Ban Banning A Great Deal

As United States citizens, we have the right of freedom of expression; the First Amendment of the United States constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press…" (First Amendment Oct. 20, 2013). As this concerns books, people should have the freedom to choose what they want to read and what they don't want to read. By banning books, our basic rights as US citizens are abused. Book banning affects many different people, from the people who read books to the people who write them. Why do

By banning books, it shields children from what the real world is really like. Going through life without knowing what its really going to be like once you grow and are officially on their own can damage a child rather than helping them. Every parent tries to do what they think is right for their children and sometimes they can end up hurting them more. Books should not be banned from society. Even though some books have suggestive content or profanity does not mean that you should take out so-called negativity because your children gain knowledge of what’s right, wrong and how to act. Books shouldn’t be banned from society. Books are some peoples way to escape reality for just a single moment.While books shouldn’t be banned from society, some have a lot of profanity. Banning those books would be taking away citizens rights through the First Amendment.

“Book Banning” may seem like an issue of the past, but, in fact, it is still a very pertinent issue in the U.S. today. These classic books have been banned at one time or another: Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, The Harry Potter series. You’re probably wondering how these, extremely famous, books can be so censored in America today. There are many reasons that are given in regards to book censorship. For instance, language or profanity, violence, sexual explicitness, or “uncomfortable” topics, such as rape and race relations. Christian groups have requested that a countless number of books, with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer (LGBTQ+) themes, be taken out of schools and libraries The banning and censorship of books can happen in many places and ways; taking them off school reading lists, or even out of libraries and bookstores.

There is a book out there that talks about a topic that you do not agree with. While you may find the book offensive, others may find it inspiring or a reflection of their life. These varying points of view are what often lead to people calling for a ban of a certain book in a school or public library. This brings to light a topic that impacts all of us in one way or another, censorship in the form of book bans. This leads to a topic that can be the center of debate for many, whether or not we should allow the censorship of books, or other forms of media, in our libraries. And by censoring books, we are referring to taking them off of the shelves. Of course, many people have strong opinions on this. Coincidentally, I also have an opinion. My opinion is that we should not censor books, while making you understand why the idea of censorship in our school and public libraries goes against the fundamental values and freedoms that we hold dearly as citizens of the United States.

Author of The Perks of a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky, mentions an important point when he says, “Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.” Banning books has been a practice since 443 BC in Rome when Socrates was to drink poison because of “his corruption of youth and his acknowledgement of unorthodox divinities,” says Beacon for Freedom of Expression. Before a book can get to the point of being banned, it undergoes a process of being challenged. This is when a group of people or a person tries to restrict certain materials. When a challenge ends up being victorious, the book gets banned and removed. Some people believe that certain books are not ethically

There are multiple reasons that contribute to banning a book, these reasons are mostly drawn from the disapproval expressions targeted towards the content of the book. Even though the reasoning has a valid explanation, it is important to acknowledge the liberty that is being taken away because of this.

Banning books is a practice that has been used all throughout history. It affects many people such as authors, religious groups, students, and other citizens. When books are banned, it limits the amount a person can read or learn about a certain topic. Banning books is a key component in the novel, Fahrenheit 451, as well as in society throughout history.

A great fact about books is that they usually are or become celebrated classics and don’t think that’s a coincidence. Banning books is being deprived of an education which is completely contradictory in America. Firstly, as books are banned, our greatest teachers are taken away. A great quote that explains this topic better is from the commonly banned book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; “Then she went to the blackboard and printed the alphabet in enormous square capitals, turned to the class and asked, ‘Does anybody know what

Books are banned because their content contains unpopular opinions or topics. But they can also deal with social and political problems in the world, and silence will not solve the problem. Banning the books from libraries is silencing those voices that could change the world. As stated in the book Censorship, “The purpose of laws guaranteeing freedom of expression is first to ensure the free flow of ideas essential to democratic institutions and responsive government. Many nations have histories in which censorship was used to block political reform.” (55). Only raising awareness of the problem or raising awareness of a new social or political idea will solve the problem. Moreover, a book, topic, or idea that is controversial when it first comes out could actually be a social, political, or scientific breakthrough. For example, when Galileo hypothesized the sun was the center of the universe, the Church disagreed, so that information was censored (Censorship 56). Today, this fact is widely accepted as true. Additionally, the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling were once censored because they included topics of witchcraft, but those books have become extremely popular today (Currie-McGhee 35). Clearly, censorship of books is not helpful to a

For example Nazi Germany not only banned books but went as far as to burn books. They did this because every chance Hitler had to make the public think of Jews as not human he took it, and by burning Jewish books Hitler was able to make the Jews look as if they were not human. However Jewish books were not the only books burned. Pacifist literature was also burned; which means that the Nazis did not want their citizens reading about peace and antiwar. This can only mean that the Nazis wanted the German people to be pro-war, and by having the Germans in favor of war the Nazis could go to war with all of Germany behind them. However the Nazis were not the first to use this horrendous tactic to control their citizens. The Roman Emperor Hadrian forbid all Jewish writings, and even burned a man at the stake for teaching the Torah. Emperor Hadrian did all this because he thought that the Jewish teachings would cause the public to revolt, so Hadrian banned all Jewish writings. You can clearly see that by banning books Governments have been able to control their citizens. This should be a warning sign that we need to keep books from being banned because once a book is banned we never know what could happen

There is never a time to ban books. Censoring books should never happen. People will miss out on many books if any books is banned. Banning books should never happen because too many people won’t learn from them and books are meant to be read not banned.

Libraries Should not be Allowed to Ban Books Books are windows to knowledge especially for students who are still growing and learning how the world outside works. Books have different genres and some are forbidden to be read by certain age groups. However, when a certain book that might contain the F-word, sex, violence, or something common in the real world, the parents would complain and it results in the book being banned in the school or even across the district. This may bring negative effects as the student will be sheltered from the real world, and it would hurt them in the long run.

Books hold ideologies, diverse ideals, and come from facts as well as the imagination. Books are the ultimate freedom of expression for the author and the reader. One of the most valued rights, in America, is the freedom of expression. This freedom is granted by the bill of rights which is the first amendment to the U.S. constitution. Book banning violates this right; therefore book banning should be illegal in America. There are many reasons people want certain books banned. There are many examples of banned books. The Supreme Court case, Board of Education V. Pico was about book banning and upheld this right.

Firstly, Book banning has legal limits due to a supreme court ruling in 1982 called the Pico decision. The Pico decision was when several members on a Long Island, New York school board received a list of books classified as “objectionable” and removed them from their library. Later, a new School Superintendent reinstated the books in the library and the board rejected. A 17-year-old by the name of Steven Pico thought that what the board was doing was wrong, so it went to court. Steven Pico was suing the school board because he thought what they were doing was a violation of his First Amendment rights. It

Across the world, books are banned or challenged for a variety of reasons--some relatively reasonable, others absolutely absurd. Book banning is when a book or other written work is removed from all libraries and/or schools within a certain area and is a form of censorship from political, legal, religious, and other ‘offensive’ material. Some people may think that challenged books should be taken away, a simple way to solve this problem is by not checking out or reading these books because while one group of people may not like a specific book or genre, it wouldn’t be fair to take it away from those who like it. Public books should not be banned or challenged because others in the community may want to read them and because such book may inform