Judy Blume's Essay 'Censorship: A Personal View'

Tyra Smith
Dr.Franklin
English 1020-203
15 September 2014
Judy Blume’s essay entitled “Censorship: A Personal View,” attempts to explain her rationale for creating literary works for children and young adults that have been banned or restricted due to inappropriate content. Blume’s clever use of anecdotes, diction, and ethos theorizes her opinion that children are never too young to experience post adolescent concepts.
Throughout her essay, Blume incorporates the use of anecdotes to describe her many banned books, through personal accounts and through the accounts of various readers. In her personal anecdote, she recounts readers’ personal stories of how her books were judged because of critics describing them as inappropriate for younger readers. Blume faced social stigma from

teachers, principals, and even friends who all looked down on her work as she stated, “ In this age of censorship I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced- writers’ voices, teachers’ voices, students’ voices- and all because of fear.” (Blume 316) She went through a time in which her friends were even afraid to introduce her books in their homes. In the essay, Blume told the readers about a time in which she gave her friend’s child a book entitled, “The Stupids Step Out” by James Marshall. She further explained the awe then begins to tell readers that her friend was at awe telling Blume such words as stupid weren’t allowed in her household.
Secondly, Blume introduced her readers to diction.

She went about telling the readers controversy caused by her choice of words in her books. As a writer she faced many harsh critiques on her work, and a lot of negativity that interfered with her personal life and her writing career. Parents found it strange that Blume’s books were teaching their children at a young age that certain topics were okay. Blume thought otherwise referring to her work as being a perfect opportunity to engage young readers with issues that the normal child or teenager may go through. To many her work was despised causing many of her books to become restricted, banned, and taken off shelves. Blume italicized words in her essay such as puberty and masturbation to introduce her readers to examples of why her books were continuously restricted. An example of diction used in Blume’s essay is a story she told about the parents perspective of her books. It was expressed in her essay numerous stories of how irate parents went about criticizing her books. “ The mother who admitted that she’d cut two pages out of “Then Again, Maybe I Won’t than allow her almost thirteen- year old son to read about wet dreams.”(Blume

312)
Blume’s use of ethos is demonstrated throughout her essay in often
introduces the readers a sense of post adolescent concepts dating back to her childhood. Blume’s parents urged her to read widely as a child, Excluding John O Hara’s “ A Rage To Live.” The numerous examples on ethos throughout the essay portray Blume to be very blunt and open about her morals and values. According to Blume “Controversy wasn’t on my mind. I wanted only to write what I knew to be true. I wanted to write the best, the most honest books I could, the kinds of books I would have liked to read when I was younger.” (Blume 312). Blume uses ethos there to illustrate and explain that she didn’t intend to upset her readers, but rather teach her younger readers life lessons.
Overall, the different devices Blume used in her essay stating her morals and beliefs had a lot to do with her writing technique. She has expressed to her audience how in this age writers have to reflect in self-censorship, criticizing their own work to meet the criteria in which their readers will like.