The Importance Of Censorship In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

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 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.

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

tries to give us an insight into what it is like for these very civil

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been challenged/banned countless times since it’s original publication in 1960. The reasoning people could have behind banning it is that they feel that the racism, language and subject matter in the book is offensive, inappropriate, immoral and that it encourages and condones such things. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, during the depression from 1935-1937, and is told from the perspective of a little girl named Scout. In the book Scout’s father Atticus teaches her and her brother Jem many valuable lessons. The things Atticus teaches Scout and Jem are things we all need to know. To Kill a Mockingbird is an inspirational book that teaches valuable moral values,

“Book Banning” may seem like an issue of the past, but, in fact, it is still a very pertinent issue in the U.S. today. These classic books have been banned at one time or another: Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, The Harry Potter series. You’re probably wondering how these, extremely famous, books can be so censored in America today. There are many reasons that are given in regards to book censorship. For instance, language or profanity, violence, sexual explicitness, or “uncomfortable” topics, such as rape and race relations. Christian groups have requested that a countless number of books, with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer (LGBTQ+) themes, be taken out of schools and libraries The banning and censorship of books can happen in many places and ways; taking them off school reading lists, or even out of libraries and bookstores.

First, To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned because it needs to teach kids how the

Many significant novels have unfortunately been challenged/ banned at a certain point in time. Most of these literary classics face this because some contain sexual references, religious intolerance, and inappropriate language. In some cases, books are being pulled off shelves because people believe that they were “tangibles of instruction” or the reason being was as a precaution towards a possible public attack which took effect in Tucson for the Mexican American Studies (source:8). Another case is the Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education; Christian sewed the board because they believed that the required textbooks hurt their beliefs (Source:8).

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

The characters in, To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, often use prejudice against people of controversial issues. Many of the townspeople of Maycomb use prejudice on the families who are on the less wealthy end of the spectrum. Issues are still displayed because of the racial prejudice used against African Americans and those of other races. Lastly, gender is a clear issue in Maycomb because of women’s and girl’s rights and lack of respect towards them because they are female. All of the types of prejudice show that Maycomb has many problems all throughout the town between other families and townspeople.

It is my belief that since by the time the child is required to read such literature in school, they are at an age where they can distinguish between things that should and should not be said and it is the job of the parents to educate the child that just because they say it in a book does not mean he or she should.Another subject common to banned and censored books is sexuality.

There are many lists of censored books that come out every year; one of those lists is the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000. On this list the Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger ranks at number 13. Forever by Judy Blume ranks at number eight and the Harry Potter series by R.K. Rowling ranks at number seven. Catcher in the Rye is censored because of the incidents of depression, nervous breakdown, impulsive spending, sexual exploration, vulgarity, and other erratic behavior. Mainly these are problems that go against traditional American values. Judy Blume’s, Forever is censored because of its sexual content involving two high school seniors and their decision to have sex for the first time. Lastly, Christian activists are vocal about the Harry Potter

Book censorship in schools and libraries has been a recurring problem since Socrates was sentenced to drink poison and is still is an issue that we have today. Censoring books has one purpose which is to control the lives of their people, to control the way they think, to control their actions by creating automatons that will do and believe anything that they are told. Censoring books should not be permitted, especially not in the United States where we as citizens or humans as a general have individual rights and laws that protect us from such tyrannical actions. However many adults believe they are doing their children and students a favor by depriving them from controversial books topics that they believe we are not ready for. By banning these books they will reduce our shock and protecting our minds from the real world. In order to hopefully create a generation that is peaceful and ignorant to all the horrible atrocities that have and will be committed in the world, because after all an ignorant man is a happy

Recently censorship has become a major problem in our society. Censorship should not be banned on books. People should not be told they cannot read a book. Unfortunately history has shown that words can be used for ill as well as for good, to destroy lives as well as to enhance them? (Steffens, 9) Words and reading them gives us a better understanding of other peoples views. Censorship should not be placed on books.

     The censoring of books for potentially offensive material should be ceased because everything that is written may be controversial since it is impossible to please all readers, and because books do not always have the same influence on readers as they are intended. Books with a certain intention can actually have the opposite effect on the public. Even the most negative, bigoted books can trigger peace rather