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Importance of public speech
The importance of books in the library
Importance of public speech
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One may consider a book as simply just scrap sheets of paper binding together. One may believe that a book is a pure necessity to life. I believe that a book is a portal from this universe. I believe that a book is an escape from reality. I believe that a book is a sanctuary from the harsh, cruel world. And most importantly, I believe that everyone- man, woman, or child- should not have their freedom of exploring hidden stories from books taken away from them. The Scarlet Letter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, Fahrenheit 451, and so many other novels are all books that have shaped the minds of Americans for decades, but are banned somewhere in the world. The question is, why are these books …show more content…
Countries, states, towns ban these books using such argumentations as “racial insensitivity”, “weak morals”, “conflictions with values”, and “pornographic and obscene” (Banned). Whether or not such ideas are expressed into the books, no one should be stripped of their ability to find pleasure in such books. Banning books will not only take away joy from a reader, but also knowledge. Every public school in the United States utilizes books as a tool for education, an equipment to teach their students of morals and values. Well-known, classical novels are being banned because officials fear of the strong influence that their citizens may have with from such impactful books, but the influence is certainly not negative. For instance, Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, is banned in Irvine, CA due to it’s expletive content: burning of the Bible (SOURCE). Fahrenheit 451 follows a firefighter,
Books that have shaped America are slowly starting to disappear. Many of the previous social norms have fallen out of fashion, and because of this reason numerous books are beginning to become banned. Blasphemy, racism, sex, and violence are all ethical reasons for books to be censored.
Foerstel, Herbert N. Banned in the U.S.A.: a Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. Print.
Countries worldwide actively call for the banning of books that are found to be politically inconvenient, religiously awkward, or embarrassing in one form or another. But for writers like Russia's Vasily Grossman, a book's ban means far more than just a dip in sales. In 1961, he pleaded with the Soviet censors, "I am physically free, but the book to which I have dedicated my life is in jail." (Merkelson). A book represents an idea, thus limiting access to a book is banning the representation of an idea. The banning of books in American schools should not be allowed, because banning books will prevent students from learning the reason for the controversy and alternate viewpoints they can come to on their own.
Banning Books “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.
Book banning is a prime target for censorship. Censorship in print media, notably book banning, occurs across homes, schools, stores, and other facilities daily. Censorship in the schools is the most widespread and exposed place for book banning. Do administrators and school boards have the right to ban books? Are we taking away the rights of children to read? In case of Island Trees Schools District V. Pico in New York, the Supreme Court gave the school board broad discretion to frame curriculum and teach civic and moral values. This case resulted in the school board removing ten books from the school library for being "anti-american, anti-christian, anti-semitic, and just plain filthy." Another case involving book banning was Hazelwood School District V. Kuhlmeier. In this case the Supreme Court again gave school officials the broad discretion to control curriculum. This time the court left open the question if this affects the school libraries. In Olathe, Kansas, the district's superintendent made the decision to remove all copies of Nancy Gardner's Annie On My Mind because of it imposing views for gay actions. This standpoint resulted in a public book burning by a homophobic community group. At Hempfield High School in Western Penn...
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
Why are books challenged and further on banned? To challenge a book is an attempt to remove the material from schools and/or libraries, and to ban a book is to successfully remove the material from these places. Books are usually challenged to protect children from the censors of these books. This book was banned for all the wrong reasons. This paper will focus on racism, sexism, homosexuality, and violence since these were reasons the book got banned which on the contrary should have given it much more motive to let high school students read and learn from it.
Book banning in the United States and anywhere else in the world I feel should be abolished. Books are published and written for a reason. The reason is to expand the mind to new things. Sure some books are better than others but there is no reason to challenge or ban books.
There has been censorship since the times of the early Catholic Church with it dictating what you could and could not do. The people of the United States have looked back upon what was being done, and have expressed that it was wrong for the church to such a thing. However, the leaders of today seem to be hypocritical in the subject. They say that it was bad once, but today it is okay. Censorship is most prominent in books today, and the most common to be thrown out are the ones that have obscene language and sexual references. There are many examples of this; however, the few that are best known are: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. The banning of books, such as these, blocks the meanings that these mature and experienced authors are putting forth to the world.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1884. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, 1951. Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell, 1936. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925 (www.bannedbooksweek.org). All of the books mentioned in the last sentences were books that “shaped America,” and were in some way or another banned or expurgated by taking all of the explicit words, and content, out of them. In doing so, the people who made the decisions to ban the books, or otherwise take out the content, greatly decreased the viewpoints that the author was trying to conceive. I believe that, unless the reading is for children under the age of, say, 13, then books like the aforementioned ones above, should not be banned or censored at all. Sometimes you have a rare case, like mine, where kids skip a few grades, and are really ahead of their class, and still a little immature, but if they are in a certain grade, they should be allowed to read, and understand what the author was originally trying to portray before the “people who think they know best” go and censor the author’s initial intent.
Censorship by definition is the suppression of speech or removal of communicative material which may be considered objectionable or repulsive. Censorship is nothing new and its effects are constantly felt throughout society. Many societies use censorship to protect the established moral and social order. Book censorship in western cultures can be traced to the earliest years of Christianity, when the church began to suppress opposing views as unorthodox. In ancient times, before the printing press and the mass production of literature, book burning was an effective form of censorship. This process guaranteed that no one would ever read them. Although book burning was very efficient it is now used as more of a gesture of protest to shock people rather than a real method of destroying a book. In modern times, censorship refers to the examination of media including books, periodicals, plays, motion pictures, television shows and radio programs for the purpose of altering or suppressing parts thought to be offensive. Today’s censorship occurs when certain people succeed in imposing their personal or moral values on others. Censorship deals mainly with the first amendment constitutional. “The law requires that if a book is to be removed, an inquiry must be made as to the motivation and intention of the party calling for its removal. If the party’s intention is to deny students access to ideas with which the party disagrees, it is a violation of the First Amendment” [First Amendment Center]. Though the First Amendment bars government authorities from prohibiting the free exercise, abridging the freedom of speech or practicing religious censorship in the United States, individuals have successfully pushed to remove books from public and ...
The censorship of books is a division of censorship that, apart from Internet censorship, receives the most publicity. Banning books is the most popular form of such censorship. Many banned books are literary classics, such as The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, which was listed as the number 6 most challenged or banned book in a list compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union in 1997.
(Goldberg, par. 3). Every year on the last week of September there is the National Banned Books Week. It is an exciting time where there are special readings of banned books. It is also the times where the newspaper prints off the threats from the American Library Association to have the freedom to read. Last year on Banned Books week the ALA’s official magazine, American Libraries, ran a story headlined, “Book banning alive and well in the U.S.” What do books from the Twilight series, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Hunger Games have in common? They all have faced removal from library bookshelves in the United States within the past year. It is understandable why the Twilight series have been banned, because of the romance and make believe characters. Some parents caution their children who might read them and get their heads glued to the possibility of having a romance like that in the future. The reason of To Kill a Mockingbird being banned is racism and violence. It is a simply written book that many Junior High students can read, but only in high school are they able to read it. The popular Hunger Games series was banned form the graphic violence and it gave some kids nightmares. ( Piesyk, Par. 1) Some parent believes that violent books are the cause of all the violence that is happening in the world at this moment. With the parents complaining about the books that are available to the students, their words are what bring t...
Staff, Wire Reports. (2002 October 3). Book banning spans the globe. The Houston Chronicle, pp.C14. Retrieved December 2, 2002 from Lexis-Nexis/Academic database.
When a book is banned it is prohibited and forbidden to ever enter into that place it was banned from. Books that have been banned from the United States are Brave New World by Aldous Huxley for “themes of negativity”, Tropic Of Cancer by Henry Miller for being too graphic in the 1900’s, Slaughterhouse- Five by Kurt Vonnegut for being too graphic for young children(10). When a person or a certain group wants to burn a book they are trying to make a statement that states that the writer had gone to far with what the book was about. A lot of the books that have been burned have already been banned but because of the contents in the book whether it was because it was so gruesome or it was just too graphic for young children or any age at all. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Is a good example because it has been banned and right after its banishment people help book burnings for it to try and dispose of it.