Christ must have felt as he walked through the world, like a psychiatrist through a ward full of madmen, like a victim through a prison full of thieves” (Heller 425), trying to express similarities between Yossarian and Christ, uses the emotion of loneliness, as well as the feeling of sanity mental in a crazy society. Throughout the novel the other characters call Yossarian a madman when in the end only Yossarian preserves his sanity. Yossarian's actions over the course of the novel, however, develop into increasingly radical and desperate attempts to escape from the. army Instead of having a goal and pursuing it in extreme ways, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, is faced with a dilemma about what to do with his life. In fact, he tells the reader t...... halfway through the paper...... that he wants to become “a catcher in the rye”, he is committed to protecting children and preserving their innocence. In conclusion, both authors of Catch -22 and Catcher in the Rye effectively use the American spirit, culture, values ​​and identity to convey their point of view about America and its people. The novels contain lessons about war, society, individualism, life and death that will never fade. Many of these lessons still apply today, because conflict in the Middle East, like World War II, still leaves Americans paranoid and tormented by fear of attack. To deepen your vision of America, through the perspectives of others, you may have reason to read books, however controversial, such as Catch-22 and The Catcher in the Rye.Works CitedHeller, Joseph. Capture-22. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Print. Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1951. Print.