Persuasive Essay On Book Censorship

Judy Blume once said, “Something will be offensive to someone in every book, so you’ve just got to fight it.” Over the past twenty years, public libraries have started to ban certain books due to certain themes that have been seen as “unfit” by the county board. But personally, i wonder who is really at liberty to say what is fit in our society. In a country where it is our very right to freedom of speech, banning books does not only go against it, but it’s almost an insult. The public library should not have any banned books because it promotes censorship, it is futile, and the books we read are some of our greatest teachers.

Book censorship and bans only primes to conformity and thus limiting the variety and range of expression as well as inquiry on which the philosophy depends. Banning and censoring reading materials is capable of limiting the technological innovations, research as well as creativity. It is hence the responsibility of the democracy to avail a diversity of views whether popular or unpopular and else should not coerce the opinions and ideas of some while inhibiting the exertions of others (Memphis, 1). Rather than banning books content, publishers should rather give complete connotation to the liberty of reading by providing books capable of enriching the diversity as well as the quality of knowledge. Reading liberation is of diminutive consequence not unless the reader obtains materials suiting their purposes.

The idea to ban certain books from schools and libraries is preposterous due to the manner in which the people trying to enforce these bans try to do so in. Banning books doesn’t help with the already present problem that our youth’s intelligence levels are already declining, and neither does allowing the freedom to all books. Banning certain books due to their constant use of inappropriate language, sexually explicit nature, and all around mature content has a respectfully reasonable reason to be inaccessible to younger audiences such as minors and teens; not young adults. The banning of books in libraries is outright inexcusable, unless the material is directly racist, subjective religious content, and all around hatred for a certain race or ethnicity; not if it’s used for fictional writing, in a softer manner mid you, to express the conflict in a story and/or to show real world problems, same go for non-fictional writing that expresses ideals in a manner of which isn’t disrespectful to other ideals and that do so in a manner of which isn’t so subjectively and deliberately showing hate for a certain race or ethnicity, especially

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank was banned in Wise County, Virginia because of “objections to sexually offensive passages” (American Library Assiciation). The natural changes that women go through in life were belligerent to these people, even though it was only the honest opinion of a young girl. In cities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Virginia and Texas banned Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain because it was considered “dangerous with its objectionable language and ‘racist’ terms and content” (American Library Association). That all happened at one point or another and to move on we must learn to accept the racism of the past not hide it from children. The same with another classic banned from cities in New York, Illinois, Missouri, and in Warren Township Schools, Indiana, this book is one of my favorite books in the world, and to think that it could be banned because of because of “profanity and [the] undermining of race relations” is depressing (American Library Association). This book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Without these books much of the children would be ignorant of the past, only learning what history sees

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).

An author’s job is to express ideas and stir conversations through words. If their content is considered to be unfit to hear, then their content is censored, and that just limits them from doing their rightful job. Books of any sort should not be censored, “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life” (Faber 79). This is what makes books great. They show the pores in the face of life. Faber had to quit being an author because society did not believe in the meaning of books, which was wrong. Books provide opinion and meaning,“... books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them.” (Vonnegut). Kurt Vonnegut faced having his book banned from school libraries because of his “mature” content. In Vonnegut’s case, he was able to speak out and defend himself. He regained his right to speak freely. Every human must have the right to express themselves without having to be censored because it is inhumane and unconstitutional.

The subject of censorship is a very controversial one, especially the banning of books. Many people believe they must protect themselves and others from the "evils" of many classic books and works of art because they can be deemed "indecent" in one way or another. Many believe that this is absurd and censorship in its current form is a violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. Personally, I align myself with the latter, however I do feel there are occasions where censorship is justifiable. The censorship of books is a division of censorship that, apart from Internet censorship, receives the most publicity. Banning books is the most popular form of such censorship. Many banned books are literary classics, such as The Catcher in

Even though our world is getting more and more connected, censorship still remains one of the top issues that separate people from reading books. Books are the spreader of both bad and good knowledge and I believe that we should no longer contain or ban books just because they are offensive to certain groups in America. The debate on challenged books is a hot topic in America because the country is founded on a basis of freedom of speech.

Many books have been questioned and challenged. Even as far as to banning them. But what exactly is a banned book and why are they banned? A banned book is a book that has been censored by an authority, a government body, a library, or a even school system. A book that has been banned is actually removed from a library or school system. The actual contextual reasons as to banning them is use of explicit violence, gore, sexuality, explicit language, religion, or dark times in history. On the non-contextual side of the reason why they are banned books are usually because with the best intentions to protect people, frequently children, from difficult philosophies and information. Teachers, or even more common adults, often censor books from

Connelly, Deborah S. "To Read Or Not To Read: Understanding Book Censorship." Community & Junior College Libraries 15.2 (2009): 83-90. ERIC. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.

Parents don’t like their kids reading anything “inappropriate” or “too old for them” so they take their problems to the school board or the city to get the books banned. Religious groups don’t want people in their religion reading books that go against them. In Board of Education, Island Trees School District V. Pico in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court stated “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books…”. Schools cannot just remove their books from their libraries. First, and inquiry must be made about the motivation and intent of whoever is pushing for a removal. The intention of keeping students from certain ideas in a particular work is against the first amendment. Although, if complaints are made about a book, the school might choose to just quietly remove it instead of making a big deal out of it. Most incidents only happen at a local level. It’s hard to successfully pull off a book banning past that. According to an article called Banned Books on firstamendmentcenter.org, books are most frequently challenged because “they contain profanity or violence, sex or sex education, homosexuality, witchcraft and the occult, ‘secular humanism’ or ‘new age’ philosophies, portrayals of rebellious children, or ‘politically incorrect ‘ racist or sexist

Why would someone take away a book based on a few opinions? There are many books being banned, but not everyone feels that they should be. In the thirty two year history of banning books, over eleven thousand have been challenged. Books are being banned for three major reasons, violent and sexual explicit material, children reading objectionable material, and the thought that teens will attempt potentially dangerous or morally wrong activities. Banning books should not be allowed because we are ridding many children, teengers, and young adults of lessons and examples that are learned through these books.

The subject of censorship is a very controversial one, especially the banning of books. Many people believe they must protect themselves and others from the "evils" of many classic books and works of art because they can be deemed "indecent" in one way or another. Many believe that this is absurd and censorship in its current form is a violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. Personally, I align myself with the latter, however I do feel there are occasions where censorship is justifiable.

Even though censorship has been around for centuries, some may think that it has been eradicated. In today’s day and age, it 's running rampant, especially in young adult literature. In 2014, 331 books were challenged. A lot of the books that were censored or challenged were by parents, public libraries, private and public schools. 35% were challenged by parents. The reasons those books were challenged is because the topics of homosexuality, suicide, being sexually explicit, drugs/smoking/alcohol, and being unsuited for the age group. (2014 Books Challenges Infographic) To define it, book censorship is the official examination and suppression of certain books or parts of books that some deem to be unacceptable. (Censorship in Young Adult Literature - Video.)Some popular banned books are The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger. All of these books are very iconic; some were made into into billion dollar movie franchises. The Harry Potter franchise even has its own theme park in Orlando, Florida at Universal Studios. The Twilight Saga has a convention every year in Forks, Washington where the movie was shot, called “Twilight Forever” where fans, the movie actors, and even get to meet Stephanie herself. On top of that all of these franchises have merchandise like wands, t-shirts, pins/buttons, cookbooks, and blankets. These books have changed the course of young

It has been said that the books that we ban are the books that we learn the most from. But most people don’t even know what a banned/challenged book is or means. A banned book is a book that a country/state government is trying to take the book off of all shelves in that state/country. A challenged book is a book that is trying to get banned on a small scale. Like a city or town. But people don’t just have problems with one of these books for no reason. Books are usually banned/challenged for 3 main reasons material was considered to sexually explicit, material was considered to contain offensive language, and material is considered not appropriate for any age group.( “About Banned & Challenged Books” American Library Association’s office(1996) Web. 26 Apr.2016) An example of a challenged book is Cut by Patricia McCormick witch is about a young woman that has a addiction to cut herself in