Countries worldwide actively call for the banning of books that are found to be politically inconvenient, religiously awkward, or embarrassing in one form or another. But for writers like Russia's Vasily Grossman, a book's ban means far more than just a dip in sales. In 1961, he pleaded with the Soviet censors, "I am physically free, but the book to which I have dedicated my life is in jail." (Merkelson). A book represents an idea, thus limiting access to a book is banning the representation of an idea. The banning of books in American schools should not be allowed, because banning books will prevent students from learning the reason for the controversy and alternate viewpoints they can come to on their own.
For nine years, from 2000 to 2009 the top challenged book included the entire Harry Potter series. Books have been banned by schools, governments, and libraries since the beginning of time in different places all around the world. Starting in 1982, Book Banning Week was created to try to bring up the importance of this form of censorship. Books are unjustly banned when in reality, students should self-censor their reading, the First Amendment should protect books against this, and these books are important teaching materials.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.”-Dr. Seuss. What Dr. Seuss’s statement is telling us is that books have given us knowledge about ideas, life, and the world. One of the greatest inventions of mankind is a book. A book is a set of printed sheets that are put together fill with information that people read about. Books have been around with us since ages from generations to generations. It is all around the world with different cultures and languages, books have given people the joy of story, information, and knowledge. Everyone should have the right to read whatever book they are seem interested. Well, it is not the case; there are some people out there trying to challenge books from being ban. It is ridiculous that books are being taken away from readers. Today, books are still currently being challenged or banned. This type of doing is censorship. This is a problem that people need to look at and think about. Books are in school, library, in our homes yet they are too much for the people. Why are books so sensitive for readers to be challenged? There are two set of sides to this issue, one side are the people that wants to remove the books and challenged them to be ban, the other side are the one that oppose the banning of books, allowing to read whatever they want. Which side is right? This leads to the question as to why books are currently being challenged or banned. How does banning books relate to censorship and what are some solutions that can solve the problem of banning books?
Book banning has a long history and has made both positive and negative impact on readers. People have been trying to stop books from being banned, but there are also people that are trying to ban books to protect their children. Many books have been challenged and even banned because of the “inappropriate” content the books contain such as profanity. Books have started to get censored since the 1500’s and has threatened many cultures. The people who ban and censor books think that they are protecting the readers from the information, but it is secluding the readers from getting more ideas. This creates a negative impact on the readers, especially high school students. People don’t realize that book censorship limits the way they view the world. Many books have been banned in American high schools because of political, religious, sexual, and social reasons. Book banners and parents should be more lenient in what the book expresses because it teaches readers, such as high school students, many lessons that will help them in life.
Banned Books and Why are They Banned?
Books are written for the pleasures of people and came from the hard work and efforts of writers. A writer’s story is mostly based off of themselves and it is known that you will know a person much better once you have read their writings. So why are some books banned?
What is a banned book? A banned book is a book that has been removed from the shelves; it could be from a library, classroom, or even the bookstore because of its content. A book could be banned for many reasons, but it could be banned because it contains sex, violence, inappropriate language, religious viewpoints, witch craft, and many more things because other people deem it inappropriate. When someone bans a book they ban it for everyone else too.
In schools around the nation, many books have been banned from the teaching curriculum. Some of them deserve to be banned due to the explicit content only suited for adults. Some books like the Harry Potter series, The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Hunger Games. Granted, there are language issues in Catcher and Huckleberry Finn, but that language exists everywhere. The censorship should not be as strict as it is because many great books are being banned that students should be reading in order to gain an understanding on who some great writers were. Some of the banned books should be reconsidered on whether they should be censored or not.
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 children if they feel that the books have maniacal or controversial ideas in them. In some scenarios, those who are censoring books think that a book might be appropriate for a certain, or several groups in society. A book that might be perfectly fine for a ninth grader might easily be horrendous or confusing to a fourth grader. Thus having them exposed and influenced to thinking a certain way and act upon what they have just read. Well at least that’s what people think is going to happen anyways. But honestly, reading books of any genre gives us knowledge, entertainment, and imagination so therefore no books or novels should be banned and is ultimately dependent on the reader’s choice.
Banned books truly do deserve to be inside of school systems. They are classics that should never have been taken away from the schools. Students should have the privilege and right to be allowed to read them once they reach a certain maturity level around their middle school years. It is absolutely wrong to hold students back and not let them learn the valuable life lessons that lie within the pages of every banned book.
Book Banning
The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (Buchanan).” With the banning and the challenging of books all over the U.S. I believe that our first amendment is being jeopardized. We should be allowed to read whatever we want to read it is our right according to the first amendment in the U.S. Constitution with freedom of speech.
Every year in the United States we have books being banned and challenged by many people who do not like the contents of books.