Eleanor and Park is a young adult’s novel. The story follows Eleanor and park two teenagers living in Omaha, Nebraska in 1986. Eleanor and Park developed a connection through comic books and mix tapes which leads to their young love. However there are very strong themes of Domestic and child abuse, Bullying and Body image.
There is a lot of tension in Eleanor’s household because of her stepfather Richie. There are multiple time throughout the novel when Eleanor notices bruising on her mother's face. Richie abuses Eleanor, mother both physically even though we don’t see it and emotionally. Richie yells at Eleanor’s mother Sabrina throughout most of the novel, however, Eleanor says at one point she’s so used to the screaming she can sleep through it. Sabrina is always careful around Richie, she always tries not to spike his anger and tries to keep everything in order so that Richie doesn’t hurt one of the kids. Richie does, however abuse the other children in the household other than Eleanor,
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Richie physically abuses them, hitting them when they do something wrong, as well as verbally abusing them. The kids go to school without new clothes or shoes. The kids don’t have toothbrushes or hair shampoo they only have dish soap. They don’t get enough food and five kids all sleep in a small bedroom, all the younger kids bunched up on a bunk bed. In New Zealand one in three women experience psychological or physical abuse from their partners in their lifetime, the effects of Domestic abuse is physical injury and living in constant fear. Eleanor’s mother displays these symptoms throughout the novel her only concern being her children. New Zealand is one of the country with the highest number of domestic abuse cases in the world. There are many women and children shelters for abuse victims. Bullying is also one of the themes in the Novel. As well as being bullied at home, Eleanor has to deal with bullying at school. Eleanor’s main bully is her classmate Tina, Eleanor is mainly bullied about her size and her big red hair. One incident that occurred was that they cover her gym locker with pads and had coloured them with red magic marker to resemble blood. Eleanor finds disgusting messages written on her textbook covers, she then finds out that it was her stepfather who wrote them. Richie makes comments about her weight and himself, which are much more horrific. I had to stop reading during the novel after something awful happened to Eleanor you just have to take a minute to process some of the things that people say to her, especially the comment that her step-father writes on her book are incredibly graphic and vulgar. Bullying is a common occurrence in New Zealand school High Schools such as Manurewa girl’s high school in Auckland was on the news for organised fighting. The upper Hutt college student have also been made aware of the increased amount of bullying in the junior school. They bulling that Eleanor faces is the type of bullying I saw happen to girls when I was in intermediate, in my class they would make fun of a particular girl because she was larger than some of the other girls, but I never understood why and I was worried that If I tried to defend her that they would turn on me. Body image is a theme in the novel as Eleanor is a full-figured character and people are constantly making remarks about her weight. Eleanor wears larger clothing to presumably hide her body. Her biological father make’s remarks about her size, claiming she eats too much. Richie insults her throughout the novel about her weight. However Eleanor does not hate being fat, but she dislikes the fact that her size makes her an outcast. Park however, loves everything about Eleanor including her body type. Park mentions how he didn’t realize Eleanor had so much “negative space”. Everyone has a period of being uncomfortable with their body, sometimes it’s a short period of time, sometimes its long, but body negativity such a fat shamming is ever present in our society. Social media is one of the methods we use to spread awareness that all bodies are good bodies, Upper Hutt collage, for example has teamed up with youth town and created the hashtag #MEandPROUD to help young people to be proud of who they are and what they look like. Eleanor is a great body image character because she doesn’t care that’s she large she happy with how she looks and doesn’t let the comments people make about her change her view of herself. If Eleanor and park was around when I was in Intermediation I think that it would have helped me understand that it okay to look different from other people. Eleanor and Park was a banned book at Anoka High school, one school apart of the Anoka Hennepin School district the largest school district in Minnesota.
The parents of an Anoka high school student teamed up with a citizens group and had the book’s place in the school challenged, calling it “vile profanity” because of crude language. They cited 227 instances of coarse language and sexuality and demanded it be pulled from library shelves. When the Anoka High principal convened gathered a committee of parents, staff and a student to review the book, the committee determined that it was powerful, realistic novel and appropriate for high schoolers. I enjoyed Eleanor and Park and I felt that I was a novel that could provide comfort for people who struggle with these theme in their everyday lives it relatable for people who struggle with Body issues or face bullying, and getting it banned even for a shorty period of time takes away the comfort someone could find in this
novel.
In 1975 the “interesting” books for students of the Island Tree School District were nearly thrown under the bed forever. The Island Tree School District was presented with a complaint from the group Parents of New York United that posed a concern regarding the content of library materials. This community was concerned that public school libraries in the district were exceedingly “permissive” with the books they provided for students. The list of books that the Parents of New York United were wary of were: “Slaughter-House Five,” by Kurt Vonnegut; “The Fixer,” by Bernard Malamud; “The Naked Ape,” by Desmond Morris; “Down These Mean Streets,” by Piri Thomas; “Best Short Stories of Negro Writers,” edited by Langston Hughes; “A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich,” by Alice Childress; “Soul on Ice,” by Eldridge Cleaver; “A Reader for Writers,” edited by Jerome Archer, and “Go Ask Alice,” by an anonymous author(New York Times, 1982). The Island Tree School Board complied with the Parents of New York United's concern and took these books off school shelves in early 1976.
For younger readers this book carries very strong language but it has a strong message. One of those is that it shows what students will do for drugs. While researching the book you discover that in South Carolina, Berkley County school district, was one of the first to pull the book from schools and libraries. This occurred after a mom protested the book when her 8th grade daughter had to read little experts from the book to her classmates. The students mother did not want her to be reading a book with so much profanity and references to sex. One of the most controversial lines that comes from the book is when Alice writes in her journal “Another day, another blow-job”. She doe...
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.
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.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, The Giver, by Lois Lowry, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowlings, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hossenini, what do these books have in common? They are books on the American Library Association’s list of top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009. For various reasons, these books were found unsuitable for public audiences, and an attempt was made to ban them. From profanity to sexual content to homosexuality, groups have found reasons to challenge the books. Banning books that some people deem inappropriate from high school libraries underrates youthful intelligence, clouds history and dilutes our culture to fit a mold of conformity. Schools, even religiously affiliated ones, should focus on education and actually encouraging their students to read rather than inhibiting them from using their
content of the book, the school board voted 5-4 to ban the book. The book was later reinstated in the curriculum when the board learned that
My opening argument was that the parent wasn’t taking in consideration removing the book will affect others. “Some of the more volatile censorship cases have come from books when the reading and maturity level do not match up, says Pat Scales, school librarian and columnist for School Library Journal.” (Hill, 2010) Yes, according to information from the ALA website: the Office for Intellectual Freedom reports from 2000 to 2009 there were “989 challenges due to materials deemed “unsuited to age group ” C.” That would be the category Mrs. Green complaint should likely fall under. (Adams, 2010 &
It was censored in many states because of the inappropriate behaviors in the book. The public schools and libraries wanted to deter the teenagers from trying drugs and to act upon sexual activities. In 1974, Michigan schools removed the novel because of the language and sexual content. It was unsuitable for students under the age, and for students whose parents weren’t okay with the vocabulary and plot of this novel. Underage individuals could participate in the acts presented in the novel, and could cause serious harm to others. It was censored to prevent the repetition of the plot of the story.
“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. The children are the real losers because they are the ones that are not able to read the classic works of literature which are the backbone of classroom discussions all across the United States.
Eleanor would not quite do anything for her friend. Even though she regarded Catherine as a true friend, Eleanor still puts family loyalty before Catherine even though she disagreed with her father. Nevertheless, both Isabella and Eleanor’s friendships in Northanger
There has recently been a renewed interest and passion in the issue of censorship. In the realm of the censorship of books in schools alone, several hundred cases have surfaced each year for nearly the past decade. Controversies over which books to include in the high school English curriculum present a clash of values between teachers, school systems, and parents over what is appropriate for and meaningful to students. It is important to strike a balance between English that is meaningful to students by relating to their lives and representing diversity and satisfying worries about the appropriateness of what is read. This burden often falls on teachers. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss censorship in schools and to argue that the censorship of books in the high school English curriculum is limiting and takes away literature that is meaningful to students.
The lightly creaking rocking chair sways back and forth under the starry sky. The distant buzz of crickets and mumbled bullfrog croaks are broken by the grating sound of a person trying for stealth in opening the door. This is the scene for a classic book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in segregist 1933, it show some of the trials everyday people and children face with racism and understanding life’s cruel lessons. Why is this educative and eye opening novel, however, a banned book in schools around the country?
Literary criticism shows multiple valid points of the many things that are inappropriate with this book. A parent said, "But to have that language and to take the name of Christ in vain – I don't go for that. As a Christian, and as a female, I was offended. Kids don’t have to be reading that kind of thing". This quote shows that it’s not about simply wanting to ban a book, but more about how you don't want others to read the type of books that are inappropriate for them. Children should not have to read a book with such foul language and with things that could potentially be offensive. If a parent would go so far as to try and ban a book, then there must be quite a good reason they don't want their child to read it. Equally important, many people gave reviews on the book saying things like, "Haddon does not understand Asperger", "A major disservice to the Autistic Community", and "Stereotyped, inaccurate, horribly offensive... this isn't how it is".
Stories such as Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and Blubber by Judy Blume have been challenged or banned. These stories either feature racism, curse words, and topics of bullying causing parents to ban these books from their children. (Smiley, 54). The time era that some of these books were written in feature the history behind the text. The language, the descriptions, and the syntax are all ways that the story teaches the children about the past. Students need to read these harsh topics and words to learn the struggle that other people went through. Organizations such as the NAACP and other organizations challenge books that feature this discrimination, and parents fear that students are ready for these types of topics or words (Clark, “School Censorship”). Books will never get easier to read, but it is subjects like these that we learn how to better ourselves for the future. Students may be banned from these books, but it does not stop them from learning these things from other places. Teachers have many ideas on why banning books is stopping students from truly