The origins of free speech can be traced back to sixteenth century England and the reign of Henry VII. Due to the ascension of the printing press and the proliferation of ideology contrary to the crown, Henry established laws against seditious libel, the criticism of English government or government officials. To enforce these laws, Henry created three administrative branches -- privy counsel, stationers company and star chamber. The privy counsel was in charge of licensing. In order to publish, one first had to be cleared by the privy counsel. The stationers company kept a census of all English publication. This surveillance group recorded such information as the target audience and political agenda of publishers and authors. The final branch, known as the star chamber, was the court where seditious libel cases were tried.
Henry’s system of censorship soon became corrupt and unjust as publishers were not only refused licenses because of petty aristocratic concerns but often were convicted of seditious libel after being licensed due to a change in policy. In one case,...
Even as a child Clara knew that silence was a virtue. She chose to be silent for nine years, because she felt that “speaking was pointless”(73) and that she could get her own way without having to fight or argue. She had only to act as though she were perfectly happy in any situation when in reality she would adjust the circumstances to become something far more agreeable to her. Her silence “was [her] last refuge”(113), she retreated into her self when she felt troubled, and had no other outlet for her pain or suffering. Esteban “considered [Clara’s silence] a virtue” (88) but he did not really understand C...
Things Fall Apart was a fantastic book. It was educational as well as entertaining. The author, Chinua Achebe did a great job of describing the complex society and culture of the Ibo tribe. Being that Achebe’s roots originate from the Ibo, he shares accurate history and traditions that help shape the book and its perspective on how the European invasions greatly affected pre-colonial Africa.
Anthony Comstock was the most prominent American advocate of censorship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Connecticut in 1844, Comstock fought with the Union in the Civil War and upon release became an influential member of the Young Men’s Christian Association. His personal quest to rid America of indecent and immoral literature made his name synonymous with the epithet “Comstockery” or the excessive pursuit of moralistic censorship.
...eluctance to give himself up, and must have Hester do it for him. This guilty diction displays his longing for redemption, but how he cannot do it himself. He longs for a chance to right his wrongs, but his pride gets in the way. His hubris does not allow him to defame himself in the community and Hester must expose him. Terrence Martin explains this by saying that “he cannot surrender an identity which brings him the adulation of his parishioners, the respect and praise of his peers” (Martin 93).Martin explains how Dimmesdale cannot let his reputation in the town be tarnished, and how his hubris keeps him from confessing his sin. He cannot stand to lose the “adulation of his parishioners, the respect and praise of his peers.” Dimmesdale’s excessive pride over his authority in the town clouds his judgment and makes his downfall that much more tragic.
The novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe highlights the many important historical events that happened during the period of colonialism, spread of religious fervor to Africa from Europe, and the importance of the native religion among African societies. Achebe shows that religion holds a major influence in many African societies and influences the daily life of the natives. Furthermore, the novel introduces a major event that happen during pre-colonial Africa, the spread of the Christian faith, which forever changed and affected the natives in Africa, more specifically the Igbo society located in Nigeria. Things Fall Apart vividly describes and explains how the Christian faith that arrived in Africa changed both the individuals in the Umoufia and society. To add on, the novel shows how the spread of Christianity ultimately leads to the destruction of the many native African cultures, and shows what redeeming qualities that arise from the destruction of their culture. Achebe describes how the Christian faith acts as a guide to the Igbo society and at the same time acts as the inevitable downfall of the Igbo society.
Censorship is a shroud for the intolerable, a withdrawal from the cold truths of humanity, and ultimately, the suppression of expression. When a book such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is banned in classrooms, students are not only stripped of an enriching work of literature, but also consequently stripped of the cultural and moral awareness required to survive in a world stained with imperfection and strewn with atrocity.
Johann Gutenberg invented the moveable type printing press and published his first bible sometime around 1450. By 1500, an estimated 20 million books were circulating throughout Europe. The Church's monopoly over the written word was destroyed. Responding to this new technology of freedom, the Church developed a number of control mechanisms. The most obvious, and perhaps famous of these was the Index librorum prohibitum (Index of Prohibited Books). The Index listed hundreds of banned authors and books.3 Less famous than the Index but absolutely central to the rise of censorship, was Church and government use of exclusive printing privileges, which granted favored printers a monopoly right to publish books so long as they were approved by official censors4. In Italy, censorship was primarily a response to the spread of printed Protestant propaganda.5
According to “Freedom of Speech” by Gerald Leinwand, Abraham Lincoln once asked, “Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its people, or too weak to maintain its own existence (7)?” This question is particularly appropriate when considering what is perhaps the most sacred of all our Constitutionally guaranteed rights, freedom of expression. Lincoln knew well the potential dangers of expression, having steered the Union through the bitterly divisive Civil War, but he held the Constitution dear enough to protect its promises whenever possible (8).
The world was at the edge of a third world war. This was the result of a variety of things: the Cuban Revolution, the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, US anti-communism, insecurity of the Soviet Union, and Cuba's fear of invasion all made causes for war. However, war was not the result due to great cooperation from both President Kennedy and President Khrushchev and each of the decisions made by the leaders was crucial in the outcome of The Crisis. Kennedy's choice to take action by means of quarantine instead of air-strike and Khrushchev's decision to abide by the quarantines were perhaps the two most significant decisions made by the leaders in order to prevent war. The Cuban Missile Crisis showed the world that compromising and discussion can in-fact prevent war. As Khrushchev said in 1962, "They talk about who won and who lost. Human reason won. Mankind won." 1 The world had almost seen another world war, the effects of which would have been devastating because of the weapons involved. Humanity, indeed, was the prevention of the war.
The common image that comes to mind on the topic of censorship is that of book burning. Dating back to ancient times, the easiest way to deal with unwanted writings has been to get rid of them, usually by heaping them into a blazing pyre. In his most famous science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury warns of a futuristic society where all literature is destroyed under a kerosene flame and the citizens' freedoms are kept in check by the lack of written information. In fear of this kind of totalitarianism, many bibliophiles have fought against all manners of censorship, wielding the first amendment and the rights recognized by our fore-fathers. But with the technological advances of this the last decade of the twentieth century and the up welling of a new informational medium comes a new twist to the struggle for freedom of expression.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most important events in United States history; it’s even easy to say world history because of what some possible outcomes could have been from it. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was a major Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to install ballistic missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy and the other leaders of our country were faced with a horrible dilemma where a decision had to be made. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara outlined three possible courses of action for the president:
In 1962 nuclear war seemed inevitable to the world, it was the first time nuclear war was hanging on a thread. The Cuban Missile Crisis presented a threat to the world, in which the USSR planted nuclear missiles on Cuba. America’s response was to threaten launching nuclear missiles at the Russians. This incident launched the world into a new time, which presented nuclear weapons as a source of power.
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a powerful novel about the social changes that occurred when the white man first arrived on the African continent. The novel is based on a conception of humans as self-reflexive beings and a definition of culture as a set of control mechanisms. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, an elder, in the Igbo tribe. He is a fairly successful man who earned the respect of the tribal elders. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected member of the tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace graphically dramatizes the struggle between the altruistic values of Christianity and the lust for power that motivated European colonialism in Africa and undermined the indigenous culture of a nation.
Censorship has been a factor in the lives of humans since long ago in the times of the ancients, however, its prominence increased during the Middle Ages when literature became more common. Take censorship of books, for example, which has been relevant since the time after the persecution of the church, when it banned books about and/or including superstitions or opposition towards them, such as the condemnation of Thalia by Arius, a novel which portrayed “a literal, rationalist approach to the New Testament texts” (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/589822/Thalia), when “The First Ecumenical Council of Nicæa (325) condemned, not only Arius personally, but also his book... …The Emperor Constantine commanded that the writings of Arius and his friends should be burned and that concealing them was a capital crime, punishable by death.” (Rick Russell Former editor of AB Bookman's Weekly.) We look back on this as monstrous and wretched to deny someone their opinions and hide away the history from the public simply because it was in the favor of any particular group or sect. However, when we use censorship as a way for parents and teachers of children to regulate the reading material that we allow them to associate with, it’s suddenly justified and correct. Those censoring the books obviously think so. They hold the belief that they are protecting their youth from violence, harsh language, and crude humor. Parents and teachers around the nation censor The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain for similar reasons, but they continue to overlook the bigger picture. This title teaches the history of our nation, important life lessons, and the responsibilities of maturity and of growing up.
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.