Controversy and literature have long been intertwined. Most art of any kind that seeks notoriety and not simple mediocrity aims for controversial status in hopes of more exposure. Oscar Wilde alluded to this but extended it even further in a quote from one of his most famous works, “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written." Such equivalences between morality and simple controversy are problematic. Moreover, I could not disagree more with the first part of Wilde’s statement.
From my perspective, books, most certainly, can be morally correct or simply immoral. For instance, as a Christian, I would consider the Bible both moral and well written. Without thought to its sacred value, the Bible
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
How many times have you heard this quote, “don’t judge a book by its cover?” I am sure that you probably heard the quote way too many times, even I lost track in counting. But yet, it still doesn’t stop people from judging the book’s cover. So therefore, to say that when people talk about it, it becomes a bit hypocritical when they are the ones who are judging. For instance, many people were judging the book, The Glass Castle. The book was published in March 2005. The reason why the book is being judged is because the book is under the challenged/banned list. The book has a lot of offensive language, sexually explicit content, alcohol, and abuse. The author, Jeannette Walls, is also the main character in the story.
In the Western World, “Banned Books Week” is a relatively new quasi-holiday celebrated each year in late September. For the duration of the week, people are encouraged to read and learn about books that have been challenged or banned for their content, be it slightly controversial or downright blasphemous. For the first time in history, controversial books are beginning to be celebrated for their thought-provoking nature rather than shunned for their risqué content. Over the years, some of the most critically acclaimed classics, including J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, have been banned for reasons ranging from foul language, to overt sexual and violent themes, to references to the occult (“Banned”).
tragic-comedy. It is an interesting and controversial novel. Though controversial, the novel appealed to a great number of people. It was a hugely popular bestseller and general critical success. I chose this novel because of the negative status it has with parents, teachers, and school. I wanted to discover what the roots of this controversy are.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born March 2, 1904 in Springfield, MA to German immigrant parents (Morgan & Morgan, 1995). His parents immigrated just after the end of WWI, and he was bullied in school for being a German immigrant (Morgan & Morgan, 1995). Seuss’ care for minority rights and his strong voice against isolationism during WWII were likely influenced by this experience as a child. The majority of his career would be involving politics in one form or another, and even pervaded the messages in his children’s books (Morgan & Morgan, 1995). His second wife, Audrey Stone Dimond-Geisel, would continue his work in children’s novels and movies after his death, but instilled more moral lessons,
“It Isn’t pretty…But Is It Art?” is an article written by Diana Mack, an affiliate scholar at the New York-based Institute for American Values. Mack talks about some public disputes that revolved around popular works of literary and art such as the Harry Potter and Picardo Venus, as well as her opinions that center around “the question of what makes a good work of art.” Mack explains that art works carrying “a serious tone of death, hate…and…evil” but not carrying “publicly reflect(ed) community standards of taste, decency, and respect for religious faith” are constantly criticized and sometimes banned. Clearly felt throughout the article through her tone and statements, Mack’s main point is that individuals should not reject or criticize an art work that seem “alien and unappealing.”
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
Literature is everywhere. No matter where you are, you’re exposed to it. It is on your phone, in the paper, on the McDonald 's receipt in a wad under your car seat, it is even on the billboard signs as you drive down the interstate. With literature getting so much coverage there is no question of where such heated debates come from. It is hard to have an argument or sometimes even a conversation with a person using ONLY literature. Sentences can have the same words, but handed to different people and they may interpret the sentence in two polar opposite directions. Debates take on a huge problem when they are done solely through literature, unfortunately I found that out the hard way.
One of America's most prominent social activists, Jane Addams dedicated her whole life to the poor and social reform. Born on September 6, 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois, Jane grew up to become one of the most notable college-educated women of her time. Utilizing her education, Addams developed her own political and social beliefs and applied them to society during the Progressive Era, leading to many reforms that have shaped our world today.
In this assignment, I will be demonstrating a gap analysis on my current workplace. I currently work for a company by the name of “All Weather Windows Commercial Ltd”. I’ve been hired on as the Health and Safety Advisor and been employed under this role for over 3 years now. This company is a team of glazing professionals that provides both manufacturing and installation services across western Canada. Safety is highly valued by all levels of the company and our objective is to continually improve.
One of the main themes of the novel Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. Censorship is n: the action of a censor esp. in stopping the transmission or publication of matter considered objectionable. That is, of course, according to the guys over at Merriam-Webster.
Morality is defined as a system or code that we humans use to differentiate between right and wrong. This system could be derived from a number of factors: religion, culture, and upbringing. It is difficult enough to determine what an individual's morals are, but going further to determine how we came to possess those morals is even more ambitious. Still, regardless of its difficulty, this subject consumes many philosophers and psychologists. One such moral psychologists, Jonathan Haidt, is theorizing the possibility of evolution causing ones morality. Haidt is a moral psychologist at the Universtiy of Virgina further believes that complex social structures such as religion and politics as well as our need for social structures affect
James Rachels' article, "Morality is Not Relative," is incorrect, he provides arguments that cannot logically be applied or have no bearing on the statement of contention. His argument, seems to favor some of the ideas set forth in cultural relativism, but he has issues with other parts that make cultural relativism what it is.
According to the definition of the Moral Compass text, moral compass is the reflective, international adoption of values and behaviors as a framework for realizing the good in oneself, in others, and in the social and material environment. My own moral compass is constructed mainly by my parents and the eastern social values and principles of relationships, which are largely influenced by the thoughts and ideas of Buddhism, Taoism and the Confucianism. Among them, Confucianism affects my country’s social values and furthermore my parents and my moral compass the most. In the contrast of Western culture, Confucianism puts a huge emphasis on the relationships between individuals in family, school,
The belief that morality requires God remains a widely held moral maxim. In particular, it serves as the basic assumption of the Christian fundamentalist's social theory. Fundamentalists claim that all of society's troubles - everything from AIDS to out-of-wedlock pregnancies - are the result of a breakdown in morality and that this breakdown is due to a decline in the belief of God. This paper will look at different examples of how a god could be a bad thing and show that humans can create rules and morals all on their own. It will also touch upon the fact that doing good for the wrong reasons can also be a bad thing for the person.