Should Flowers for Algernon be banned? The book I am reading is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It is a book about a specially challenged adult named Charlie Gordon. He is a middle aged adult who takes a specialized operation that should help his academics. Many people think that this book should be banned because of religious reasons and bad language, along with bad behavior by adults. I personally think that this book should not be banned because the literary merit of this book outweighs the challenged parts of this book. Many people think this book should be banned because of profanity and adult content. I can somewhat see where these adults are coming from because they don’t want their kids seeing this. There isn’t very much vulgar …show more content…
language, although there is more adult content as Charlie regains his intelligence. There is also some alcohol abuse and violence bestowed upon Charlie and his siblings he remembers in his memories. Most places where this book was challenged are in high schools, which makes sense because parents believe this is too much adult content for them. Another reason I think this book should not be banned is because the outline or the story of the book is heartwarming. At the very beginning of the book, we get to know Charlie Gordon, a male adult who is mentally challenged. After an operation that is supposed to make him more intelligent, he is told to keep writing his progress reports, which to us are something like chapters. He progressively gets more intelligent and starts to gain back memories of his childhood, which make the audience feel sorrow for him. He works as a bakery with people named Joe Karp and Frank Riley, who he calls his friends, although they only make fun of him and pull pranks and jokes on him.
As Charlie becomes more intelligent, they take him more seriously, although Charlie realizes they aren’t true friends early on. The last reason I think that this book shouldn’t be banned is because it can teach people a good moral in life. It teaches people that you shouldn’t make fun of people because they are different. It teaches that you may not know what they are going through. Joe Carp and Frank Riley, the antagonists, are the exact opposite people of this moral, that can show people how not to be in this situation. His doctors, on the other hand, are nice to him while observing his changes. Algernon, the mouse that Charlie raced to determine his intelligence before and after the operation. Although Algernon doesn’t speak, he serves as a figure to Charlie and his friend. Some people think that the book Flowers for Algernon should be banned. This book is challenged in areas of profanity, and some bad behavior and religious issues. I personally think that this book shouldn’t be banned, I think the literary merit out rules the challenged parts. If you are a mature person, you should be able to read on past these parts and be able to enjoy the book.
This book has a great story and I recommend it to teens. Final Draft
These school boards and parents can claim that banning this classic will protect their children from these subjects and these thoughts, and that by doing so, they can create the world to be a perfect place with love and harmony. The religious can claim all the righteousness they want, that God made the civilized man and that without religion, we wouldn’t be where we are today. However, the true nature of these subjects isn’t in that they exist, but the fact that we simply just don’t want to think or admit that they exist within ourselves. We need to use this book as a textbook to life, or a sort of guiding hand that tells us we need to realize that without our civilizations and without our rules, the world would be a much ruthless place than it is today.
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.
The Catcher in the Rye Should Not be Banned. & nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp; 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.
Although this book uses offensive words, it is such an important part of this time period. Some adults may not want their kids reading these stories in school because they can repeat the words and use them offensively. People could also feel that this book isn’t appropriate because it was written so long ago and uses old-fashioned phrases that don't teach students proper English. People will always have their own opinions.
For Charlie, Ignorance is bliss. He realizes that his so called ? friends? were just using him to entertain their perverse humor. Also, he was also fired from the job that he loved so much because his new intelligence made those around him feel inferior and scared.
Certainly this book is written for adults. The authour uses profanity and racial remarks, but it is necessary to tell the story in that manner. The bad language used by the characters shows their hate and anger, but also shows that some are willing to change their ways.
There are many reasons that violence is one of the reasons that the book has been banned. “He determined to strand me outside district 12 until he can apprehend to arrest me? Drag me to the square to be locked in a stockade or whipped or hanged?” (Collins 151). This isn’t really a strong bloody gory violence that would cause a student to get sick in class it’s a basic violence that you would see in any other book that involves killing and fighting. And by exposing this type of violence to children it will raise their maturity level and have the children comprehend that there is violence around them in the world and they’re going to have to learn to deal with it. 56% of the book is challenged by parents and only 13% by libraries. This tells the reader that parents have a more difficult time with the book so you ask yourself is it more of the parents why they see the book? Or is it their child’s way they see the book? both child and parents are going to see the book differently so children may like the violence in the book but the parents may say th...
One of the main reasons as to why the book has been banned is due to the nature of the book itself. Set during World War I it contains situations that are deemed grim and bleak by some. One of the most prominent examples of such accusations is when Lieutenant Henry is taken away with other officers who are then sent to be executed. Henry states, “I did
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
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
“Flowers for Algernon, first published in 1959, is considered a landmark work on both science fiction and disability literature,” (Werlock 2009). The American Library Association reports that this novel was banned as an obscene for its love scenes. When the main character, Charlie Gordon, increases his IQ from 68 to a level that makes him a genius (after received experimental brain surgery), his maturity leads him to fall in love with his teacher, and a sexual encounter ensues. This caused Flowers for Algernon to be banned and challenged in many places (Plant City, Florida- 1976, Emporium, Pennsylvania- 1977, Oberlin High School (Ohio) - 1983, among others). Most people consider the sexual scenes fairly mild, but there are those who consider any mention of sexual behavior inappropriate for teens or pre-teens, hence the attempts at censorship. Many of the challenges have proved unsuccessful, but the book has occasionally been banned from school libraries including some in Pennsylvania and Texas. Flowers for Algernon has won numerous awards, even for the film, and it is regularly taught in schools around the world; therefore, it should remain on shelves.
Overall Blubber should continue to be banned do to the excessiveness of bullying and awful language. There is some literary merit to the book but that doesn't overrule all of the bad parts. When a student reads this book the majority of the feedback will be in agreement with my thesis. After studying a little bit into banned books and censorship I learned that it takes a lot to ban a book anywhere. Trying to get a majority of people to ban a book will take a while, and if the book does eventually gets banned the supervisor can know that the book had to have a lot of bad aspects to it. After reading the book personally I felt as if there was no way that this book could be acceptable to any student from middle school to high school.
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.
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.