Many classics have fallen victim of censorship and book banning in the US. Mark Twain’s famous classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was deemed “oppressive”, “racially insensitive”, and “perpetuates racism (“Banned Books That Shaped America”). The Great Gatsby, by Fitzgerald, was a representation of the Roaring Twenties. It was challenged for profanity and sex (Avery). To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was an American classic that won the Pulitzer Prize (referred as the highest national award in journalism). It showed us that racism needs to be dealt with, but it was banned for promoting white supremacy (Topham). For the past two decades a commonly challenged and banned book, was Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. (Daniels) It is …show more content…
It was to portray realistic dialect between character. Because it was written in the early 1900s, Steinbeck portrayed accurate dialogue between people in the 1900s, instead of a made-up versions. For example, Steinbeck refers to the colored man, as a nigger, this is an accurate representation of how Africans were treated back in the 1900s. In modern day, people don’t go around kicking around Africans, and calling them niggers. People see each other as individuals but, with the time period in context (1900s), Africans weren’t treated as individuals, they were treated like cattle. “Much of what made this book banned is the time period when it was published. Society often does not want to see a reflection of that which is negative within their current time and so instead choose to cast a blind eye to a novel that truly tries to place a mirror up to the time period”(Daniels). Another statement from Corey Daniels, explaining the main reasons why the book is actually banned. This book was written in “The Great Depression”, it was a time in history, where no one wants to relive, like Corey Daniels explained, it was dark times in the US, and no one wants to read an accurate representation of what it was like. “With an equal adherence to the rules of logic and plausibility, the book also asks us to believe that Lennie's murder by strangulation of Curley's wife--a character so thinly rendered …show more content…
(1) In fact, some student and workshop productions of the play omit the dog entirely. But Candy and the dog are very important to the action. The point of Carlson's shooting of the dog--who is old and blind and smells--is not to make an easy parallel with George's shooting of Lennie, as Peter Lisca and Harry T. Moore seem to think. (2) It is not so much the dog who is in the same position as the imbecilic Lennie; it is the shooting of the dog that places Candy in the same position. Once he does not have his dog to look after anymore, Candy realizes the precariousness of his own position on the ranch: he is without one hand and therefore only able to "swamp out" bunkhouses, and he is fast approaching
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
The Catcher in the Rye. The Scarlet Letter. Huckleberry Finn. Harry Potter. The Diary of Anne Frank. Animal Farm. To Kill a Mockingbird. The Da Vinci Code. The Grapes of Wrath. These literary classics have been vital to the education of many, especially children and adolescents (Banned Books). These great novels both teach important values and educate children about world affairs and classic themes. Unfortunately, each of these novels has been banned at one point in time. In a country where freedom is so adamantly advocated, it is a wonder that an issue like censorship would even come up, that such a controversy would sink its claws into the minds of states’ boards of education across the nation.
Steinbeck uses word choice to express the thoughts and emotions of the characters. George is easily angered, for example Lennie had a very bad memory. He could never remember what George told him ande it would make George mad in a heartbeat. For example when Lennie said “Where we goin’, George?” George replied with “so you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you're a crazy bastard!”(9) Yes lennie can be aggregation but he doesn’t know any better. Lennie has his mind set on one thing, tending the rabbits. If steinbeck would’ve taken out the authentic words he used I dont think it would be as good as it is.
Candy 's dog and Lennie share many characteristics by their disabilities. Both struggle through life and worry the people who care about them. While Lennie has a childish mind and is socially inept, needing George to constantly lecture him, the dog suffers from his own health and needs to be taken care of by Candy, unable to help on the ranch.
Carlson, the ranches ranch-hand is a blunt and a simple character. His hard life on the ranch has made him cruel and callous, one of his first lines is, “Well looka here Slim. I been thnkin’. That dog of Candy’s is so God damn old he can’t hardly walk. Stinks like hell, too … I can smell him for two, three days. Whyn't you get Candy to shoot his old dog and give him one of the pups to raise up? ” (Steinbeck 36) Immediately the reader is greeted with Carlson's malicious personality, he can’t understand the struggle that Candy faces when faced with the reality that his dog must be killed. Carlson is self-serving and unsympathetic, for he repeatedly tells Candy that he should just kill the dog already. Moreover, he even offers to kill the dog in place of Candy, finally convincing Candy and kills the dog. George on a different matter decides to kill Lennie, rather than allow him to be brutally murdered by the others. George must confront the reality of killing his only friend for the better good for the both of them. George realizes that Lennie can’t survive in the harsh world that they live in and with a shaking hand, “He pulled the trigger.” (Steinbeck 106) George is kind and caring, for when killing Lennie he tells Lennie to “Look down there acrost the river, like you can almost see the place.” (Steinbeck 106) letting Lennie die happily and ignorant to the gun barrel behind his
Many books around the world have been banned because they are offensive. One example is Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel about the journey of a thirteen-year-old boy named Huck, who fabricates his own death to run away with an escaped slave named Jim. The two voyage in a raft along the Mississippi River to gain their individual freedom. In addition, Huck gains a new understanding about humanity. Huck Finn has been creating great controversy on both sides of the argument: to ban or to keep in the school curriculum. Currently “much debate has surrounded Mark Twain’s Huck Finn since its publication in 1885, but none has been more pervasive, explosive, and divisive than that surrounding the issue on race”
Banned books are a topic of controversy, especially Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes. Through this novel we follow the journey of Davey Wexler, who tries to pick up the pieces and overcome her father's sudden and tragic death. Adam, her father, was killed in an armed robbery, and though the Wexler’s attempted to handle their grief independently, they were forced to live with their Aunt Bitsy and Uncle Walter. A book can be banned for a number of reasons, but overall the main cause is based off of opinions of what someone defines as controversial or explicit. But that isn’t very logical because we all have different standpoints and are all equally valid; so why should one opinion, or group of peoples deter you from
The killing of Candy's dog was related to when George killed Lennie in several ways. First of all, both the dog and Lennie were weak, and killed as soon as they became useless to the society. Also, the dog was Candy's friend, and Lennie was George's friend. In both cases, Slim viewed the deaths as mercy killings. The last similarity was that both Candy and George felt lonely after the death of their companions. The difference was that Carlson killed the dog for selfish reasons, while George killed Lennie out of mercy. This was how the killing of the dog relates to the killing of Lennie.
One of the reasons that Huckleberry Finn was banned in the past was because people found the dialect that Twain used unintelligible and shameful to the United States. These people thought that the manner of speech in which the novel was written would make Americans appear simple-minded. This may be the case with some, but the vernacular that the author used was the real dialect that majority of the population practiced in the time period that Huck existed. The novel is not meant to put America to shame, but rather to show the reality of how people spoke and acted in the mid nineteenth century. The vernacular is yet another aspect that makes the novel truthful because it gives readers a realistic view into the life of people from that time in American history.
Books are banned due to many reasons including the American Library Association, parents, school administrators and teachers. There are many books in our school curriculum that have been banned or challenged in other places, but our school has never had this problem with any book. Many people are banning books to keep students from being corrupted by topics they may not understand. Yet this book, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has a theme that can be tied in with our world today. The main themes the book focuses on are teaching others to know right from wrong, how it can reflect on others future, and making decisions wisely no matter the consequence. There are some books that shouldn’t be required to read in a class, but should be allowed at the high school level.
Many significant novels have unfortunately been challenged/ banned at a certain point in time. Most of these literary classics face this because some contain sexual references, religious intolerance, and inappropriate language. In some cases, books are being pulled off shelves because people believe that they were “tangibles of instruction” or the reason being was as a precaution towards a possible public attack which took effect in Tucson for the Mexican American Studies (source:8). Another case is the Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education; Christian sewed the board because they believed that the required textbooks hurt their beliefs (Source:8).
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel by Mark Twain, has been controversial since it hit the shelves on its release. The novel had ideals of racism, slavery, tricks, and societal wake up calls that was a smack in the face to readers. This novel has been fought now and again to be censored, or to be banned altogether from public high school reading lists. Huck Finn is a novel in which the reader doesn’t have to look very far below the surface to see the message and proofs it brought to the surface. The word choice, character traits, and plot line are all factors that made Huck Finn what is considered the greatest fiction novel in American writing. Ernest Hemingway, author of The Great Gatsby and other major literary works, said, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." The novel was written to shock people, and that is exactly what it did. Censoring or banning this novel would be taking away a piece of American culture and taking away meaning from the purpose of the novel. Huck Finn should be encouraged in high schools, as written, and taught to show the meaning and influence this novel had on people at the time it was written.
Like Candy, Candy’s dog is faced with the ultimate punishment for his age and disability. Candy’s dog is old and said to smell bad and isn’t worth anything, the dog is shot because of its disabilities. This event foreshadows Lennie’s fate at the hand of George. Both of these characters’ euthanasia is rationalized to put them out of their misery and to prevent future suffering from happening due to their disabilities. Which is almost a mirror image of George and Lennie’s relationship where George has known Lennie for a considerable amount of time and George knows that he is completely responsible of Lennie’s well-being and when that well-being is in jeopardy George feels a moral obligation just like Candy did when he gave permission to Carlson to shoot his dog. The euthanizing of Candy’s dog is a “foreshadowing of what will happen with Lennie and George” (Thomas Scarseth) because both Candy and George’s relationship to those dependent to them end with them killing them in order to save them from suffering.
The parallels between Lennie and George’s relationship and the relationship that their workmate, Candy had with his dog reaffirm the power dynamic between George and Lennie. In the novella, Candy must kill his dog because it is old and weak. Candy felt such extreme regret when it came time to kill his dog, that instead of doing
Even though it is able to be read freely in the United States some groups of people challenge the book. For example, many school systems ban the book from their curriculum due to its offensive content and language. Although many schools have it in their libraries for students able to do an independent reading on the book. Some groups of people that do challenge the book due to its offensive and harsh content are the Jewish people, some liberal groups, and peace