To Ban or Not to Ban books: The Color Purple

From the years 2000 to 2009, 5,099 books were challenged in school libraries, classrooms, and public libraries. Most of the books on this list were banned because of objectionable content such as sexual references, profanity, violence, and the fact that the book was considered “unsuited to age group” (American Library Association). Even prior to the year 2000, censorship and banned books had become an issue for schools in particular all across the country for these very reasons. While the The Color Purple by Alice Walker does contain the objectionable content mentioned prior, it should not be banned because objectionable content found in the book is accessible through the internet and social media, one person’s complaint should not determine another’s choice, and high school students should be mature enough to handle the adult content.

Objectionable content found in challenged books across the country can range from some vulgar language, to rape and incest, and even to explicit sex scenes. However objectionable these topics may be, high schoolers are already exposed to them in some way, whether it be through listening to popular music on the radio, watching television, or browsing the internet. Many parents, and even board members of some schools, object certain books for a variety of reasons. What they have failed to realize is this: if they are so concerned about what their children read in school, are they as concerned about monitoring what they hear on the radio, see on television, and search online? Many schools across the country are now taking the technological route when it comes to teaching. This often means students can have access to the internet while in their classroom. This point goes back to the prior statement of ...

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...orld. If students are deprived of reading books that contain different ideas than their own, they will become close-minded. What is the point of knowing how to read if students are not going to be permitted to do so? As Mark Twain once said, “The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

Works Cited

American Library Association. “Frequently Challenged Books of the 21st Century.” Banned and

Challenged Books. American Library Association. Web. March 2014.

Pressley Baird. “Third Attempt to Remove The Color Purple in Works.” StarNewsOnline.

December 2013.Web. March 2013

Unionjack. “Criticism and Reflection of The Color Purple by Alice Walker.” Studymode. May

2012. Web. March 2014

Walker. Alice. The Color Purple. City of New York New York. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,

1970. Print