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.
Books and other literature are burned after they have been banned, normally in a rather extreme movement to stop the spread of an idea. Post World War II when Nazism, communism, and militarism were scary ideas, any books that could contribute to these ideas were destroyed. The Allied Control Council in Germany led the denazification of over 30,000 titles, which was ironically similar to the Nazi book burnings from the past. This was an immensely fragile time for nations across the world because of the actions of Nazi Germany and the tension between western powers and the Soviet Union. Later in the Cold War era there was an incident when John Lennon of The Beatles band had his quote, “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus” taken out of context by southerners in the United States. This led to Evangelists and the Ku Klux Klan jumping in and encouraging the public to burn any Beatles memorabilia. The stronger Christian beliefs of the South (most of which is in an area called the “Bible Belt”) were offended despite the understanding of how the quote was used originally. The last incident, from 1987, is about a large pub...
... middle of paper ...
.... Nobody wants to feel hurt feelings or to be singled out. The issue with burning and banning these books to make the minority feel better is the loss of a theme – every book has a unique theme. To stop book burning and challenging, we must stop taking the literal meaning of a text and try to get the theme from it.
Works Cited
"About Banned & Challenged Books." Banned and Challenged Books. American Library Association, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Baldassarro, R. W. "Banned Books Awareness: The Call of the Wild." Banned Books Awareness. Deep Forest Productions, 24 July 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. London: Harper Voyager, 2013. Print.
"Fahrenheit 451 Quotes." Goodreads. Goodreads Inc, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Virani, Shafique N. The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, a Search for Salvation. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
In the article How Banning Books Marginalizes Children, the author, Paul Ringel, states that approximately fifty-two percent of the books banned in the last ten years illustrate “diverse content”, such as race, religion, gender identity, etc. Ringel believes that attitudes about which books are “appropriate” for kids to read have too often suppressed stories about different cultures and life experiences. He basis his argument around the pretext that when libraries stop the banning it will allow kids to learn how to navigate imaginary worlds filled with differences and apply those lessons to their own lives.
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.
Imagine a world of uniformity. All people look the same, act the same, and love the same things. There are no original thoughts and no opposing viewpoints. This sort of world is not far from reality. Uniformity in modern day society is caused by the banning of books. The novel "Fahrenheit 451" illustrates a future in which the banning of books has risen to the extent that no books are allowed. The novel follows the social and moral implications of an over censored society. Even though the plot may seem far-fetched, themes from this book are still relevant today. Although some people believe that banning a book is necessary to defend their religion, the negative effects caused by censorship and the redaction of individual thought are reasons why books such as "Fahrenheit 451" should not be banned.
Ever since pen was first put to paper there has been some form of censorship surrounding it. The most current form of censorship is to ban the books which are viewed as inappropriate. Such an act not only violates the rights of American citizens, but it also violates the rights of the students to learn. Even if the government could manage to ban all of the books that it feels are inappropriate, the thirst to read such books would only grow. Too often is it forgotten that before the banning of books was an “at home issue,” (Book Banning 1) the federal government tried to cut the flow of inappropriate information off at the source
Imagine a world full of chaos and fights. With no secrets and everything out in the open. In the twenty-first century, censorship is used everywhere. Even if it is unknown to the public. Censorship is always around, whether it be a certain book the public can read, or internet sites people can visit, to classified documents that could be harmful if gotten out to the open world. Since the dawn of time, censorship has been used. Even in Ray Bradbury’s book, Fahrenheit 415, censorship is used as a conflict dealing with the main character and what too much censorship is such as the government making books illegal. Bradbury’s book takes censorship to the extreme such as in this statement, “‘Do you ever read the books you burn?” he laughed “That’s
Banning Books “It’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written, the books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers” (Blume 1999). Judy Blume can not explain the problem of book censorship any clearer.
Book banning is a prime target for censorship. Censorship in print media, notably book banning, occurs across homes, schools, stores, and other facilities daily. Censorship in the schools is the most widespread and exposed place for book banning. Do administrators and school boards have the right to ban books? Are we taking away the rights of children to read? In case of Island Trees Schools District V. Pico in New York, the Supreme Court gave the school board broad discretion to frame curriculum and teach civic and moral values. This case resulted in the school board removing ten books from the school library for being "anti-american, anti-christian, anti-semitic, and just plain filthy." Another case involving book banning was Hazelwood School District V. Kuhlmeier. In this case the Supreme Court again gave school officials the broad discretion to control curriculum. This time the court left open the question if this affects the school libraries. In Olathe, Kansas, the district's superintendent made the decision to remove all copies of Nancy Gardner's Annie On My Mind because of it imposing views for gay actions. This standpoint resulted in a public book burning by a homophobic community group. At Hempfield High School in Western Penn...
Books have been banned/censored throughout history. For example, the Catholic Church created the Index of Banned Books in the 1500s. The goal of the Index was to prevent the general population from reading books that went contrary to the Church’s teachings. Some of Galileo’s books were in this list. Anyone caught reading or selling these books was severely punished, tortured, or even killed. 500 years later, however, book banning still occurs. There are hundreds of books being challenged every year in the United States, for various reasons. Many of these reasons are understandable, such as preventing mature content (eg. profanity, violence, obscenity) from reaching young people. However, other reasons are quite irrational. For example, the Harry Potter series was removed from some school libraries because parents believed it promoted witchcraft. A single, precise reason behind book banning, however, is unclear. Furthermore, many important American classics are being banned, often for minor reasons such as profanity. Why is it that we ban books that teach valuable lessons? Is it because censors are simply trying to protect children from inappropriate content? Or are governments trying to suppress unwanted ideas? Books should not be banned because book censorship is unnecessary, limits knowledge, and violates the fundamental principles of this country.
The government allowed the books to burn because they didn't want the people to get offended. Beatty the chief fireman makes this clear when he says, “‘You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred… Colored people don’t like little Black Sambo. Burn It. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it’”(Bradbury, 56). The leaders of this society don’t want any problems. They see it like this, if they offend a group, people will start revolting and it will cause a butterfly effect that will destroy the whole civilization. In an interview with Ray Bradbury, he is actually asked where he got the idea to burn books in Fahrenheit 451, he responds saying “Well, Hitler of course. When I was fifteen, he burnt the books in the streets of Berlin. Then along the way I learned about the libraries in Alexandria burning five thousand years ago…And if it can happen could happen in Alexandria, if it could happen in Berlin, maybe it could happen somewhere up ahead, and my heros would be killed”(NEA Big Read). With the Burning of books in Berlin and the destruction of libraries in Alexandria. The last thing that he wanted was for this to happen in real life. The recent events made him horrified of the idea that this could happen again, so that is why he wrote about the burning of books in
Every year in the United States we have books being banned and challenged by many people who do not like the contents of books. When researching for this argument essay I found an article written by Rebecca Hagelin. Rebecca Hagelin is the author of Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That’s Gone Stark Raving Mad and the vice president of communications and marketing at the Heritage Foundation (Lankford).
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.
It is a book that my child may never be able to read. It seems that the only logical reasoning to aid in what offends people is to completely eliminate the book from the library. A better approach is to understand that this book may help them examine other beliefs, attitudes, values, and traditions and to accept, tolerate, or even reject these ideas without prejudices against people who hold particular views. In the democracy In which we live, where regularly all ideas are debatable. A wide range on all points of view should be available to the public.
Bradbury argues that censorship keeps peace within the minorities. This society believes that books cause problems, to solve the problem the firemen burn the books so nobody can get offended. When they destroy the books they also destroy what someone has left behind and that person's thoughts and opinions. By having books being outlawed the people living in the society cannot read the books so they aren’t able to be introduced to new thoughts. “Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo.
The government thinks that the knowledge that the people are getting from reading the books is giving them power against them so that they can overthrow the government of which they are at war with. Some of these books people burn so that they don’t get caught and they get away with breaking the law.
”In 1977, the Ku Klux Klan—yes, that Ku Klux Klan—took moral issue (!) with Of Mice and Men for its profanity and demanded the book be a) removed from school libraries in South Carolina, and b) burned. Other books challenged or banned for profanity include The Great Gatsby and As I Lay Dying“(Leigh 10). These are American classics that were banned because they contained a few choice words. Profanity will never die, and the books that contain those words shouldn’t have to be banned or destroyed because people don’t like the words in these books. ”Scores of books, from To Kill a Mockingbird to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, have been banned for exploring racial themes or depicting racism directed at various groups of people. The N-word is, in fact, a one-way ticket to book bonfires, even if the whole point of your book is to condemn or deconstruct racism” Racism is still a very controversial topic, yet that shouldn’t be any reason to ban a book Books should be looked at for their stories and their impact on the world not the possible negative events that take place within. ”Many a book has been banned because it contained religious notions that “might not coincide with the public view.” Because apparently the public view is… unanimous”(Leigh 25).