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Art Censorship
In recent news there was a controversy over art shown in Santa Fe Community College’s gallery. The artist Pat Payne created obscene religious pictures that for the most part were mocking the Catholic religion. I feel that there is no need for artwork to be censored if in an appropriate place. Placing paintings that may seem to be obscene in an art museum, gallery, or anywhere else that attract mostly mature individuals is appropriate and obviously placing those same pieces of art in an elementary school would be inappropriate. My point being that artworks of any type being placed in Santa Fe’s art gallery should not be an issue. The majority of individuals looking at Santa Fe’s gallery are older and mature, and if children are being brought into a place like this, ad...
When one is young they must learn from their parents how to behave. A child's parents impose society's unspoken rules in hope that one day their child will inuitivly decerne wrong from right and make decisions based on their own judgment. These moral and ethical decisions will affect one for their entire life. In Mark Twains, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is faced with the decision of choosing to regard all he has been taught to save a friend, or listen and obey the morals that he has been raised with. In making his decision he is able to look at the situation maturely and grow to understand the moral imbalances society has. Hucks' decisions show his integrity and strength as a person to choose what his heart tells him to do, over his head.
“She was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn’t try for it.” (Finn, 12) From the moment Huckleberry Finn is introduced in Mark Twain’s text Tom Sawyer, it is beyond evident that he is a boy that is not like most in this society. Huck comes from one of the lowest levels of the white society in which he lives. The truth of the matter is that this is not at all Huck’s fault. His low place in society stems from the fact that his father is an excessive drunk, that disappears for large periods of time, and when he does surface, he spends almost all of that time alternating between being jailed and abusing Huck. Therefore, Huckleberry Finn has become a bit of a ruffian himself, spending a majority of his time homeless, floating along the river, smoking his pipe and running a small gang with one of his only friends, Tom Sawyer. Throughout the course of this text, we watch as Huck transforms from this mindset of very little capacity for competent judgment and a very narrow minded concept of what is right and what is wrong to one of very broad minded perspective with an incredibly complex idea of the differences between rights and wrong. Within Mark Twain’s text Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry undergoes a series of very intense events that ultimately lead to a complete change in the development of his character.
Throughout the classic novel of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain we see a lot of moral development with the main character Huckleberry Finn. Throughout the story Huck’s friendships greatly influence his moral identity. Throughout the series of events that unfold upon our main character, Huck Finn, we see huge moral leaps in the way he thinks that are influenced by that friendships he makes on his journey. He starts the book as a young minded individual with no sense morals other than what has been impressed onto him and ends up as a self empowering individual. Through the friendships he makes with Tom Sawyer, Jim, and the Duke and King we see big moral leaps with Huck.
At the beginning of Huck’s moral journey, Huck is no more than a young boy just starting to develop his understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Huck has grown up under the conflicting influences of his abusive, drunk father, Pap, and his guardian, Widow Douglas. The Widow tries her best to educate and civilize Huck, whereas Huck’s father tries to drag Huck down and feels that a son shouldn’t be better than a father. Up to this point in Huck’s life, Huck has never had to think about what is right or wrong; he was always told by the Widow or Pap. Huck’s moral journey begins when Huck breaks free from the influences of the Widow and Pap, and is finally able to begin to decide for himself what is right and wrong as well as to develop his own moral conscience.
“I don’t want to be part of this kind of denying reality. We live in this time. We have to speak out” (Klayman). Ai Weiwei is an internationally known Chinese artist as well as activist, and his motivation and determination can be summed up by this quote. In all of his pieces, Weiwei critically examines the social and administrative issues facing China today. Many of his works exhibit multiple themes that can be interpreted in various different ways. This lends itself to the universal appeal of his art and makes it a more effective medium of conveying his messages to viewers. Ai Weiwei’s activist artwork—and activist artwork in general—is important to society because it effectively forces the viewer to engage in a self-reflective process that makes the viewer critically examine his or her own beliefs and world. Nevertheless, censorship greatly hinders the dissemination of the critical and thought provoking messages of Ai Weiwei’s art and makes his artwork less effective. In order to gain a better understanding of the relationship of Ai Weiwei’s activist art and the Communist Party’s subsequent censorship, I will examine Ai Weiwei’s influential childhood, his specific brand of activist artwork, the censorship of the Chinese government and the effects of censorship on the effectiveness of Ai Weiwei’s art.
Mark Twain once described his novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as “a struggle between a sound mind and a deformed conscience”. Throughout the novel, Huck wrestles with the disparity between his own developing morality and the twisted conscience of his society. In doing so, he becomes further distanced from society, both physically and mentally, eventually abandoning it in order to journey to the western frontier. By presenting the disgust of Huck, an outsider, at the state of society, Mark Twain is effectively able to critique the intolerance and hypocrisy of the Southern South. In doing so, Twain asserts that in order to exist as a truly moral being, one must escape from the chains of a diseased society.
Throughout time individuals have rebelled against corrupt policies within society in order to obtain their autonomy as well as their rights as an individual. King Louis XIV of France, for instance, taxed the lower class of France, in order to construct his palace, the Palace of Versailles, which depicted his power and authority. If individuals refused to pay their taxes to Louis XIV, then as a result, they would be placed in prison or be executed, as a penalty. The lower class individuals of France began to question King Louis XIV’s authority, ultimately leading to numerous rebellions against his position as King of France. Likewise, between 1750 to 1914 numerous revolutions to alter certain aspects within society occurred in diverse regions
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck experiences many situations which require him to use his moral judgment. During the entire adventure, Huck is essentially in charge of the fate of Jim. Huck’s taught beliefs lead him down the wrong path in the beginning, but eventually –until Tom arrives- his newly developed morals guide him. Society believes that slaves should be treated as property, but Huck’s new beliefs tell him that Jim is a person; not property. Though Huck does not realize that his actions are more moral than those of his environment, he chooses to follow his instincts rather than to follow the rules. As shown in The Adventures of Huck Finn, as well as events of my own daily life, I believe that while external environment has a small impact on our beliefs and identities, every individual fully develops their own morals without regard to what their environment taught them.
Before any external forces unleash their influence, a person is born into this world with a clean slate untouched by the prevailing attitudes that shape modern society. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character Huck is a boy who has grown up wild and for the most part free from the rules that govern the society in which he lives. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of an absent mother and a drunkard father, Huck has had the task of raising himself which has contributed to the development of his own moral code. Although there is plenty of violence and action abound in the novel, there is equal excitement to be had in the moral choices Huck encounters along his journey due to the potential danger in which his decisions consistently place him. In his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain creates suspenseful and dramatic instances by emphasizing the internal moral struggle and danger sprung from the difficult choices his main character is forced to make.
Starting in book 2 from 376d and on into book 3 of The Republic, Socrates and Adeimantus discuss the type of education the young guardians, the future rulers and protectors of the city should receive. They feel that the young men should be strong, quick, courageous and educated. They agree that they should receive a physical education for their bodies and an education in music and poetry for their souls. Unlike physical training, an education in music and poetry can begin at a very young age, at the age when most young people are very impressionable. Socrates feels that “the young are incapable of judging what is allegory and what is not, and the opinions they form at that age tend to be ineradicable and unchangeable.”(378d) Socrates feels that it is of the highest importance that the first stories young men should hear are improving stories, ones which contribute to the betterment of the individual’s mind and soul. The stories should give an idea of how they should live their lives and the types of values they should acquire. They should communicate values like fairness in their dealing with others and respect for the family and the community. The unifying principle behind Socrates’ censorship is this: anything that would contribute to the corruption of the minds of young children or that would give them false values, whether it be true or false, should be censored.
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.
The Houston Chronicle, pp. C14. Retrieved December 2, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis/Academic database. This article emphasizes the point that censors go too far when they attempt to not only ban a book for their own children but want to remove it altogether from a school library, so that other students cannot read it.
Levy, Rachel, et al., eds. “Great Debate: Human Trafficking.” The Morningside Post. Columbia, 4 Dec. 2012. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. .
... not stopped will shake the foundation of our future. This 'market' has forced men, women and children from all around the world into sexual exploitation as well as physical exploitation. Although certain countries and international organizations are putting in effort, for public awareness and are trying to stop human trafficking from progressing, a lot more can and needs to be done. Strict international laws and tougher sentences for these offences need to be put in place, with harsher punishments for individuals and groups who violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to estimates, human trafficking is the fastest-growing area of organized crime (United Nations, 2002). It continues to be overlooked by international authorities to this date and international organizations need to step up and handle this issue before it continues to rapidly grow.
Kieran, M. (2008, January 28). Art, censorship and morality. Open Learn, the Open University. Retrieved January 5, 2014 from http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/philosophy/art-censorship-and-morality