(Title in Process)
Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell is not only a story of two coming of age teens, but a story about hate, abuse, bullying, and above all, love. The main characters, Eleanor and Park first meet on the bus, it is Eleanor's first day and nobody is willing to share their seat. Reluctantly Park picks up his bag and scoots over, all while saying “Jesus-fuck, just sit down”(Rowell 9). From this moment on the two slowly start to become friends, sharing music, comic books, and eventually even dating. Despite having great characters and a fantastic plot, this book still contains controversial and disturbing matter that has caused it to be loved, hated and even challenged. The book Eleanor and Park should not be banned because it
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contains relevant topics and situations that teens face everyday. Eleanor and Park has been challenged for many of reasons, one being its intense language. According to Kristin Pekoll, blogger for The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the ALA, “The parents challenged the book’s selection for school libraries, calling it “vile profanity.” They cited 227 uses of profanity or the Lord’s name in vain, including 60 instances of the “F” word” (Pekoll). The book has tons of, not only sentences, but paragraphs in which foul language is presented. For instance, in the first chapter while Park is on the bus he overhears Steve, a fellow classmate saying, ‘“Dude, would you want to fight a drunk monkey? They’re fucking huge. Like Every Which Way But Loose, man. Imagine that bastard losing his shit on you”’ (Rowell 7), and again in a different chapter when Eleanor is getting off the bus and thinking to herself, “‘Fucking Kung Fu fucking David Carradine,” And “Fuck David Carradine- fucking Chuck Norris”’ (Rowell 133). Although these are not the only times that language like this comes up, these are still great examples of why parents and school administrators might not want this book in schools. The language is offensive, rude, and all around appalling, but it’s real. The words and phrases spoken by teens in this book are words and phrases spoken by all over our world today. What is the point of challenging a book for foul language when children are already hearing it on a day to day basis? Steve, who was earlier mentioned for his potty mouth is also featured in this book again, but in a slightly different scenario. Although he isn’t using it to curse, it’s his mouth that gets him in trouble. In this scene, Steven is found in the back of the bus singing the school anthem, proudly showing his school spirit. Things drastically take a turn when he decides to start yelling, “‘Go Big Red” (Rowell 130), which is obviously directed at Eleanor who is known for being a heavier girl with big red hair. This derogatory chant soon spreads throughout the bus and infuriates Park. It gets him so worked up that when they get to the school he picks a fight and even kicks Steve in the Jaw. Themes like taunting and bullying are extremely common throughout Eleanor and Park, especially for Eleanor. She is an easy target and she never stands up for herself. Even though bullying might be a tough topic to cover, it is still very real and needs to be talked about. Kids need to see how other people deal with it and learn how to potentially handle similar situations themselves. Although sexual content is not featured near as much as foul language or bullying, it still plays a big role in why someone might want to challenge Rainbow Rowell’s book.
In a review written by Marshall University parents called the book “Pornographic” and careless in its “treatment of sexuality” (Banned Books: Eleanor & Park). Throughout the book there are multiple small sexual comments made, but the worst one wasn’t spoken... “She’d already finished her homework. Some creep had written do i make you wet on her geography book, so she spent a really long time covering it up with a black ink pen” (Rowell 75). These words being written anonymously on her book make Eleanor feel violated and disgusting, so someone can only imagine how a parent or school supervisor might feel reading it. According to BBC News, “For most challenged books, the issue is usually sex or sexuality” (Rohrer). Another way sexual content is featured in this book is between Eleanor and Park themselves, during a steamy scene between the two, Park becomes concerned, “Once it started to get dark, he felt like his parents could walk in at any minute, like they should have been home a long time ago and he didn’t want them to find him like this, with his knee between Eleanor’s legs and his hand on her hip and his mouth as far as it could reach down the neck of her sweater” (Rowell 252). Although many mature scenes are included throughout this book, sex is not directly featured. Eleanor and Park should only be …show more content…
read by mature audiences who will value the sexual scenes for what they are, and not make them into what they aren’t. Rainbow Rowell is an extremely experienced author, having written five books, two short stories, and one comic book, she definitely knows what she’s doing. When questioned in an interview about the challenging of her book mainly due to foul language, Rowell explains how she often finds the whole situation ironic. ‘“Eleanor and Park themselves almost never swear … I use profanity in the book to show how vulgar and sometimes violent the characters’ worlds are.” On the first page, Park is pressing his headphones into his ears. “He’s trying to block out the profanity! And Eleanor hates that her stepfather curses so much. She complains about it throughout the book,” said Rowell in the interview. “There’s also some pretty vulgar sexual language that the parents have objected to: Someone harasses Eleanor by writing gross things on her school books. It’s one of the more traumatic things that happens to her”’ (Pekoll). In the same interview Rowell later states that, “Kids here have the right to read. They have the right to think and imagine. To see their own world in books. To see other worlds in books” (Pekoll). Rowell isn’t the kind of author who sugar coats scenes or character, she gives them to you how they are. She wants people to see the beauty and cruelty in our world without having to experience it themselves. When looked at as a whole Eleanor and Park features many reasons for parents to want to challenge it. There are the obvious reasons like, foul language, bullying, and sexual content, but there are also smaller, less obvious reasons like, abusive parents, and the careless depiction of race, and rape. Although all of these are very real and may be hard to hear, they still need to be written. According to Anoka High School’s principal, Mike Farley, “We did acknowledge some of the language is rough, but it fits the situation and the characters. I deal with this stuff every day working in the school with students. Did I think the language was rough? Yes,” Farley said. “There is some tough stuff in there, but a lot of the stuff our kids are dealing with is tough’” (Pekoll). Books that feature great content like this need to be read, shared, and taught. People need to see just how brutal and real our world is. Eleanor and Park doesn’t deserve to be taken off the shelf because of its content, and a handful of parents not liking it. Instead of parents trying to get rid of it as a whole they should just take care of their own kids and worry about only them reading it. Although everyone at some point in their lives should experience this book it should only be at a later point in their life, for example in middle school or high school. This book should be made available to all middle school and high school libraries as well as available to be featured in high school curriculums. The reason it should only be in high school curriculums and not middle school curriculums is because of the number of mature kids. In high school roughly all of the kids are at a mature enough state of mind to experience the story of Eleanor and Park, so this is why it should be included, but in middle school it’s a completely different story. Although some kids are mature there is still a way bigger number of kids who just haven’t gotten to that level, Instead of taking the important parts of the story a huge chunk of kids will only focus on the cussing and sexual content because that is just where their minds are. Now for middle schoolers who do happen to be at that mature level, they should have access to this book in their school libraries so that they can read this book at their will. For six years Eleanor and Park has been loved and hated by many.
It has been loved because of its great characters that allow us a first person point of view into their two very different lives, the young love that forms between them that faces lots of ups and downs, and the young dumb humor experienced by young teens everyday. It has been hated for its vulgar language spoken by the young high school characters, the bullying that takes place in the school, and the sexual content between characters. Although it is usually said that love trumps hate, that is not necessarily the situation with this book. Despite having great characters and a fantastic plot, this book still contains controversial and disturbing matter that has caused it to be loved, hated and even challenged. The book Eleanor and Park should not be banned because it contains relevant topics and situations that teens face
everyday.
This can teach many teens what to do when situations like this arise. They will know the consequences and will know what to expect. How real this book portrays all the events teens can decide not to try anything because in a way they slightly experienced everything with Alice. Overall, the book should not be banned and teens should be allowed to read this anywhere without there being consequences. Works Cited Sparks, Beatrice.
People ban books for dumb reasons that make absolutely no sense. Another is dumb religious reasons. Ministers and educators challenged it (it being the wonderful wizard of oz) for its “ungodly” influence and for depicting women in strong leadership roles They banned the wizard of oz because it showed girls in a leadership role (what?).This is really important because they are banning a classic book because the princess was a thing that people got really people got upset with it. “Others accuse the novel of attacks on religion, the disabled and women.” Lord of the flies (“http://www.banned-books.org.uk/sections/corrosive”). Once again PC police have come again to shut down another book that is actually pretty good.Also once again imagination is not encouraged. Don’t ban books for religious reasons that are not valid. Finally racism (that is not racism). “"A review of the book in question shows it to include pervasive vulgarity and racially insensitive language,"(The Hate you Give) Hindt said.” The story is about the struggles of a black girl in a racist environment (wouldn’t this be considered anti-racist). They can basically just ban whatever book they want.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark
In the article censorship: a personal view by Judy bulme she discusses and touches on censorship in literature in children and young adolescence books. Now in article there are a lot of possible exigencies listed threw out the article one of the main exigencies is that Judy bulme has personal experience with censorship as a little girl, with that personal account she has familiarity that compels and gives her credibility to write this article. With exigencie their also comes a purpose bulme’s purpose in the article is trying to convince parents that you should not coddle a young teen or an adolescent from literature that may not be suitable for them, but let their mind wonder and explain it after they read it. Also she communicates that censorship on books are not right because it’s unconstitutional violating the first amendment freedom of press. The audience she speaks to in article is the group of parents that are like middle age and older that have one track minds, and have to young teens and adolescent ages between 12-9 years old that are hesitant to let their children to read edgy books, teens who were her age and, have or experience the same thing she went thought as a kid, teachers and facility that believe in her cause that have lost their job over edgy books that were not age appropriate to their students. The context that you have to consider in the time of Judy bulme article is there is are a lot of issues going on the America culture that censorship of government felt need be. For inesxctie like the cold war was going on and nobody knew if another war was going to break out at any time. So any material that seemed edgy or conserverial it was going to be censored or restricted by the censors to the minors. Then th...
The American Library Association, ALA, is an organization that, among other things, compiles a list every year of the most frequently challenged books. “The American Library Association actively defends the right of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment.” (ALA) Many times, the books on this list are challenged by parents with the want to protect their children from things they don’t believe to be appropriate. “Only parents have the right and responsibility to restrict the access of their children” (ALA) Even with these good intentions, by challenging a book, they are trying to challenge the authors’ thoughts and words, their First Amendment rights. These books usually contain complicated ideas, issues, and information that cause parents to not want them where their kids can read them. The novel My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult is a challenged book because of its homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexism, sexually explicit scenes, violence, and being unsuited to its age group; by all means this novel should not be challenged because, it’s use of offensive language is only used to intensify certain situations, and through all of the controversial issues it employs, it puts in perspective just how far someone would go for his/her family.
...ves to be on the banned books list because of its level of violence. One that wants this book off the banned books list could say that violence is everywhere, why should one book be banned for showing something that is everywhere in todays society. I think this book shows a good concept of war. It could open ones mind to the idea of war and how one is forced to fight for themself and even their country. In the book they fight for themself and their district but relating it to the readers life he or she can think of it as fighting for themselves and their country. Which I believe is a good concept for young teenagers to be exposed to. I think this book should be off the banned books list because there are many reasons The Hunger Games can be considered a “good” book, it portrays many good themes throughout the novel and it can be translated into modern day war.
With the thought that someone can be hurt by reading a book, people will try to challenge and ban them. To ban a book is to have it restricted from a certain age or audience. Banning and challenging books is trying to keep a certain book away from an audience due to sexual content, going against religious beliefs, language and vulgarity, violence, drugs, self-harm, racism, occult/satanic views, promoting gangs, and going against community standards. An argument from someone who believes books should not be banned is that it is important for the age group to learn about certain content and material as they grow up. Due to controversial content, the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald should be banned.
This angered many readers in the United States, and some tried First off, banning a book violates the Freedom of Speech, which is a part of the First Amendment. The First Amendment allows the people to have their thoughts and speech to be protected. If a book is banned, you are essentially prohibiting the exercise of free speech, which strangely contradicts the First Amendment. In The Catcher in the Rye, we the readers can see that J.D. Salinger supports the idea of Freedom of Speech with the statement, "And if the boy digresses at all, you 're supposed to yell 'Digression! ' at him as fast as you can.
Trelease, Jim. "Book Banning Violates Children and Young Adult Freedoms." Book Banning. Ed. Ronnie D. Lankford. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. At Issue. Rpt. from "Censorship and Children's Books." Trelease-on-Reading.com. 2006.Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
As you can now see “To Kill A Mockingbird” should not be be banned because it tells an important fictional story about America's past. This book does contain rape, violence, and foul language. The author is keeping true to the time period. Also these kind of things are seen in the world on a daily basis. Us children should not be sheltered from these kind of serious
From the years 2000 to 2009, 5,099 books were challenged in school libraries, classrooms, and public libraries. Most of the books on this list were banned because of objectionable content such as sexual references, profanity, violence, and the fact that the book was considered “unsuited to age group” (American Library Association). Even prior to the year 2000, censorship and banned books had become an issue for schools in particular all across the country for these very reasons. While the The Color Purple by Alice Walker does contain the objectionable content mentioned prior, it should not be banned because objectionable content found in the book is accessible through the internet and social media, one person’s complaint should not determine another’s choice, and high school students should be mature enough to handle the adult content.
Books are banned for many reasons but more times than not it is because of the sensitive information found within the novel that agitates the reader. As long as people have been able to develop their own opinions, others have sought to prevent them from sharing. At some point in time, every idea has ultimately become objectionable to someone. The most frequently challenged and most visible targets of such objection are the very books found in classrooms and public libraries. These controversial novels teach lessons that sometimes can be very sensitive to some but there is much more to challenged books than a controversial topic. What lies within these pages is a wealth of knowledge, such as new perspectives for readers, twisting plots, and expressions that are found nowhere else. For example, To Kill A Mockingbird, contains references to rape, racial content, and profanity that have caused many to challenge the novel in the first place. The book was banned from countless
In these cases, parents protesting against the book have called it "dangerous" because of vulgarity, occultism, violence and sexual content. A quick look at the book shows the emptiness of these charges. It does however give insight into why a certain type of parent would object to this book.
There has been censorship since the times of the early Catholic Church with it dictating what you could and could not do. The people of the United States have looked back upon what was being done, and have expressed that it was wrong for the church to such a thing. However, the leaders of today seem to be hypocritical in the subject. They say that it was bad once, but today it is okay. Censorship is most prominent in books today, and the most common to be thrown out are the ones that have obscene language and sexual references. There are many examples of this; however, the few that are best known are: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. The banning of books, such as these, blocks the meanings that these mature and experienced authors are putting forth to the world.
Orwell mentions a lot of things that are related to sex, along with describing very explicit detail on how Winston feels about Julia sexually, “Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him, indeed he barely looked at it. “ (Orwell pg. 39) However sex should not be a taboo topic that high school students should not read about because obviously it is human nature to reproduce and students at high school age should be consider old enough to understand what it is. If a parent has any
To Kill a Mockingbird does not need to be banned. people need to open their eyes to the truth, there is evil all around us. Harper Lee shows us that evil through the eyes of a little girl and teaches us how to respond to that evil. To kill a mockingbird is wrong because they don’t do us any harm, they just share their music with us. To ban To Kill a Mockingbird is wrong because it doesn’t harm anyone, it simply opens up our eyes to truths we need to know.