Reading and Censorship of the Harry Potter Novels Essay

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

Many conservative groups make the argument that the books that have been banned have material that is inappropriate, immoral or contradicting the beliefs they have ingrained in their children and/or their society. Book-banning cases usually concern the protection of children and their innocence, but all that is happening is sheltering parents trying to avoid an awkward confrontation with their child about uncomfortable matters. It is not only selfish, but also harmful to the overall education of their children. The touchy subjects of banned books contain issues that are part of everyday life, and for a group to attempt to censor this subject from younger society is almost absurd; these issues are not monstrous and the censorship of them not only shows prejudice but lack of respect. Others would say that it is the government’s duty to regulate these books. It is the exact

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.

When people grow up a certain way, thinking in a certain way it’ll inevitably come to affect them later on in life. This is especially true in the cases of personal philosophy, religion or any moral code of ethics. But sometimes, one’s religion starts negatively impacting the education of one’s child and the education of the nation's youth as a whole. In Nancy Flanagan Knapp's article,“In Defense of Harry Potter”, she makes the argument that although the Harry Potter series has come under flak, and even been banned in places, it’s still a very useful tool in furthering the education of young people. Knapp analyzes this point using a plethora of well thought out, well researched, and exceedingly well worded rhetorical strategies, and in the end she uses ethos, logos, and pathos to effectively convey her arguments.

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,

Parents should have the right to decide what their child reads, but should not have the right to decide what is right for other children to read because not all parents have the same view on what is appropriate for their child to learn in school; as Jones stated, we must all respect each other’s differences. Educators should also be able to freely decide on what they feel is appropriate for their students to read. If a teacher chooses a book that has caused concerns in the past, they should alert the student’s parents of

From the very beginnings of literature, the act of banning books has long been a heated controversy. While almost everyone can say that there are definitely books that they do not want their children reading, the line between what is acceptable and what is not is much harder to define, especially in today’s world. In “How Banning Books Marginalizes Children” (2016), Paul Ringel argues that the current policy of banning books has had a negative impact on children because it has conveyed a message that rebuffs diversity and has contradicted the fact that the power to ban books should be used to “curate children’s choices with the goals of inspiring rather than obscuring new ideas.”

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

It's not right to censor the thought of some and boost the efforts of others. All members of society should have equal access to all books and . Several school districts, libraries and cities have banned books for different reasons including violence, sexual content, drug abuse, rape and content that is unsuitable for their age group. Several experts including Ana Agenjo have argued against banning any books. In her letter to the kern high

Anyone who has worked with children will agree that they are very impressionable. Even young adults are influenced by the media, literature, peers, money, and paradigms which is why parents and guardians would also agree that any impressionable source their children come in contact with should include desirable, good-natured content, such as life lessons and morals. In the past two decades, Harry Potter, a famous work of J.K. Rowling, has become increasingly popular and well known, but sensations also come with reproaches from strong willed adults that claim simple fictional details are consuming and corrupting their children. Parents and guardians believe that Harry Potter should be banned from use in schools and libraries, but they don’t

"Harry Potter has been in the 1990-1999 and 2000-2009 “Frequently Challenged Books” lists and currently is on the “Frequently Challenged Children’s Books” list." (bannedbooksweek.org). “When it came out, some people said the book was about Satan and promoted witchcraft.” (LaRue, 2016). This reasoning cause parents to file complaint to schools asking them to remove the books from their libraries. Some school even had to require a permission slip from the children’s parents. Now not all parents were like this. Some parents did not see the comparison with magic as Satanic but as another fantasy book like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. Other parents thought the censorship was absurd and a few of them took actions to voice that opinion. For example: Counts v. Cedarville School District. In this case, Cedarville school board voted that the Harry Potter books would require a permission slip if a child wish to check it out. This vote infuriated some parents so much that they took it court. The parents argued that this vote was against the First Amendment and won the case requiring all libraries in that district to get rid of the permission slips. Even though the book series has ended, there is still controversy over it

Harry Potter has been a best selling book series around the world. Due to its content about magic there have been some Christian groups who have been trying to ban the books. The groups have been banning the books based on the reasoning of it containing magic, possession, and blood sacrifices. The argument, like any other, has two sides, one being people who have actually read the books and know what it is about and its meaning, and the other being people who believe that the books promote witchcraft. (Although yes they do contain witchcraft they do not ever promote it)

J.K. Rowling’s blockbuster Harry Potter series contains mystery, suspense, compelling language and colorful imagery, magical feats, and real life concerns. These books have managed to get children of all ages reading in a society dominated by computers, television, and videos. However, there have been several critics that claim these books are sexually biased. From the beginning of the first Potter book, it is boys and men, wizards and sorcerers, who dominate the scenes and determine the action. This alone does not make these books sexually biased.

Starting in 2001 J.K Rowling books started to become banned in the USA. In 2001 eight cities banned the Harry Potter series, including Bend, Oregon; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Salamanca, New York; Whittier, California; Pace, Florida; Arab, Alabama; Fresno, California; and Bristol, New Hampshire. Her books started getting banned because there were witches and scary scenes that apparently weren’t appropriate for children to read about. To read the books in the Santa Fe, Texas children needed their parents approval. In 2002 in New Mexico, the books were banned because in the books the characters lie,cheat, and steal, parents didn’t want their children to think that lying,cheating, and stealing were allowed. In 2003 in Kentucky, the books were banned

Mainly the parents of the children, who choose to read these series, have questioned Harry Potter. One of the biggest reasons why is because of religion. For those have read the books we all know it is about a boy who utilizes magic in order to fight any obstacle that comes his way. You might wonder why magic is capable of banning a book. Well the answer is because magic is seen as a form of witchcraft that is not tolerated by some religions. Some of the religions that were highly affected were Christianity, Evangelicalism and Muslims. In their religion witchcraft is seen as a form of interaction with the devil or a form of aid from him. Many parents believe that interacting in some way with supernatural forces leads children to the evil world (Maughan). We are not talking about stage magic, but really about the magic that can cure animals and people or help improve crops and land. The type of magic that we are speaking in behalf of being the type where people utilize spells to meet their goal no matter what it is. Magic is depicted as negative because it can do things that only the lord is said to do and not otherwise. There is although a bad side of the magic.