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

because these books have the power to open our eyes to different perspectives that are far beyond our own existence. Then, I will argue that banning certain books from being chosen by the inappropriate age groups serve a purpose. Adult concepts are not for younger eyes and younger minds to contemplate, but who is to decide what is inappropriate or what is acceptable? This book banning issue needs to be settled.
Part 1. The majority of the banned books in the United States are significant literary works. Mark Twain and Henry Miller appear on the challenged or banned book list because of what is labeled as vulgar or offensive language, yet they continue to be on the curriculum for high school students to read. Their literary works are still appreciated throughout the world even though they’re banned, periodically. You can’t just erase a published script in hopes that no one will ever read such a profane piece of work. It will always exist and it is officially a piece of history. Banned books remind us of the power of the written word.
Book banning is a type of censorship to help restrict what a certain age group reads. The basic reason to censor a book is if the book contains material that parents or teachers consider harmful or dangerous to this particular age group which is generally their students or children. “If you don't like content in a book, don't read it. If you don't want your child to read a book, take it away. But you do not have the right to decide ‘appropriateness’ for everyone” (Hopkins). Whether a book is too explicit or inappropriate is entirely up to the reader, or if the reader is a child, the choice belongs to the parents. The only bad thing about it being the parents’ decision is that they may not have read the book they or others are demanding to be removed from the school library. If they haven’t read the book, how do they know it has inappropriate material? This goes around the world in such a domino effect that the same books are banned not just in the United States, but across the world. For example, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” Series, in some parts of the United States and United Kingdom, has been banned from being read in school, taken out of libraries, and even burned in public. The series raises parental concern for their child’s behavior and the ideas the books could illuminate. The most prominent objections to Harry Potter are that the books promote witchcraft, set bad examples, and are too “dark.” By censoring this series, what most of the world considers to be one of the best series of stories ever written or published are being taken away.
When a book is censored, it creates in readers a sense of rebellion that begins to emerge to fight for that book and for the author. Books are oftentimes read more after being banned because most people would like to know why it’s challenged and why so many people want to remove it from the shelves of schools, libraries, and their own homes. To one reader there may not be anything wrong with the book itself, but to another reader some of the edgy content such as drugs, language, and explicit material may cause a book to raise concerns. It all boils down to whether the reader considers the book to be inappropriate or not. Whether the book pushes over the edge or holds back. The reader decides the future fate of the book.
Part 2.

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

material.
Parents, teachers, and all adults have one thing in common when it comes to what their child reads--fear. Fear that their child is reading violent, explicit, and vulgar material. Fear can easily take over a person, but it can also be restrained. It can be suppressed into being nonexistent. Without fear, there would be no censorship. The same goes for controversial books. Rising against a book for its material by challenging it jeopardizes the future that particular book has later on. Parents will forever identify that book as being a bad influence on their child and continue to make sure that book is officially and possibly permanently banned from schools, bookstores, and libraries. Parents should take control of what their child is reading and use good or better judgment for what they consider appropriate for their child to read. Some parents agree that banning a book guarantees increased popularity of it. Banned books make the prime reading list of schools, especially high schools. If parents dislike this occurrence, maybe they shouldn’t make it such a big deal to ban them.
To many people, censorship violates the First Amendment by taking away freedom of the speech to some degree.

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

problem.
I believe that books should not be banned because the opinion of one person should not decide whether a book deserves to be banned or not. “Not everyone agrees on which books should be banned” (Brunner). It is not the book that corrupts a child, but the challenging, censoring, and banishment of a classic book that corrupts society. We shouldn’t have to be restricted to a certain list of books that are acceptable for us to read. We should be able to write or read whatever we want without being challenged by someone else who has self-righteous opinions about a particular book. The magnificent works of Steinbeck, Hemingway, Orwell, and Twain should be remembered and reread. Not because they’re classics, but because they still have the power of the written word. These banned books authors still have influence over the world positively. It’s not the books that need to be challenged, but the idea of censorship that needs to be challenged.