Argumentative Essay: Banned Books

Banishment

Throughout school we’ve read books we consider classics or “oldies.” Teachers had us to read these books, gather information about them, and write reports on them. The majority of the books we love to read are, indeed, banned. Banning books is a form of censorship from religious, moral, and sometimes commercial motives. “A book is ‘challenged’ when a person or group objects to the materials and attempts to remove or restrict their accessibility. A book is ‘banned’ when this removal is successful” (“Banned Books Week). These books have material that has raised parental concern for years and yet we still read them. As I explore the opposing solutions to this ongoing issue, first I will argue that banned books are important to our culture

As the American Library Association notes, books are usually banned "with the best intentions—to protect others, frequently children, from difficult ideas and information" (Brunner). People, normally adults, collaborate on a reason a book should be challenged, and then banned. They tally each example of a wide range of controversies that a book has and come to a single conclusion. Their decision to ban a book is usually for the safety of younger readers. What may seem appropriate for a high schooler may not gain the same reaction for an elementary school third-grader. Because all viewpoints are different, parents want to keep their children safe from all inappropriately discussed

Authors should be able to publish their thoughts and not have to worry that their words aren’t acceptable. By censoring what we read, we are limited to a certain mindset of ideas. Books are an easy target when it comes to censorship because they still can be dangerous, irreverent and profane. Great books have the power of the word to upset and inspire. Other reasons to censor a book are all defined by the content of its pages. Language, drugs, and violence are the main causes for books to be challenged by parents, which eventually raises the eyebrows of the community to take action and solve the