Pat Conroy, a well known South Carolina author, received a letter from a young woman by the name of Mackenzie Hatfield from Charleston, West Virginia. She writes to him to inform him that his books are being banned in her school county. Conroy writes books like “The Prince of Tides” and “Beach Music” which contain profanity and violence. For this reason, parents want it banned from their child's schools. Conroy writes to the Charleston Gazette towards the banning of books and the people who ban them. He refers to these persons as “know nothing parents and cowardly school boards.”
Conroy states that the parents and school boards of charleston have fallen into the “ranks of censors, book banners, and teacher haters,” due to their protectiveness they have put onto their kids to keep them from books. From these objects that have become his lovers throughout his life through his past English teachers. Ethos has been established through this piece by him speaking of his personal experience with fighting the banning of books. Forty Eight years previous he wrote to the school board along with his teacher Gene Norris to protect their right to read and be taught the book The Catcher in the Rye. He puts a himself in the position for readers to see him as someone who has fought for books before. This is an astounding way to
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connect with readers and show that this is not his first time defending the right to literature. This relates to the students of Charleston, West Virginia by letting them know that he knows how it feels to have these precious things he reveres so greatly taken from him. The precedent that he is arguing now is the same one he had to argue in 1961. Censorship is the act of taking something away or altering it to make is more “appropriate”. Many times in this world children are censored and held back from books that could effectively advance their literary understanding. In this essay, Conroy states, “People cuss in the my books, people cuss in real life.” In the world we live in, we are exposed to so much, a book is just mere knowledge. “The world of literature has everything in it and refuses to leave anything out.” Books tell us stories and information about the world and even things that are otherworldly. To have immense levels of books taken away is beyond unrealistic. Conroy expresses the impracticality of censorship through the use of blunt flashbacks to his childhood. These stories reflect that vulgar events happen all of the time. When he was a child, his father was in the war. During the times he came back, he would beat his wife and children. He speaks of his brother and French teacher committing suicide, his aunt being “brutally raped,” eight of his classmates being killed in Vietnam and lastly his “best friend [getting] killed in a car wreck” just the summer before. In the fight for books, many people, including Conroy, use charged language to attempt to invoke emotion from the reader.
Through diction, he emphasizes the ignorance and controlling aspects of people like the ones in West Virginia. He utilizes this in his first paragraph through a hyperbole, “I heard the rumors of controversy as I was completing my last filthy, vomit-inducing work.” The words “vomit inducing” hold a humorous yet accusatory tone towards the school board of Charleston West Virginia. Throughout the rest of the essay he attempt advocate the point that his books do not have anything that is not present in our society today, as I stated
before. The banning of books shows the incomprehension that some people have when it comes to the vast knowledge provided in the form of literature. “I’ve enjoyed a lifetime love affair with English teachers, just like the ones being abused in Charleston, West Virginia,” the word abuses emphasizes the severity he feels towards the treatment of their teachers. He tells the Charleston Gazette that the good teachers will “avoid [them] as though [they] had cholera”. Teachers want to teach and inform their students of the many layers of literature they have devoted their lives to teach. To conclude this essay, Conroy makes alludes once more to the past rivalry between a Hatfield and a McCoy, stating “I salute the teachers of Charleston West Virginia, and send my affection to their students. West Virginians, you've just done what history warned you against -- you've riled a Hatfield.” This gives the reader a comical relief and a well rounded conclusion to an overall marvelous essay.
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.
The Board of Education of the Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26, including Richard Ahrens (President of the Board of Education), Frank Martin (Vice President), Christina Fasulo, Patrick Hughes, Richard Melchers, Richard Michaels, and Louis Nessim (Board Members), presented the issue of banning books from the Island Trees High School and the Island Trees Memorial Junior High School, after they attended a conference by Parents of New York United, or PONYU (Board of Education v…). The Board of Education took any book that was “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy” to the Board of Education’s Office (Board of Education, Island…).
n the “Pat Conroy Letter” (October 24, 2007) to the Charleston Gazette, Pat Conroy implies that the only good in banning books is giving students irresistible temptation to read them. Conroy emphasizes the dangers of banning books by juxtaposing books to real life utilizing diction, imagery, and conjunctions. He uses sarcasm in order to persuade the school board to change their book banning policy. Conroy captures the audience’s attention with a historical allusion to the Hatfields and McCoys to relate to the people in Charleston, West Virginia using sarcasm and humor in hopes of convincing that censorship is wrong.
This controversial book has been challenged in countless states for many years. In 1997 the Elgin, Illinois school district banned the book from middle school libraries. Catherine explained that the book was banned because “talk of masturbation, birth control, and disobedience to parents occurred”
The form of diction used in The Catcher in the Rye is a topic on which many people are strongly opinionated. Because the narrator speaks solely in the vernacular, the novel is ripe with vulgar language. Most of this language is used to characterize Holden, the protagonist and narrator, as a typical American teenager living in the late 1940s or early 1950s, but some of it is utilized to convey Salinger’s theme of innocence versus corruption. When Holden is walking through his sister Phoebe’s school, he sees a scrawl on the wall saying “Fuck you.” He imagines the writing was etched by “some perverty bum that’d sneaked in the school late at night to take a leak or something” (260-61). Again in the museum, Holden encounters another such sign. Both the school and the museum are places he identifies with his childhood, but they have been perverted by the corruption of the world. He is concerned for the children who will inevitably see these signs and be told what they mean by “some dirty kid…all cockeyed, naturally” (260), spoiling the children’s innocence. This is just one more step towards adulthood and corruption. He is disgusted by the people in the world, saying “You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write ‘Fuck yo...
The discontent about The Cather in the Rye is due to vulgar language and sexual themes within the novel. The vulgar and inappropriate content does not prevent the reader from comprehending themes, symbols, and lessons and underlying meaning of the novel. In the novel, the main character, Holden, goes through many experiences that are deemed as inappropriate and are evident to the reader. But once the reader searches and analyzes the underlying meaning of the novel and situations and how Holden reacts to these situations, there is a great deal of redeeming and positive value from the novel. This then further supports the themes and symbols presented in the novel. While people may see the main character as someone who is dimwitted and possesses no ethical standards, he faces such scenarios which put that to the test and prove it wrong. And from that, students can learn the theme of individuality and coming of age. In ...
“I was afraid to ask him to help me to get books; his frantic desire to demonstrate a racial solidarity with the whites against Negroes might make him betray me” (Wright 146) “It was not a matter of believing or disbelieving what I read, but of feeling something new, of being affected by something that made the look of the world different.” (Wright 150) Wright’s constant drive to read eventually leads him to a prodigious way of processing certain thoughts, and cultivates his writing skills, deeming to be a virtual gateway for his freedom. “Steeped in new moods and ideas, I bought a ream of paper and tried to write; but nothing would come, or what did come was flat beyond telling.” (Wright 151) “In buoying me up, reading also cast me down, made me see what was possible, what I had missed. My tension returned, new, terrible, bitter, surging, almost too great to be contained.” (Wright 151)
Since its publication in 1951, The Catcher In the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger has served as a conflagration for debate and extreme controversy. Although the novel has been the target of scornful criticism, it has also been the topic of wide discussion. The novel portrays the life of sixteen year old, Holden Caufield. Currently in psychiatric care, Holden recalls what happened to him last Christmas. At the beginning of his story, Holden is a student at Pencey Prep School. Having been expelled for failing four out of his five classes, Holden leaves school and spends 72-hours in New York City before returning home. There, Holden encounters new ideas, people, and experiences. Holden's psychological battle within himself serves as the tool that uncovers the coming-of-age novel's underlying themes of teen angst, depression, and the disingenuous nature of society. The novel tackles issues of blatant profanity, teenage sex, and other erratic behavior. Such issues have supplemented the controversial nature of the book and in turn, have sparked the question of whether or not this book should be banned. The novel, The Catcher In the Rye, should not be banned from inclusion in the literature courses taught at the high school level.
“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.
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
The author also tends to add a lot of descriptive adjectives to her writing. For example, “A telephone call makes my throat bleed and takes up that day's courage. It spoils my day with self-disgust when I hear my broken voice come skittering out into the open. It makes people wince to hear it.” The descriptive words: self-disgust, spoil, and wince provide the needed explanation to the reader for how the narrator feels. As the reader gets deeper into the essay more examples of these descriptive adjectives become present, “It was when I found out I had to talk that school became a misery, that the silence became a misery. I did not speak and felt bad each time that I did not speak. I read aloud in first grade, though, and heard the barest whisper with little squeaks come out of my throat.” This line is full of unique adjectives about how the narrator feels about speaking English. Words like: misery, barest, whisper, and the phrase “little squeaks” all add to Kingston’s style of writing and show her descriptive language used when writing. Although the essay does not lack detail or description, the essay is particularly
In conclusion, the novel The Catcher In the Rye must be banned from the eighth grade curriculum. The story is a negative influence to young readers. It contains countless profane words. Lastly the amount of sexual references is absurd for an eighth grade classroom. Schools, as well as teachers must realize the undesirable content of this novel and protect, the student from its damaging influences.
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).
Superficially the story of a young man getting expelled from another school, the Catcher in the Rye is, in fact, a perceptive study of one individual’s understanding of his human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950’s, New York, has been expelled from school for poor achievement once again. In an attempt to deal with this he leaves school a few days prior to the end of term, and goes to New York to take a vacation before returning to his parents’ inevitable irritation. Told as a monologue, the book describe Holden’s thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown. This was evident by his bouts of unexplained depression, impetuous spending and generally odd, erratic behavior, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.
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. How a Book is Censored Brinkley describes a few actions that can lead to the censoring of a book in a school or school system: An expression of concern is simply a question about the material with overtones of disapproval; an oral complaint is an oral challenge to the contents of a work; a written complaint is a formal written challenge to the school about the contents of a work; and a public attack is a public statement challenging the contents of a work that is made outside of the school, usually to the media to gain support for further action (1999). Brinkley also points out an important difference between selection and censorship: Selection is the act of carefully choosing works for an English course that will be age-appropriate, meaningful, and fulfill objectives, while censorship is the act of excluding works that some con... ...