With the eruption of many teenaged and young adult Christian writers in recent years, there have naturally come questions concerning the ethics of writing. What can Christian writers include, and what should they not include in their writing? One such question concerns the usage of characters cussing in writing, and Reagan Ramm, a writer for Kingdom Pen, a community for young Christian writers, attempts to answer this question in an article titled “Should You Include Cussing in Your Story?” First he identifies cursing as a sin, and explains that he found himself conflicted over whether to make a character cuss in his novel. He then gives five points arguing against the usage of cuss words in writing, which, although seemingly strong, fail to convince due to inadequate evidence supporting them. In the author's first three points, he expresses his concern over how the usage of cuss words in writing can affect the quality of the story. “Attempting to communicate the vileness of a character with a curse word is just lazy,” he …show more content…
However this does not imply that all Christian writers absolutely need to use cussing in excess in their fiction. Some writers may find it against their personal convictions, and some writers may deem cuss words inappropriate for their intended audience. Other authors may feel as if cuss words would not add much depth to their stories, but rather serve as a distraction. Nevertheless those Christian authors who feel called to show the world in its true depravity should not feel discourage and dissuaded from using cuss words in their writing. Because life does not resemble a breezy picnic, but pain and darkness, and truly excellent writing should reflect this and illustrate the sharp edges of its brokenness, only to show how much brighter the purity and truth of the light shines through
The author's purpose of this article is to show how “Cuss Time,” should be not necessarily encouraged but protected by our first amendment rights. Granted having the freedom to make a fictional character realistic, in a situation, strong language can be called for. McCorkle giving her son cuss time, she found it “liberating to watch his liberation” because he recognizes the urge to want something much more, the more you are denied it. Rather than when we are given the freedom to choose to do their os that, the real reason being it might lose value to our well being. By limiting our freedom of speech, some of
In Names, by Paul Crenshaw, it really caught me off guard when it came to using provocative words. It goes back to the introduction of Jonathan Franzen when taking big risk is really apart of a honest essay. Throughout the whole essay there were at least two or more inappropriate words in a paragraph. The author is mainly trying to get the reader’s attention when it comes to using the type of words that he used.
In order to achieve effectiveness within one's writing, the author must change the way the audience views the piece. In the speeches, “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” written by Martin Luther King Jr. and “Sinners in the Hand of God” written and spoken by Jonathan Edwards, an extreme Puritan, they both dramatically affect the audience in a way that moves their perception. While scripting these pieces, both authors have to use a multitude of stylistic techniques to achieve the effect they have been longing for initially. Both King and Edwards use specific approaches to affect their audience, but in order to get a more in depth perceptive one must analyze both pieces and their techniques.
The author Chris Crutcher’s choice of language really helps us get a feel for what is actually happening in the story. An example is on page 19 when Mike Barbour was pushing Chris Coughlin into a locker because he was wearing his dead brother's letterman jacket. This shows how cruel kids can be and how people really are.
Profanity should be the last reason a great novel should be banned. After all, it is reality, it is how people talk, and in the case of Harris and Me, its definitely how young boys talk to each other. The use of the language is hardly profanity at all. For example, Harris says, “Well you can just blow it out your butt you old cow, you ain’t no grown-up to tell me what to do. How the hell am I supposed to know things if I don’t go ahead and ask them? (Gary Paulsen, Harris and Me .7)” The words feel elementary to me, he says butt instead of ass, and old cow instead of old heifer. Maybe it’s not the actual words that parents are losing their minds about, but more about
The author of two novels and multiple classic short stories, Flannery O’Connor is widely regarded as one of the greatest fiction writers in American literature. However, as a Southern and devoutly Christian author in the 1950s, O’Connor was often criticized for the religious content and “grotesque” characters often incorporated into her works. They were considered too “brutal”, too “sarcastic.” (The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O 'Connor). O’Connor begged to differ.
such disapproval this time was the novel‟s excessive use of profanity, along with the use of Godand Jesus‟ name in vain, as well as inappropriate sexual references.
“The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is really a large matter- ‘tis the difference between the lightning bug and lightning.”(Mark Twain). Mark Twain, the author of an extraordinary yet controversial novel; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had a great way of capturing moments in time and bringing them to life through the use of meaningful and direct diction. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a vexed novel for it 's a use of the “N-word”. However, many scholars and associations have devised a “solution” for this problem such as, completely banning the book, creating sanitized versions, or even replacing the book for another American literature novel. “What is so wrong
words in the book are not trying to offend the reader there trying to tell and story and illustrate
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.
Supporters of banning say profanity can negatively influence the actions and thoughts of readers, especially younger readers that may not have heard or read many corrupt words. Huckleberry Finn, a book commonly inveighed for its use of contentious racial language, is commonly challenged for that reason. For USA Today, Martha Moore wrote, “When the younger reader is staring at that word five times on a given page and the instructor is saying, 'Mark Twain didn't mean this and you have to read it with an appreciation of irony,' you're asking a lot of a younger reader”. Granted, foul vocabulary is a challenge that academies need to address, but not through barring novels. Besides, if the reader is sufficiently mature for the book, they can still learn from it. For instance, some racial characterizations do not intentionally persecute people, but show the contrasting tensions between them, conforming to the time period. Again, the article “Huck Finn Navigating Choppy Waters Again” revealed, “The word is there for a reason… The word is terrible, it's hurtful, but it's there for a reason” (Moore). The racial epithets used in that book convey the attitude of Missouri in the 1840s when friction between African Americans and white people was rising. Additionally, banning a book due to concerns about the language is not beneficial to pupils because it prevents them from learning from other components of the book. “Often the organizations or schools that ban these books fail to see the book as a whole; they often center on the one page, the one scene or even the one word containing the offensive language or meaning and judge the whole book based on that one aspect,” according to an article by Adriana Lopez. She makes a sound point. A book contains a whole plot with themes that
The first instance of profanity begins on page four, King writes about a case of bullying, “Carrie White eats shit,” is written on a desk by another student. These scenes as well as many others in the book support the opinion that it is “explicit in matters of sex” (Alexander), the, “use of swearing” (“Carrie”), and potential harm it could cause students who read it. Much of the book is also very crude and cruel. Alex Alexander writes, “Carrie's schoolmates, in a ‘hoarse, uninhibited abandon,’ shout ‘Period, Period!’ and ‘Plug it up!’
Mark twain used strong language to get the reader in the mood. He also used strong language to get the reader to understand how the people talked and how the people were treated. Back then in the time that this novel was written was the time when African Americans were slaves. So Mark Twain had to make this novel as close to the real thing in this time period as he possible get it. So mark used the words that people would use during that time. Mark would also use the words that would a fend someone like calling an Indian an injun. And Mark used then n word instead of calling the African American by their name.
Curses and cursing practices have been existed as universal phenomena since the time of immemorial. However, unlike blessing, Curse words are words we are not supposed to say; as a result curse words themselves became highly influential. The topic itself is perhaps too taboo for academicians. (Jay, 2000:18).
Quotes about books and their importance to the society are many, and one can never imagine that the same books have content that should not reach a certain public. Martin Luther King once said that if one needed to change the world, the only thing they had to do is to pick a pen and write. Why then would language become such a huge issue when writing books? Like movies, some books require parental guidance because their sexual, political, socio-cultural, and legal content should not reach a certain audience. Ethical and legal issues apply when governments or institutions decide to regulate the language contained in books. This paper is based on findings on the