The Pros And Cons Of Banned Books

Many books around the world have been banned because they are offensive. One example is Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel about the journey of a thirteen-year-old boy named Huck, who fabricates his own death to run away with an escaped slave named Jim. The two voyage in a raft along the Mississippi River to gain their individual freedom. In addition, Huck gains a new understanding about humanity. Huck Finn has been creating great controversy on both sides of the argument: to ban or to keep in the school curriculum. Currently “much debate has surrounded Mark Twain’s Huck Finn since its publication in 1885, but none has been more pervasive, explosive, and divisive than that surrounding the issue on race”

Isn't banning books disobeying the freedom of speech, and infringing on the freedom of the press? First Amendment, states that "citizens must be free to seek out any media, regardless of content, that they deem appropriate for entertainment, information, or education. With said, banning books stunts the extension of education. In addition, Books containing “Racial Issues, Blasphemous Dialogue, and Sexual Situations” parents' supervision is indicated. So, if read by children; banning books will not be an antidote for bad parenting. But, Most opponents of book banning understand parental preferences regarding their own child’s reading material, but they refuse to grant them the right to make a decision on behalf of all parents about what is or isn’t appropriate. The disadvantages, books can teach you a negative habits and that’s why some books should be banned. Literature will fully-develop children for the real-world.

Books are not becoming banned because the authorities want to protect the public from certain beliefs, violence or language. Books are becoming banned because those books contain something in them that a higher authority, such as the government, doesn’t want released to the public. It is for the good of the people to have higher authorities agree to a more diverse selection of books open to the public. Censorship is something that the government and institutions created to deny access to something, whether it be a book or video game or music. It contains a message that isn’t meant to be heard.

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).

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

In an attempt to “protect” children, schools tend to target certain topics in literature. Some commonly banned subjects include LGBTQ, racism, sexism, and evolution. Due to book bans, the ability to teach and discuss material is affected. In a study, over 58% of teachers report negative impacts on their classrooms and curricula as book bans are implemented (FirstBook). By not allowing sensitive topics to be read and discussed, there is a spread of whitewashed history and misinformation.

Why do people ban books? Is there even a purpose? While many people may not enjoy reading certain books, but they certainly don’t think their least favorite book is heinous enough to be banned. Most people understand that books are meant to be read and judged by everyone; One man's favorite book may be another's least. However, some people think that banning books is a grand idea.

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 offensive ideas are introduced to children through a school curriculum, it allows the child to grow in knowledge, morals, and prepares him/her for uncomfortable situations in the future. Through adding controversial literature to the curriculum, teachers give a safe environment for students to process these new ideas. In the fourth grade, my teacher read a book to my class, called Smokey Nights. Smokey Nights is about a young African American boy named Daniel, who witnesses riots in the streets outside his Los Angeles apartment.

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

Banning books seems like a great idea, but in reality people are going to read, and do, whatever they want to. A lot of books have explicit language, violence, and sexual content. Most kids know about all of those things, even though they shouldn’t know about those things. Banning them from reading a book that includes those explicit things, at school, doesn’t mean they won’t go and read it at home, or at a friends house. Schools, and public libraries, have been trying to ban certain books with, what they see as, inappropriate content for many years now. Everyone has a different opinion on what is appropriate and what is not. Kids going to public schools are going to hear, and learn, explicit language, see violence, and probably even see people doing sexual things, or at least hear about it. Authors are going to write about whatever they want, it is their right to express how they are feeling, or what they are thinking. The Bible was also on the banned book list, and most people would argue that anyone who is reading The Bible is a Christian. It shouldn’t matter what content is in The Bible, if that’s not your religion you have no sense reading that book. Banning books is not going to keep kids from learning things, that in reality, they shouldn’t be learning. Banning books, in the end, is really hurting the author more than anyone.

Since The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published in January 1885, it has always been in trouble. It is considered the one book from which all modern American literature came, but was condemned in Mark Twain's time as coarse and vulgar, so it was banned from the shelves. Still controversial today, many school districts across the country have banned it from their curriculum for being racist. Unsurprisingly, this is nearly always at the insistence of those who have never even read the book. It is also no surprise that so many students have read it just to see what those guardians of their morals have found so offensive (Edwards p.2).

People will soon be able to read books without them being banned because of some content. It is unfair that people don’t get these books even though they need it for things in school or other types of things. They ban some books because they are either too challenged or they have some other problems. The society is taking away kids and adults rights because they are too challenging. We are going to explore why people are deciding to ban books because of their content.

Entire communities can easily be silenced by just banning one book. Many books store essential information about communities and cultures. The knowledge provided by these books should be acessible to everyone at any time. However, when a book is banned the story and knowledge in a book is lost as people are not allowed to view it. As a result of this, banning books has the potential to destroy communities and cultures.

Hundreds of books are challenged every year around the United States. A tenth of these are actually censored from many people. Books should not be banned because everyone has the right to read what they want. Parents often monitor their children’s reading, therefore the books do not need to be completely taken away. An example of a book that should not be banned is The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Even though The Catcher in the Rye is constantly being challenged for vulgar language and moral issues, it should not be banned, because despite these objections, this book has many life lessons and new perspectives to offer.