Essay on My Sister’s Keeper Shouldn't be a Challenged Book

Once upon a time, in a world not far from here, there are students who are forced to miss their annual train ride to Hogwarts, lock the wardrobe to the magical land of Narnia, and walk through the English countryside themselves instead of upon the back of Black Beauty. Why are these students deprived of those occurrences? They live in America, the land of the free- except when it comes to the books they can read. In fact, many schools across America exercise the practice of banning books. Since 1982, libraries, parents, and schools have attempted to ban 11,300 novels, according to the American Library Association. The essentially innoxious books are challenged for an assortment of reasons, including use of malapropos language, graphic or explicit

I have always felt that a good piece of writing causes the reader to think about and analyze a given set of circumstances so that he expands his worldly understandings. Such writing is stimulating and often includes an element of controversy. The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is one example of this provocation in which the writer conveys her views on sexual injustice. In a way that is conceptually intriguing, Glaspell expresses her ideas about the misunderstandings between men and women during the early twentieth century. While personally disagreeing with the interpretive outcome of the story as well as the message that it is intended to present, I must admit that it did provide me with insight into the mind

According to the American Library Association, the most common group of people, challenging a book being read in schools, was the parents of the students. Parents have a right to be in charge of what is put into the minds of their students, however just because one parent objects does not mean that the whole school should ban the book from the list. A solution for this book would be to enforce parental consent for books to be read in the classroom. If a parent does not want a book to be read in the classroom, then there should be other options for the student to read. The school and teacher should not trespass on a parent’s rights of raising their child. I believe that if a parent has a concern, they should go and discuss the problem with the teacher so that the teacher will be able to defend their reasoning for choosing the book to be read in the classroom.

    In “The Female Quixote,” the whimsical nature of fiction is not just a barrier to social acceptance, but an absurdity. Following popular notions of the time, fiction is presented as a diversion and an indulgence that cannot be reconciled with reality and threatens the reader’s perception of actual experience. The theme is common, as is evident through the basis of this novel, Cervantes’s “Don Quixote,” and other works such as “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen. The story is a series of examples of what not to do, acting as both a cautionary tale and conduct guide. But there is a fundamental instability in the work resulting from the opposition of the moral and the means in which it is

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

What is the true cost of knowledge? Throughout history, books have been banned for an array of reasons ranging from inappropriate content, offensive language, and sexually explicit material. When proposing a challenge in hopes of banning a specific book from schools and libraries, those in favor claim children’s’ innocence should be preserved and that children should not be exposed to inappropriate material found within some books simply because it is part of a school’s required curriculum. In defense of these challenged books, many say the ethics of free speech and the important life lessons gained from reading books should be considered. Several books are banned within schools and libraries because of their potentially offensive or sensitive content; however,

Banning or challenging books is an occurrence that has been taking place for years in America’s school systems, but often parents and teachers are not in agreement concerning censorship. The National Council of Teachers of English position statement is “We can safely make two statements about censorship: first, any work is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some reason; second, censorship is often arbitrary and irrational.” One such challenged book is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which was “banned from an eighth-grade classroom in Arizona due to profanity, sexual content, and rape theme” (Lesesne and Chance 48). Even though it presents difficult topics, Speak could be a benefit to students in a

There are many great books nationwide, but some get banned or restricted on who can you read them. “Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.” happens to be one of the many books that get banned from many schools districts. A parent named ‘Martin Roger’ wants the book banned from San Diego County from the schools because it's “pornographic”. San Diego Superintendent understands where he’s coming from but the book “Always Running” is protected by the first amendment. The book is banned from elementary schools, because one parent opposes for their child not to read this particular book, doesn’t mean all the children in the district don’t have the right to read it.

The practice of the censorship of books in schools has been prevalent due to the explicit content of them. Parents have been complaining to schools about books that count as required reading because they disapprove with the points made in the book. If a book consists of offensive or sexually explicit material, then parents would challenge the schools about them in order to prevent their children from reading them. Censorship in general has been an intensely debated issue because it is considered an infringement to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution while others argue it is used to conceal inappropriate things (Aliprandini and Sprague). The banning of books in school curriculum has also been debated since parents see

Courting controversy examines the implications that arise when teachers assign challenged books, and when parents challenge books. The author, Pat Scales, relates an experience of a teacher who added a challenged book to her reading list in support of a colleague in her district faced a challenged on the book Working by Studs Terkel. The author believes that teachers following curriculum policies should decide what is taught in the classroom, not parents. One solution put forth to squash book challenges is to offer the student an alternative novel. Yet another scenario the author relates occurred when a parent requested a recommendation for a website that labels content in books. The solution presented was twofold: encourage the parent to

She validates her own story by pointing to similar experiences in others. Her point that she is considered delusional and “in a nutshell female” when she contradicts a man is authenticated when she retells a story her then boyfriend’s uncle had told her. He says one of his neighbor’s wife had run out into the street in the middle of the night exclaiming that her husband was trying to kill her. When Solnit ask why the uncle thinks this is impossible he explains that they were a respectable middle-class family. To him, it was far more likely that the women was crazy then that her husband was trying to kill her. This argument is farther disproven by Solnit when she explains that three women a day are murdered by spouses or ex-spouses in America. So, it is far more likely that her husband was trying to kill her than that she was crazy. The use of this story and other artistic proof, like the FBI agent Coleen Rowley’s story and Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach’s death, throughout the essay proves that this is not only a personal problem, but a larger issue effecting women every day. She shows us that a women’s word, therefore her very existence, is often taken to be less credible than a man’s. That “they are not reliable witnesses to their own lives.” Solnit also proves the cogency of her essay

Frank Heywood, a female crossdresser, proves that women can do the same work as men. However, she can only succeed in doing so by rejecting her birth gender. Instead of doing housework and aspiring to marriage, Frank states that her work “must be father, mother, wife and children to me” (p. 302). She claimed that by giving up her womanhood, “I could go about unquestioned. No man insulted me, and when I asked for work, I was not offered outrage…I resolved to carve out for myself a place in the world as a man, and let death alone reveal my secret and prove what a woman can do” (p. 366-67). While Mrs. Bludgett is beaten, Flora is trapped in a loveless marriage, and Laura is abducted, Frank is free to work and do as she pleases. Her success in doing so proves Blake’s point that “gender” is a socially constructed and ridiculous concept. Blake succeeds in portraying the constant battles of women and through her examples of heartless treatment and behaviors from men. It’s important to note that Frank is the only women who truly succeeds in beating the

Cloning is a controversial topic to where most people who argue about it, definitely do not agree with each other’s opinions. “My Sister’s Keeper” is a movie where one child, Anna, is conceived solely so her older sister Kate can fight leukemia. Once Anna reaches a certain age, she realizes what has been happening to her and refuses to go through with anything else by suing her mother. Throughout the movie, this situation tears the family apart and members of the family are heartbroken but it ultimately helps decide the outcome of what should happen (Cassavetes, 2009).

In the novel "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult, a child is genetically engineered and received to become a donor for another child's benefit. This novel covered the story of the genetically engineered child trying to fight for the right of her own body over her parents. This novel questioned human ethics and morals of human and the extent of medical technologies. At the end of the novel, it states that there is no correct answer in this situation and I know it was a hard decision to make among the two, but I viewed it was unethical in Fitzgerald’s case.

Freedom of speech and access to information within our public libraries is protected by the bill of rights of many national and international human rights organizations. These freedoms are specifically protected within our First Amendment rights in the United States Constitution and by the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights. It is written by both that all citizens should have the freedom to write, publish, and read what they wish, without fear of a government or other person persecuting or restricting them. However, the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000 made it American law that public libraries must use Internet filtration software to censor access to information deemed inappropriate for children. These regulations are meant to protect the innocent American youth from content considered profane, sexual, or violent; however, what has proven more dangerous than what children discover on the internet at their library is the misapplication of the law by the libraries themselves. Due to differing cultural contexts, political and economic climates, and contents of constitutionally protected information, different communities throughout the United States have different levels of freedom to information. While the government of the United States has the final say on what information can be accessed in federally funded public libraries in America, several libraries throughout the