Censorship of Literature Promotes Ignorance Essay

This guarantees every individual the freedom to write and read what they choose. Yet in the past twenty years, thousands of books have been challenged in almost every state. This censorship is against the American ideals of individual freedom. While most censors intend to “protect” others from things they consider objectionable (Time, p.85), they are still taking away the rights of others to choose for themselves.

Book censorship today in America isn’t quite as drastic as that, but still is reflecting the same concepts. I remember in junior high school when we would have banned book week. This was where the school celebrated having the right to read censored and banned books. Written word is one of the most important aspects of free speech. In no circumstance whatsoever, should any piece of writing be censored. Writing thoughts and ideas and whatever else comes into someone’s mind has been a practice of humans ever since historians know that man existed. Telling people what they can and cannot read is an invasion of not only the reader’s rights, but the author’s as well. If someone doesn’t like what an author of a piece of literature has to say then that person has a right not to read it, or better yet form their own opinion and write about that. Book banning is and ungodly practice and the people of this world should learn from the mistakes of the past and not allow the censorship of written material. The only opposition that I can find to the censorship of books would be taking the same mindset on the topic as the Nazis did when they burned all of the Jew’s books. Trying to wipe out an entire race or group of people’s ideas and beliefs should never be done anywhere for any reason.

Censorship has been a big topic in America since the birth of its modern government. There are things that go on around the world that the media would never show its American viewers. This has also been seen in places like the military, where if a soldier were to send a letter back home, he or she can not disclose information such as their location. While it is a way to protect the American people from potential threats, it also restricts our freedom of speech. Everyone has the right to speak his or her mind; whether you agree with an idea or not is always a conscious choice. An

Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.

The subject of censorship is a very controversial one, especially the banning of books. Many people believe they must protect themselves and others from the "evils" of many classic books and works of art because they can be deemed "indecent" in one way or another. Many believe that this is absurd and censorship in its current form is a violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. Personally, I align myself with the latter, however I do feel there are occasions where censorship is justifiable. The censorship of books is a division of censorship that, apart from Internet censorship, receives the most publicity. Banning books is the most popular form of such censorship. Many banned books are literary classics, such as The Catcher in

Censorship has evolved over time in America, from TV, books, and even the internet. America has prohibited specific things from citizen’s beliefs. The role that censorship plays in America is taken from personal beliefs, such as voting for certain things to be banned from books, TV, internet, and articles. This allows and denies things that are used for public use, due to personal preferences on things that are appropriate and inappropriate for public users.

    Ray Bradbury criticizes the censorship of the early 1950's by displaying these same themes in a futuristic dystopia novel called Fahrenheit 451. In the early 1950's Ray Bradbury writes this novel as an extended version of "The Fireman", a short story which first appears in Galaxy magazine. He tries to show the readers how terrible censorship and mindless conformity is by writing about this in his novel.

Censorship within the United States is not only an immoral and "big-brotherly" practice, but also an insult to each and every one of those who call themselves US citizens. Every day, censors attempt to sanitize TV, radio, music, print, and even the Internet. In their infinite wisdom, they deem what should and should not be viewed by John Q. Public. Censors succeed in suppressing our free spirits and restraining our thoughts in virtually every medium.

For instance in the novel the protagonist Guy Montag says “Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave.They might just stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes! I don't hear those idiot bastards in your parlor talking about it”. In this quote we can see some of the effects of extreme censorship, where it can lead to people not being able to discuss certain topics and talk about things that are important because other people find it offensive or can’t even get the news out in the first place because of censorship. Another negative thing that could be caused by censorship is that in a way it would take away the some of our freedom for example in The New York Times article “Lights out, Huck, They still want to sivilize you” it says “This is the academic equivalent od Ed Sullivan in 1967 prudishly making the Rolling Stones change ‘Let’s spend the night together’ to ‘Let’s spend time together.’ Or Cole Porter having to change ‘cocaine’ in ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ to ‘perfume in Spain’.” In this example you can see how there are other artists that have already have some of their artistic freedom taken away unfairly because of

Censorship dates all the way back to 443 BC in ancient Rome with the Office of Censor. In that time this was an office of great repute, the Office of Censor was charged with the shaping of the character of the people. Thus it was considered to be an honorable task, since then the connotation of the word and such an office has changed greatly. Today censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc. and suppressing “unacceptable parts” based on whoever is defining “unacceptable.” Unacceptable has been considered to be a wide range of concepts from ideas to sexually explicit content. Historically in the USSR most leaders used censorship in every form as a means of suppressing whatever or whoever was perceived as a

Censorship in America is about the freedom of speech. And how people in America are limited the freedom of speech people who are Muslim can’t draw a picture of Muhammad. If Muhammad knew who drew his picture then the person would get executed. In America people are limited the freedom of speech. In schools people try to block out what other people are saying. Kids in schools are proble scared about what other people

If it is uncomfortable to read and discuss, so be it. Most things that matter deeply are.” -USA Today. Today Censorship also affects more than the children though. It really affects everyone equally. It allows the government to have too much control over what we learn and know. What if we lived in a dystopian society. For example, if you’ve ever seen the movie or read the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, the city kept everyone from learning about the world’s past and why they have to obey their rules and only their rules and do whatever job they assign them. Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are working to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label controversial views. Most people believe that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture. Another touchy topic about they types of censorship we have is open religion. We have the Freedom of Religion. But many schools don’t allow religious practices, teachings, or even how they dress. What’s wrong with anyone expressing their religion and how they think of God peacefully and freely? America is

The subject of censorship is a very controversial one, especially the banning of books. Many people believe they must protect themselves and others from the "evils" of many classic books and works of art because they can be deemed "indecent" in one way or another. Many believe that this is absurd and censorship in its current form is a violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. Personally, I align myself with the latter, however I do feel there are occasions where censorship is justifiable.

Censorship may be protection from inappropriate materials, but it also limits free speech. For the limitation of free speech, it is reasonable why people are emphatically against censorship. It is understood that there is a need to filter some of the materials released in today’s society, but too much is being done by people who have no right meddling with everyone’s rights. Civilization has always been plagued by a never ending battle being fought over what is deemed right and wrong. In today’s culture, censorship oppresses everything in the media. From movies and music to television and even news stories, most of the content viewed today has been filtered one way or another. Restrictions have been in place since early societies have been

We are blessed to live in a country that has many rights, the most important is the freedom of speech which provides an umbrella of protection over our remaining rights; however, all of our rights are under attack beginning with the First Amendment which is under constant assault by censorship.