Joseph Brodsky, a famous poet, once said, “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. The Chocolate War, written by Robert Cormier, features a freshman student by the name of Jerry Renault that goes to Trinity High School. He has a confrontation with the gang also known as The Vigils. The Vigils is a gang headed by Archie Costello. They have these assignments that have to be completed on time and if they're not completed, they are then punished.
According to World.edu, “In 2001, it was challenged in York County, Virginia, for sexually explicit language. Retained as optional reading for middle school students in Girard, Pennsylvania
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in spite of a grandmother who found the book offensive and didn’t want her granddaughter- or anyone else- reading it.” This is basically saying that the grandmother who found the book offensive, didn’t want her grand daughter or anyone else reading this. It was also challenged at a Lisbon, Ohio, board of education meeting as ”pornography” and removed from high school English classes.” Since this book was challenged in Ohio, it was considered to have inappropriate content in it making it removed from high school english classes. While it has been banned, it can only take a little action towards a book to actually get it banned as stated in this paragraph.
The grandmother didn't like her granddaughter reading the book so she then had it challenged and it was banned from high school english classes.
Harford County’s school superintendent reverses decision and The Chocolate War is returned to classrooms. The superintendent, Jacqueline C. Haas, has written a letter stating, “We write to express our concern about the recent removal of The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier from the ninth grade Social Studies curriculum. We understand that parents challenged this award-winning book because they objected to language, sexual content, and references to homosexuality.” This means that just because the parents of the students challenged the book, that it doesn't get removed from the
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school. Another part of the superintendent's letter consists of her talking more about the banned book and why they reversed it.
“The task of selecting readings for the curriculum properly belongs to professional educators. Parents may be equipped to make choices for their own children, but, no matter how well-intentioned, they simply are not equipped to make decisions that address the needs of the entire student body. Without questioning the sincerity of those seeking removal of the book, their views are not shared by all, and they have no right to impose those views on others or to demand that the educational program reflect their personal preferences.” This is basically stating that parents can make their own choices for banning a book instead of actually getting it banned. In all, the letter written by the superintendent gives thoughtful reasons for why the book was reversed in the first place and that parents should instead make their own choice by not having their child read it.
All in all, my opinion on the book is that it should not be banned or challenged because it basically violates the first amendment which is stated
by https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment , states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This is a huge disadvantage. Mostly because of this, I don't think The Chocolate War should be banned. I don't think it should be banned because a book its rights just like our own imagination. Why even ban the book in the first place just because YOU, the reader, don't like the content that is actually provided in the actual book itself. Authors work hard to make books and to just have them published and then banned is just straight up unfair.
They started a petition on Change.org, and created a campaign on one star reviews on Amazon in attempts to prevent people from purchasing the book. In the beginning Scholastic, the book’s publisher, stood beside the author and illustrator of the book giving support and telling people that the book is not as bad as it seems. The School Library Journal then issued their review and criticism of the books claiming that
Therefore, the respondents took the case to court (Island Trees…). The holding, the court’s decision, by a 5-4 vote, was “The First Amendment limits the power of local or school boards to remove library books from junior high schools and high schools” (Island Trees…). The court also said that the Board of Education “should not intervene in ‘the daily operations of school systems’ unless ‘basic constitutional values’ were ‘sharply implicate[d]”(qtd. in Board of Education, Island). The dissent consisted of Burger, Powell, Rehnquist, and O’Connor; the concurrence consisted of Blackmun and White (Island Trees…).
While researching the book you discover that in South Carolina, the 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 student's 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 does these blow jobs in exchange for drugs.
Conroy expresses both negative and positive diction to juxtapose the brutal realities of life with the wonderful possibilities in books. He describes books as “dazzling” and “magnificent”. While conversely describing the parents and school boards as “know-nothing” and “cowardly’, which gives the audience a comparison between the two. Since Conroy uses diction to contrast the positive and negative, the audience sees how banning the books makes the parents and school board look like “teacher haters”. The image of teacher haters appeals to the audience’s emotions. This is how he gains their trust. Conroy also uses “grotesque” to describe the violence in his book about the
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...
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. & nbsp;... ... middle of paper ... ... Banning books is unconstitutional.
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.
There are many reasons why books get challenged and/or banned. According to Robert Doyle, the main reasons for banned are sex, profanity, and racism (Doyle, 3). The most common initiator of the challenge is a parent or group of parents (Challenges by, chart 2). Challenges can also come from: patrons, board members, or organizations (Challenges by, chart 2). Challenges can also come from whole institutions; usually they come from schools (Challenges by, chart 3).
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
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.
The Chocolate War was written in an era of problem novels. The seventies and eighties were filled with books either warning or threatening adolescents against certain lifestyles or decisions. The textbook Young Adult Literature by Michael Cart gives a quote by Sheila Egoff explains the problem novel: "It was very strongly subject-orientated with the interest primarily residing in the topic rather than the telling"(32). In some ways, The Chocolate War has elements of the popular (at that time at least) problem novel while, at the same time, the novel goes beyond the stereotypical problem novels. Of course, Cormier's novel discusses key issues such as bullying. However, Cormier goes beyond this by adding the issue of corruption of authority (especially the
Retrieved December 2, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis/Academic database. This article addresses some of the reasons that censors attempt to remove books from the curriculum: Many censors feel that works are not age appropriate for students. Staff, Wire Reports. (2002 October 3). Book banning spans the globe.
Requests to ban the book have been made at least eighteen times, with such a request even going to the Supreme Court on one occasion (Morais). The book is often banned by judges who are ignorant of the book's content. One school board declared that the novel should be removed from the school and burned, when not a single one of the judges had actually read it. In this case, the decision to ban the book was made due to a single complaint from a student who found the book’s “unnecessary language” offensive. In this particular case, none of the four judges had actually read the book. This uninformed decision demonstrates quite clearly the ignorance of those who made it; however, the decision in question is merely one out of eighteen
Robert Cormier's novel The Chocolate War surrounds the main protagonist Jerry Renault and shares his experience in attempting to "disturb the universe" that is Trinity High School. At Trinity it is quickly noted that there isn't much difference between teachers and students. Brother Leon, a teacher at Trinity, holds power over the students but Archie Costello, a fellow student at Trinity, holds power over the students as well. These two characters, plus a not-so-secret group of students known as The Vigils make it very hard to realise who holds the power around Trinity.
...ok banned by schools and parents alike, but as a book that represents America and its culture in the mid twentieth century. After all, do people really want to prove Holden right when he says, “People never notice anything,” by not noticing that by depriving this book, people are disadvantaged of learning an important part of history ?