Arguments Made in Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry Essay

Supporters of banning say profanity can negatively influence the actions and thoughts of readers, especially younger readers that may not have heard or read many corrupt words. Huckleberry Finn, a book commonly inveighed for its use of contentious racial language, is commonly challenged for that reason. For USA Today, Martha Moore wrote, “When the younger reader is staring at that word five times on a given page and the instructor is saying, 'Mark Twain didn't mean this and you have to read it with an appreciation of irony,' you're asking a lot of a younger reader”. Granted, foul vocabulary is a challenge that academies need to address, but not through barring novels. Besides, if the reader is sufficiently mature for the book, they can still learn from it. For instance, some racial characterizations do not intentionally persecute people, but show the contrasting tensions between them, conforming to the time period. Again, the article “Huck Finn Navigating Choppy Waters Again” revealed, “The word is there for a reason… The word is terrible, it's hurtful, but it's there for a reason” (Moore). The racial epithets used in that book convey the attitude of Missouri in the 1840s when friction between African Americans and white people was rising. Additionally, banning a book due to concerns about the language is not beneficial to pupils because it prevents them from learning from other components of the book. “Often the organizations or schools that ban these books fail to see the book as a whole; they often center on the one page, the one scene or even the one word containing the offensive language or meaning and judge the whole book based on that one aspect,” according to an article by Adriana Lopez. She makes a sound point. A book contains a whole plot with themes that

It is important to remember that Mark Twain was not racist. If he had been, it still does not give any person the right to change or ban what he has said for their own pleasure. "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and a lightening bug"(Dawkins 1). A famous quote of Mark Twain. If Twain had wanted his book written a different way then he would have done so himself.

In the novel, The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle a couple experiences life in California and never know whats going to happen. They find out life as they thought it would be, really isn’t how they imagined. They go through some great hardships that will forever change their lives and change their thoughts on things. Candido and America went through the most hardest times in this novel, they are illegel immigrants, they have no money, and Candido turns into a criminal doing all he can to survive.

“Children deprived of words become school dropouts, dropouts deprived of hope behave delinquently. Amateur censors blame delinquency on reading immoral books and magazines, when in fact, the inability to read anything is the basic trouble.” (Peter S. Jennison) Censorship could easily be one of the biggest controversies around the world today. The book “Harris and Me” by Gary Paulsen, about a boy who stays with his distant cousin Harris on the family farm because his parents are a bunch of “puke drunks.” Spends the summer fighting “commie japs”, hunting mice, and tussling with the rooster Ernie. This book was banned by the ALA for nothing more than profanity. If that’s even the right term, especially for today in our society. This book was taught in my sixth grade class and I have adored it ever since, but I was baffled to find out it

First, the author argues, “When engaging in critical literacy, readers question reality and entertain multiple perspectives about particular topics, attitudes, and behaviors” (Graff). Challenged and banned books are beneficial to readers. These banned books help students evaluate more difficult pieces of literature, which could be used in the future. Jennifer Graff states, “...Book censorship helps us think critically about the power of the written word as well as the relationships between individuals, texts, and contexts, to paraphrase Lawrence Sipe (1999)” (Graff). Banned and challenged books allow readers to see the truth--from the past, future, or present--written by the author. Readers can apply these ideas to real-life situations successfully. In the article, On Reading and Sharing Banned Books, the topic of “...heightened sensitivity about what and how we say things,” and needing, “ongoing conversations about how literature can be part of our lives without undue stress and controversy” is exposed (Graff). Books are written for many reasons, to inform persuade, entertain, and relax; however, with books censorship, finding relaxing or entertaining books is extremely difficult. Without censorship, readers could easily discuss these now controversial topics without worry. The purpose of the book, good moral, and potentially

The complaints on the book started in 1963 when the first controversy arose when the book first entered a classroom. Profanity and racial slurs such as the word “nigger” have caused people to challenge its appropriateness in libraries and classrooms. I understand that some parents would not want their child reading a book with

school and college students. For instance, in the article “The Ironic, Enduring Legacy of Banning ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ for Racist Language” Avi Selk mentions the schools and the school boards who recently attempted to ban “To Kill A Mockingbird” and most of them are middle and elementary schools. The book was perceived as offensive because of the language within it’s pages. The schools and parents failed to receive “To Kill A Mockingbird”’s message and instead focused on only part of what was said instead of why. Selk said “It was not images of race, but of sex, that caused the first big uproar. The school board of Hanover County, Va., banned the book as “immoral literature” in 1966 because the plot centered on rape.” If that’s the case, why allow middle schoolers and elementary kids read the book? This is why “Mockingbird” should be reserved for high school and college students. The book is centered on a loaded plot and does indeed use some explicit language but that doesn’t mean that that qualifies the book to be banned. There’s quotes directly from the book that demonstrate just why Harper Lee used the language she did and it reads like this, “What exactly is a n—– lover?” Scout asks her father. “It’s hard to explain.” “Ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves,” he tells Scout. “It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.” (To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee) The text directly from the book is a perfect example to show that the use of the “N-word” wasn’t used to promote the word but to shame it and the use of it back in 1960, in Alabama, in which the book was set upon. Allow the students who can fully understand and not take offense to “To Kill A

words in the book are not trying to offend the reader there trying to tell and story and illustrate

Then they can fully understand the true meaning of the book. “In reality, being required to confront difficult, embarrassing, and controversial matters and to learn how to deal with them does not constitute a hostile learning environment. It constitutes education” stated Joan DelFattore. High school students have heard the N word in songs, in movies and on television. They’ll hear it in college, in real life and it will make some of them uncomfortable. Generally speaking, high school students are capable of separating the N word that they know to the N word that was used in that time period.

This is about banned books in schools across America and what they have in common. TKM is a classic novel about the 1950s and parents love to read it, but don’t like when their young children read it. Parents don’t like how many racial slurs and the sexually charged themes in it. “Many of these objections come from parents, school administrators or advocacy groups who contend that its racially and sexually-charged themes are inappropriate for young readers”(Downs). This quote shows that not just parents want it to be banned from schools. The school administrator themselves want it out of their school also. Another commonly banned book from schools is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. A parent complained to the school about the use of inappropriate language in the book because she doesn’t like her child reading words like that. “a formal complaint was made by the mother of a biracial teenager. At the centre of the complaint was the use of the N-word, which appears frequently” (Kean). Another commonly banned book in schools is Uncle Tom’s Cabin. What all these books have in common is that they all have racial slurs in them. Some of them have sexually charged themes  also which are the reasons why parents do not like their young kids to read them. A mother said, “My son struggled to read the racist language, telling the Accomack County public schools board: There’s so much racial slurs and defensive wording in there that you can’t get past that.” (Kean). This showing that it is also hard for the students to read also. If the kids have trouble reading the book also then they have an even stronger vote to get it

“The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter- ‘tis the difference between the lightning bug and lightning.”(Mark Twain). Mark Twain, the author of an extraordinary yet controversial novel; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had a great way of capturing moments in time and bringing them to life through the use of meaningful and direct diction. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a vexed novel for it 's a use of the “N-word”. However, many scholars and associations have devised a “solution” for this problem such as, completely banning the book, creating sanitized versions, or even replacing the book for another American literature novel. “What is so wrong

They felt that the use of such an insulting word is harmful to the self-esteem of young African-American children. However the NAACP are not the only ones pushing for the banning of this book. A small group of parents have protested the book for the same purposes (Grossman).

Throughout the text, Tormes openly criticizes the church. He discusses the faults within the Spanish nobles when it comes to the notion of honour they are expected to have. Tormes expresses his subversion towards Spain and the Church in the subtlest of ways. He is a man who pushed himself to become better than what he was thought to be in order to destroy the way of thinking of those higher than him. He pushes boundaries like no other. Further on, this text also includes recurring folk and mythical elements – this is another stereotypical type of subversive literature. The Life of Lazarillo De Tormes shows how, even though being in a time where he was seen as inferior due to his social status as well as being a time of oppression that was controlled by a religious hierarchy, it doesn’t conform. It shows how Tormes was not accepting of the “exempla” genre that held popularity and approval. This shows a way were Tormes is literally subversive towards the society he was placed in. Through the text, we experience, on multiple occasions, the thoughts and feeling Tormes holds on the society and land he lives in. Tormes utilizes euphemism in order to throw in subtle comments and hints on how he resents the noble system and the church control over Spain. This subtleness allows Tormes to convey his disdain emotions towards the system in way that wouldn’t be view as excessively unorthodox.

Jack Jardine is a very interesting character in the story Tortilla Curtain. He has a very strong influence on Delany Mossbacher, one of the central characters in the story. His influences, along with the tragic string of events concerning Delany and Candido, produce a complete turn around in the ideals of Delany by the end of the story. At the start of the story Delany is a 'liberal humanist';, albeit a hypocritical one, but by the end of the story Delany is carrying a gun looking for Candido.

The tortilla curtain is a wonderful book showing a typical life of both a Hispanic family chasing the American and a white family that is born in. The white wealthy stay at home father Delaney mossbacher is faced against life as a modern day America and an immigrant from Mexico, Candido rincon looking for nothing but to fulfill the American dream that for him and his young wife which begins to seem unreachable due to the constant troubles begin to face. These two character throughout the story show very similar traits both positive and negative, while both sharing ways they overcome struggles of living life in modern day America. Both being fathers and/or soon to be fathers, how they