Banning Books Should Be Banned

Providentially, committed teachers, students, parents, librarians, among other individuals have evolved to challenge the existing ideologies on book banning (Niccolini & Alyssa 22). According to the American Library Association (ALA), a good percentage of these challenges are steered by parents. Public libraries, school and university libraries, businesses as well as classrooms across the world have made great attempts of trying to ban literature on quite a regular basis. According to the executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, attempts steered towards book-banning or censorship are encountered on a weekly basis. Banned books and articles range from centuries-old classics to contemporary bestsellers, from historical and biographical nonfiction to fictional narratives and finally from adults’ erotica to children fairy tales. This paper therefore seeks to highlight circumstances that a book should be banned or challenges and the considerations to be put into account in such decisions.

Many school districts do not have “manga”or “anime” banned (Debate.org). This style of literature is often considered non educational. Books should at least have censorship when profanity or have sexually explicit content are used. Reading this content as a student is 100% unnecessary. In a study done in 2000-09 by the American Library Association, about 1,250 books were challenged because of offensive language. Around 1,600 books were challenged in that same study for being sexually explicit (Butler.edu). During this, almost all books that were banned were either in school libraries or schools. A common example of a banned book is Harry Potter by J.Kk. Rowling. This book has a “presence of witchcraft”’(Butler.edu). In many people's’ minds, witchcraft is extremely bad, and completely unnecessary to discuss those topics. Since many people are against witchcraft, if that was to be discussed in schools, awful consequences for teacher as well as student could result.

And some books are so huge that perhaps one person could ruin it for everyone by having it be banned. For example, when How to Kill A Mocking Bird was being seen for ban, Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the issue saying that “Instead of admitting prejudice exists and confronting it, we find excuses to change the subject. Harper Lee's banned book doesn't let us do that, which is why more people should read it.” Jackson, H. (2017, 22 Oct.) And the point that’s being brought up is that a lot of books show problems and issues with our society but rather than accepting it and facing it, we want to avoid it and pretend they don’t exist. This will only damage us later in the future since we are trying to set a standard of no bad things existing. But sometimes it might be good to ban a book, as seen with a report done by the Wall Street Journal when they interviewed author Simon Griffin about some of his ‘questionable’ book titles that have offended people and he stated, ‘“Obviously I do feel bad about that," said Mr. Griffin, the author. "The intention of the book was never to upset."’ Cronin, B. (2017, 02 Feb). Even though it’s not the best option, sometimes it might be good to ban a book like this because of the title, even though the easier option is just changing the title or censoring it, maybe it should be

People are thinking to ban books which I think is really bad. Everywhere and everyday people are saying that some books need to be banned because some use the “n” liberally word in a different meaning and if you erase the book well you are kind of erasing history.

The community should do what they want to do. They shouldn’t be told to ban books from their school district. They should be able to read what they want to read especially in schools. I don’t think any books at our school are banned from our school library because Illinois I don’t think has any banned books.

Books are the open door to a world full of imagination and no impossibles. When an individual opens a book, it opens its mind into someones else point of view and the world that they take it to. New worlds are always great creations, but some authors prefer to focus on society's issues , and that is where banned books start. Since readers come from all ages and all backgrounds , some book topics are set in controversy , whether it is right to touch those points or if it is an act to attack certain groups or beliefs. Banned books don't always referred to certain ethnic groups , they can also touch themes like humans ideology and humans nature , in which many sensitive readers bring an argument against and disagree with the publishment of the volume.

There are two important sides to the banning books argument. The side that believes in it and the side that doesn’t. For the side that is pro-banning books, it is fair. They get what they want; they don’t have to read the book.

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.

There are numerous thoughts that go into why people ban books and who bans the books. The act of putting a ban on a book is to censor or limit a person or persons from reading a certain book. The case of Pico versus the Board of Education makes the ban of books more acknowledgeable to students and book lovers that have an opinion on what should or should not have a ban. The main arguments of this case are that it interferes with the First Amendment. The First Amendment states that that an American citizen has the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, right to peaceably assemble, and freedom of petition. The Perks of Being a Wall Flower should not be under ban by some schools because the book could possibly help some young adults to transmit community values as they begin the transition into adulthood. The language in the book may be extremely intense and/or inappropriate at times that there should be at least a parental consent if a teacher or board member has a problem with the book.

There is a wide variety of different genres of books from sci-fi to non-fiction to documentaries of events. However today is not the day we will be going over the happy side of what books have to offer, we are going to be taking a cover view of books that are not allowed to be in your hands or in that case be legal for you to own in certain counties. Today we are going to be going over banned books and the topics that surround it, also please know that I can’t emphasize enough on how bad it can be to own these kinds of books in certain places of the world.

People are self driven, but blinded by their thoughts. It was with this fact that the apocalyptic events of Fahrenheit 415 began to take place. Censorship is a theme that is very prevalent in the novel, and there are many different ways that it is expressed, but the central aspect of the novel that best illustrates this theme is the burning of books.

Books, a simple object with a combination of words printed on many pieces of papers to create an entertaining story or to promote ideas and therefore curiosity. How can such a simple object engender such vigorous controversy? Behind that is the very reason why books are prohibited in some areas, and said to cause great rebellious action to retrieve their beloved books back from authorities. Is there some secrecy behind books that no one wants us to know? Perhaps that is the very reason why books are restricted in the first place - to filter out any information authorities do not want the public to be educated about. Whether if it encourages terrorism, creates uproars with government, or any general violence that should be locked away to keep people sane. However, books are the key to knowledge and are important in daily lives, without it how would we know anything? Books should not be prohibited because they educate others, create a virtual environment if the same situations occur, and are just plain words put together and that should not limit one’s freedom.

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl”, Of Mice and Men”, The Scarlet Letter” (courtesy of The American Library Association. “Banned Books Week”, and Jamie Frater. “Top 15 Banned Literary Classics Listverse.com) recognize any of these famous titles? Would you believe these classic books have been Taken out of schools and libraries to keep people from reading them?

Before Jennifer’s presentation, I did not know much about banned and challenged books. I am extremely happy that we got to listen to Jennifer talk about the things that she did. I learned a lot of new things such as what a challenged book is, and what a banned book is. Challenged books are when someone is trying to remove or restrict materials in the library. Banned books are simply the removing of that book off the shelf. The most interesting thing that I learned was that parents are the most frequent people who challenge books.

The determining of “if books should be banned”. It all comes down to the obscenity laws. These laws stress work that describes sexual conduct in a patently (clear) offensive manner. Works containing words, which seem vulgar, or works presenting interracial or homosexual relationships will obtain the label “obscene” (offensive in moral principles). There are also books, literary works, which have been banned, censored, or challenged because of the language it uses. The literary works might also contain racial characterization or the vivid image of drug uses, social class, or even sexual orientation. Other social differences may be viewed as harmful to readers.