Does It Deserve To Be Banned: Go Ask Alice In 1971 a book was published under the name of Go Ask Alice, with no author or editor. It was just written under anonymous. Although anonymous during the mid 1980, Beatrice Sparks, a teen physiologist, was uncovered to have helped write a good portion of the book. Although she helped the real author was never reveled. This book portrays the life and choices that fifteen year old Alice faces in her life. Although the character is named Alice, she does not correlate with any specific person in real life. The journals were a combination of different patients Sparks was seeing. Since its publishing in 1971 Go Ask Alice has become one of the most controversial banned books. This is because of its strong commentary on sex, suicide, heavy drug usage and teen pregnancy. After finishing the book, this book should not be in the banned books. This book had strong language for a younger child to read but. it shows what can happen to teenagers, what students will do for drugs, and it has a strong message for older teens. For younger readers this book carries very strong language but it has a strong message. One of those is that it shows what students will do for drugs. While researching the book you discover that in South Carolina, Berkley County school district, was one of the first to pull the book from schools and libraries. This occurred after a mom protested the book when her 8th grade daughter had to read little experts from the book to her classmates. The students mother did not want her to be reading a book with so much profanity and references to sex. One of the most controversial lines that comes from the book is when Alice writes in her journal “Another day, another blow-job”. She doe... ... middle of paper ... ... effected Alice's life. In conclusion, this book should not be banned. Many readers of this book would agree that this book should be read by teenagers. It shows how far teenagers will go to get drugs, the consequences of drugs, and how life is like once you are hooked onto drugs. This is a book that many teenagers should read before getting involved in any type of substances. This can teach many teens what to do when situations like this arise. They will know the consequences and will know what to expect. How real this book portrays all the events teens can decide not to try anything because in a way they slightly experienced everything with Alice. Overall the book should not be banned and teens should be allowed to read this any where without there being consequences. Works Cited Sparks, Beatrice. Go Ask Alice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Print.
This controversial book has been challenged in countless states for many years. In 1997 the Elgin, Illinois school district banned the book from middle school libraries. Catherine explained that the book was banned because “talk of masturbation, birth control, and disobedience to parents occurred”
Imagine a book about a couple of good friends hanging out over the summer but with a twist to it, doesn't sound like that bad of a book. But the book Swim the Fly, has still been banned many different times, for many different reasons, but it teaches good lessons to teens, it also talks about different topics teens can relate to. Swim The Fly should be read by teens in school because it teaches the reader to take chances, the value and importance of friendship, and to never give up.
After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...
Go Ask Alice is the diary of a young 15 year old drug abuser. At the beginning of the book, "Alice" is a typical, insecure, middle class teenager that only thinks with boys, diets, and popularity. She never taught of getting into drugs. This girl had a lot of self esteem, and was very happy. Her life changes for the worse when her family moves to a new town and she finds herself less popular and more isolated than ever before. That is why she buys this diary to express herself with personal taughts. She becomes unhappy in the new town, she is overjoyed to be allowed to return to the old town to spend the summer with her grandparents. During this stay she is invited to a party by an old acquaintance; there she unwittingly ingests LSD that had been added to random bottles of Coca Cola and distributed to the party guests as a game. The other guests had mistakenly assumed Alice was aware of what the "game" entailed. After this, she seeks drugs deliberately, and rapidly proceeds to marijuana, amphetamines, and casual sex. A pregnancy scare and the return to her new town encourage her to turn away from drugs; however she soon falls in with the drug crowd where finally she finds acceptance. She starts dating a drug dealer and sells drugs to grade-schoolers for him. After realizing he was using her, she turns him in to the police and runs away from home with her new friend Chris, moving to San Francisco. After being given heroin and then being raped by Chris' boss, Shelia and her boyfriend, she and Chris return home.
In conclusion I believe that anyone who thinks that they would enjoy this book should have access to this book. Because of the many reason I stated above. 9th graders should have a choice weather or not they should read it. And most 9th graders should be able to handle it. And the truth that most 9th grader have seen and read worst and lastly 9th grader are more mature than. I understand why some say that this book usage is for adults and not kids or teen but I personally believe that reading this story the story was not that bad and really shouldn’t even be banned for middle school students. I think it comes down to if you think you can handle this book or not.
Teenagers can identify with characters and use some of this particular literature to identify with some of the challenges in society today. Critics say banning such books from libraries or attempting to keep young people from reading them is tantamount to censorship and is counterproductive. Some people can really identify themselves in some of the literature like ‘Twilight’ series by Stephanie Meyer. Young adult literature that dives into disturbing topics such as suicide, addiction and self-mutilation has the potential to depress and dangerously influence teenagers, who are more impressionable than adult readers. Parents and librarians should screen books for young adult readers more actively
In these cases, parents protesting against the book have called it "dangerous" because of vulgarity, occultism, violence and sexual content. A quick look at the book shows the emptiness of these charges. It does however give insight into why a certain type of parent would object to this book.
Teens should be able to read this book because it also, teaches about real life family situations. Lastly, “ Mary, her dad and her stepmom moved all the way to jackson Mississippi . But, at home back in ashland, Ohio Mary’s mom is very sick and dying” (Arnold 3-5 ). This quote, proves that this could be happening in a real life family situation. It also, is showing that teens that read this book this same problem might be happening to peers around them. Teens should be informed about family problems so they know that peers like them might have the same problems as them and could
There are many books that have been put on a list for many years that has been banned or is banned from people or more likely children under the age of 17. These books were banned because one of the many officials, pare...
"It's not part of the values and morals you want them to hold, but they need to be prepared. residents feared that the easily influenced minds of teens reading the novel would be corrupted by the violence they read. However, it is because the minds of teens are easily influenced that this story should be taught. With the proper education of controversial materials, students can better understand the lessons taught in books for future reference in their own
Due to the mains character Melinda’s story about her journey of recovery from rape and sexual assault, it was wrongly banned for small parts of the book that was taken out of context. Speak teaches the reader about rape and sexual assault and helps any survivors reading Speak. Rape and sexual assault is something that should be discussed because of how much of a problem it has become. Rape and sexual assault needs be taught in school and everyone should push hard towards educating the youth about important situations such as these so the children can grow up with safer lives then they have now. Speak should be read by many because of the extremely strong lessons. Everyone and anyone needs to be educated on these dire
The things Hopkins have been through throughout her life have made her see all risks of the bad things her daughter went through, and she wants to try and help people through these novels. The first time she heard about getting censored she wrote a poem called Manifesto and sent it out to her publisher. Although many parents and schools disagree with her writing style and theme, she still continues to write inspiring books and doesn’t let the news about her censorship ruin her confidence in writing.
As we grow older and wiser we tend to explore out of our boundaries. The lifestyle our parents intended us to live upon has changed over the years. Society has taught our children the value of life with no morals attached. However, in any school setting, books are processed through the District and are passed down to be used in an educational manner. In some cases, there are books who must first be signed and consented by parents because of the content. The Awakening, is about the main character (Edna) who tries to understand herself and the world she lives in. The novel contains some sexual content but has a bigger understanding then what others perceive it to be. I think this book should not be banned from schools because of its, Significance
My recommendation for this book would be that this book is just a fun read, nothing to serious. But yet it's a book were its easy to relate to were a lot of the situations that happen in the book happen in young teenage life as well. Like for example the desperation to fit in. kids will do most likely anything to be part of "the cool group" hopefully not take some sort of pill that will talk to you in your head. But other things like being pressured into talking drugs. Sneaking out of the house to go to some party and not coming back until the next day at dawn without getting caught. These days we do so much and our parents know so little.
Alice in Wonderland, a tale many children and adults read at some point or another , has been banned since 1931 in China, because the Governor of Hunan Province thought that “Animals should not use human language, and it was disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level.” Alice in Wonderland has been banned as early as the 1900s in other countries. It was temporarily banned from classroom use at Woodsville High School in Haverhill, New Hampshire, because the novel was said to have expletives, references to masturbation and sexual fantasies, and “derogatory characterizations of teachers and religious ceremonies.”There are some rumors that claim that Dodgson was a pedophile and that he was sexually attracted to the girls he told his tale to. There is a another rumor that got spread around that he photographed them nude which is the base of this argument.