Censorship - Banning Books

Literature has long been an important part of human life. We express our feelings with ink and paper; we spill out our souls on dried wood pulp. Writing has been form of release and enjoyment since the beginning of written language. You can tell a story, make yourself a hero. You can live out all your fantasies. You can explore all of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and share them with the outside world. But just because you can write, don't think you are uninhibited!

It doesn't matter who you are. If you write a book, paper, or other work of choice, somebody is going to contest you. Some one isn't going to like what you have to say, and they will try to cause a stir. Don't try to deal with issues of racism, sexism, murder, sexuality, etc. That will only get you banned, barred, or burned. Controversy is a trigger for argument, so if you write about something controversial, people will have something to say about it. It doesn't matter whom the book was written for, about, or by. For example, you can't write about racism in America. We don't have any of THAT, do we!?

I remember well my ex-boyfriend reading Of Mice and Men. It was required reading for his Senior English class. However, in the 1990's, this book was challenged and banned in many schools across the country. The book deals with a mentally challenged man who kills some one, and, in the end, is killed himself by his "best friend." And don't think the language was overlooked!

All kids love the "Harry Potter" series. But they don't know that by reading it they are "indulging in sinful and Godless acts" or that these books are putting them on the fastest train to Hell. I own A Clockwork Orange, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelfth Night, and Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, all of which have been or are banned. What's going on here?

The most frequently challenged and/or banned books in 2001 were:

? The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, for its focus on wizardry and magic.

? Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language and being unsuited to age group.