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adverse effect of censorship
censorship in america 1950- present
adverse effect of censorship
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Growing up in a place where free speech is strongly pressed, why is censorship no stranger? We live in a world where television, video games, music and even literary documents have all been censored. Literature can be defined as the body of written works of a language, period, or culture. This is everything from newspapers and magazines to textbooks and novels. Literary censorship has been around for a long time. These books are challenged and banned. When a book is challenged there has been an attempt to remove the book or document based on the opinions of a group of people. If that is successful then the book or document is banned. A challenge is not only made based on a point of view from a person, or a group of people, but it is made to remove the material from classrooms curriculums and libraries. Thankfully most challenges are unsuccessful. So why are books challenged? Usually they are challenged to protect children from difficult ideas. According to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom the top three reasons for challenging are; the content is sexually explicit, contains offensive language, and not appropriate for certain age groups. But this isn’t something that’s new. This has been going on for a long time, and classical books have been banned. Book like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was banned because it had violent, racial and strong adult language. In 1949 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare were also targeted because “they tend to engender hatred of the Jew as a person and as a race.” (Rosenberg v. Board of Education of City of New York.) The court ruled against the ban. Parents may agree with some of the bans, not ... ... middle of paper ... ...one stands for it. Sheehan, Dan. "Manuscripts Don't Burn: a Timeline of Literary Censorship, Destruction, and Liberation." Pen America . N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. destruction-and-liberation>. Site shows the timeline of challenging books, banning them, and even extreme ways of eliminating them. It gives insight to how long censorship has been around and they ways people attempted to enforce it. It helped find accounts of censorship. TIME Staff. "Books: Banned Books." TIME.com. N.p., 9 May 1938. Web. 08 Nov. 2013. . Article showed list of banned books and process of banning books. It gives an insight to just how large the problem really is. Helped name some shocking books on the banned list.
Books that have shaped America are slowly starting to disappear. Many of the previous social norms have fallen out of fashion, and because of this reason numerous books are beginning to become banned. Blasphemy, racism, sex, and violence are all ethical reasons for books to be censored.
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.
Foerstel, Herbert N. Banned in the U.S.A.: a Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. Print.
There is a difference between banned books and challenged books. According to the American Library Association (ALA), “A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group (About banned, para. 2). A banned book is when a book or other reading material is removed from certain locations and not available. For example, one of the most challenged books in the 21st century is The Giver by Lois Lowry (100 Most). The novel, The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sheman Alexie was banned in high school in Oregon because a parent complained that the book was offensive (Doyle, 3).
... Controls Ideology." Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003. 236-238. Rpt. in Book Banning. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Books are banned for many reasons but more times than not it is because of the sensitive information found within the novel that agitates the reader. As long as people have been able to develop their own opinions, others have sought to prevent them from sharing. At some point in time, every idea has ultimately become objectionable to someone. The most frequently challenged and most visible targets of such objection are the very books found in classrooms and public libraries. These controversial novels teach lessons that sometimes can be very sensitive to some but there is much more to challenged books than a controversial topic. What lies within these pages is a wealth of knowledge, such as new perspectives for readers, twisting plots, and expressions that are found nowhere else. For example, To Kill A Mockingbird, contains references to rape, racial content, and profanity that have caused many to challenge the novel in the first place. The book was banned from countless
Aliprandini, Michael Sprague, Carolyn. "Banning Books: An Overview." Points Of View: Banning Books (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
What is censorship? An encyclopedia defines censorship as "the control of what people may say or hear, write or read, or see or do1." There are many reasons why people censor entertainment such as literature and music. Many governments or groups try to preserve their standards of morality by preventing people from learning about or following other standards2, commonly found in the two previously mentioned mediums. There are different ways to censor things. It can be on a local level, such as libraries refusing to carry a controversial book. It can also be on an entirely larger scale. In the 1770’s, French author Beaumarchais had two of his plays, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, banned by King Louis XVI.2 Back then, these plays were considered outrageous and sometimes blasphemous. To fully understand how our system of censorship works today, we have to look into history to see how censorship got started.
In the modern United States, there aren't many stories of books being roasted over an open fire. It also isn't heard of banned literature being confiscated and raids on homes, similar to Fahrenheit 451. Yet everyday in our society another book is being challenged and taken off the shelves at local libraries because it disagrees with one group's views or another's. This sort of censorship has been going on from the Cold War era and has been banning books like The Call of the Wild, and challenging books such as Feed. Book's are burned, banned, and challenged because of hurt feelings and disagreement on the content.
Why are books challenged and further on banned? To challenge a book is an attempt to remove the material from schools and/or libraries, and to ban a book is to successfully remove the material from these places. Books are usually challenged to protect children from the censors of these books. This book was banned for all the wrong reasons. This paper will focus on racism, sexism, homosexuality, and violence since these were reasons the book got banned which on the contrary should have given it much more motive to let high school students read and learn from it.
Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.
Censorship by definition is the suppression of speech or removal of communicative material which may be considered objectionable or repulsive. Censorship is nothing new and its effects are constantly felt throughout society. Many societies use censorship to protect the established moral and social order. Book censorship in western cultures can be traced to the earliest years of Christianity, when the church began to suppress opposing views as unorthodox. In ancient times, before the printing press and the mass production of literature, book burning was an effective form of censorship. This process guaranteed that no one would ever read them. Although book burning was very efficient it is now used as more of a gesture of protest to shock people rather than a real method of destroying a book. In modern times, censorship refers to the examination of media including books, periodicals, plays, motion pictures, television shows and radio programs for the purpose of altering or suppressing parts thought to be offensive. Today’s censorship occurs when certain people succeed in imposing their personal or moral values on others. Censorship deals mainly with the first amendment constitutional. “The law requires that if a book is to be removed, an inquiry must be made as to the motivation and intention of the party calling for its removal. If the party’s intention is to deny students access to ideas with which the party disagrees, it is a violation of the First Amendment” [First Amendment Center]. Though the First Amendment bars government authorities from prohibiting the free exercise, abridging the freedom of speech or practicing religious censorship in the United States, individuals have successfully pushed to remove books from public and ...
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.
Staff, Wire Reports. (2002 October 3). Book banning spans the globe. The Houston Chronicle, pp.C14. Retrieved December 2, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis/Academic database.
The most debatable and controversial form of censorship today is the banning of books in school libraries. Banning books that educate students is wrong and selfish. Censorship of books in school libraries is neither uncommon nor an issue of the past. Books with artistic and cultural worth are still challenged constantly by those who want to control what others read. The roots of bigotry and illiteracy that fuel efforts to censor books and free expression are unacceptable and unconditional. Censoring school books in libraries can often lead to censorship of our basic freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. In some cases, a minority ends up dictating the majority in censorship cases. To be told what is permissible reading material and what is not is a direct violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.