Obscenity In Fun Home. ​​Should It Be Acceptable To Implement

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.

When parents realized thattheir children would be exposed to such things, some immediately publicized their outragethrough the press, complaining to Boards of Education, hoping to ban the book or have it simplyremoved from school districts and libraries.In Burlington, North Carolina,

Each year, someone is guilty of challenging a book while others are guilty of banning novels from the classroom. The question remains, is censorship necessarily a negative thing? Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a novel that has caused havoc and controversy within the education system. While some critics argue Speak should be “hidden” from students, many believe otherwise. At a glance, this novel contains scenes involving issues of drugs, parents that are disengaged in their child 's life, sexuality, and rape. It may seem understandable that it has been challenged throughout the past, however, while reading this novel, these specific scenes introduce a student to much more than just “inappropriate content.” By censoring this novel from

The main reason for the banning of this novel is because of the profanity according to NCAC. NCAC states that this novel has " been challenged or banned due to objections to profanity." Therefore this novel should be banned from high schools and libraries. The use of profanity causes a sense of disproportion for the youthful minds reading this publication.

A growing problem in schools around the country is the topic of censoring books from children based on parents and teachers’ beliefs on what’s appropriate for students. There’s no doubt in my mind that The Glass Castle is filled with adult themes not primarily written for a younger audience. The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls’ life, largely her childhood with her parents and siblings, and her breaking away from her parents to become a relatively successful adult. The novel contains events of sexual assault and substance abuse, Jeannette’s parents raise her and her siblings horribly and there’s plenty of violence scattered throughout the book- Jeannette tries to shoot another child from her school at one point. However, this doesn’t mean this book should be banned from schools. This book should be allowed to be read by at least high school students not only because of how well-written and a good read it is, but the various lessons about life it offers to the reader, largely through Jeannette’s father.

Banned for its’ “pornographic” mention of adultery and obscenity of redemption for a sinner, The Scarlet Letter, is a novel based on a woman and her child in a town of hatred, religion, and the ugly truth.Challenged for the wrong reasons, The Scarlet Letter shows real Puritan reactions to sin and modern day feminism. A classic banned book and read by many classes just to prove the injustice of keeping the hypocrisy of the people in the book silenced. The exact reasons that this book got banned and is still up for interrogation should be the reason it’s talked about in every classroom and have a lot more credit for its’ bluntness in such a fragile state of time.

In one particular instance, a bill was passed in Tennessee stating that teachers cannot encourage “gateway sexual activity” (Nazaryan). This bill resulted in Sumner County officials banning Looking for Alaska from the curriculums of all schools due to the book’s single, brief oral sex scene. The Tennessean covered the news of the ban in their newspaper and quoted parents who agreed with the ban, stating that the school board was right in banning the book from the young and impressionable minds of children, who could possibly be so influenced by this blip of a scene in a book, that they might go and immediately engage in the same, or worse, sexual behavior. The newspaper, did however point out that there were alternate ways to address concerns regarding the book, such as offering alternate books to students whose parents were against it. John Green’s YouTube channel, “vlogbrothers”, features a video, “I Am Not A Pornographer”. In it, Green, referring to the ban, states that “there is one frank sex scene. It is awkward, unfun, and wholly unerotic.” (Green). Green goes on to say that the only reason for the existence of that scene is show a contrast between a very physical scene that contains no emotional intimacy and a very non-physical scene that is full of emotion. In another video, “On the Banning of Looking for Alaska”, Green says “text is meaningless without context” (Green) . Green is speaking to his opinion that books are banned most of the time because a parent decides to show a school principal or administrator a single excerpt or page of a book. Without proper context, that excerpt or page can appear to represent a very inappropriate book. Alternatively, if a reader were to assess a book in its entirety, while keeping an opening mind, they could glean important and valuable lessons from

According to the American Library Association (ALA), young adult novels are challenged with the best intentions. In most cases a parent will read a book that their child might be reading in class to find out if the book is hazardous to their child’s well-being. If the novel seems problematic, the parent then challenges the book. Even though the purpose of challenging a novel is to keep children from reading about issues that may not be seen as appropriate for their age group, censoring children from difficult subject matter is not always the solution. There is always controversy when difficult issues arise in adolescent geared novels. Even though there are many concerns with Lois Lowry’s The Giver,

First, the author argues, “When engaging in critical literacy, readers question reality and entertain multiple perspectives about particular topics, attitudes, and behaviors” (Graff). Challenged and banned books are beneficial to readers. These banned books help students evaluate more difficult pieces of literature, which could be used in the future. Jennifer Graff states, “...Book censorship helps us think critically about the power of the written word as well as the relationships between individuals, texts, and contexts, to paraphrase Lawrence Sipe (1999)” (Graff). Banned and challenged books allow readers to see the truth--from the past, future, or present--written by the author. Readers can apply these ideas to real-life situations successfully. In the article, On Reading and Sharing Banned Books, the topic of “...heightened sensitivity about what and how we say things,” and needing, “ongoing conversations about how literature can be part of our lives without undue stress and controversy” is exposed (Graff). Books are written for many reasons, to inform persuade, entertain, and relax; however, with books censorship, finding relaxing or entertaining books is extremely difficult. Without censorship, readers could easily discuss these now controversial topics without worry. The purpose of the book, good moral, and potentially

Her first non-children’s book was Fever 1793, although she took a yearlong break from that book to write Speak (Lew 23-25), her first true young adult novel. As she began writing for teens instead of children, she also began writing about more controversial issues, such as the rape and depression in Speak. Anderson has become “knownfor writing realistic books about controversial subjects for teens” (Deutsch). Not only does she write about these difficult topics, she approaches them with “humor and sensitivity” and “her work has earned numerous national and state awards, as well as international recognition” (“Laurie”). Speak itself was a National Book Award finalist and is a Pritz honor book the year it first came out (Lew 34). Despite this recognition, Wesley Scroggins, a Missouri State University professor, called the book “soft pornography,” and demanded that it be taken out of school curriculum (qtd. in Lew 35). Judy Blume, Anderson’s favorite author, backed Anderson in this situation, calling the claim “outrageous” (Lew 35). Clearly, Blume and Anderson won the battle because “[Speak has] been used in schools in order to not only teach literary analysis but also to teach and give students tools against sexual harassment” (“Voice”). The response to Speak can be better understood by learning about the time it was written.

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,

In doing so, parents feel as if they are guarding their children of knowledge that their children may not be capable of handling. Originally, dystopian novels such as The Giver were solely written for adults. Many parents feel that Lois Lowry’s The Giver attracts attention to taboo issues such as sex, drugs and infanticide. Ironically, children will inevitably learn about these topics through exposure, regardless of how hard parents try to shelter them from reality. Lois Lowry sheds a light on these topics in hopes of eliciting conversation among children. It is ridiculous to censor The Giver; it handles these topics in an engaging and appropriate manner designed to make readers think. It is important to allow children to acknowledge and understand these topics in a healthy and safe manner, rather than through potentially dangerous

proper for our students to read” (Hollins). There is conflict between children and their elders

Laura Murphy is a member of the Lake Braddock Secondary School Parent-Teacher-Student Association in Fairfax Station, Virginia. Murphy is advocating for students at the high school to not read a particular novel. The novel that she is challenging happens to be the Pulitzer Prize winner Beloved by Toni Morrison. Murphy is not only challenging the book, but is also wanting to ban Beloved. In regards to future literature, “new polices are adopted for books assigned” that might have objectionable content.

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.