Alice in Wonderland. A classic, isn’t it? When one thinks of it, do they generally think of animal abuse, sexual content, or drug references? Absolutely not. But believe it or not, this book has been banned in many schools and public libraries. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll has been blamed for using inappropriate school content, including animal abuse, sexual content, and drug references. But do children grasp that?
Some over-protective adults decide that children will somehow imagine that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland contains sexual references. That doesn’t give them a good reason to take it off school or library shelves. They could be taking away someone’s future favorite book, but that child would never get to make
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-Carroll. “What is being done is the humanizing of animals in such a way that we forget that they are animals. This is what happens in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865). Lewis Carroll was once quoted saying:
And when that day shall come…what potent spell have you in store to win exemption from the common doom? Will you represent to that grim spectre, as he gloats over you, scalpel in hand, the inalienable rights of man? He will tell you that this is merely a question of relative expediency, —that, with so feeble a physique as yours, you have only to be thankful that natural selection has spared you so long. Will you reproach him with the needless torture he proposes to inflict upon you? He will smilingly assure you that the hyperæsthesia, which he hopes to induce, is in itself a most interesting phenomenon, deserving much patient study. Will you then, gathering up all your strength for one last desperate appeal, plead with him as with a fellow-man, and with an agonized cry for ‘Mercy!’” This line in Animal Cruelty in Alice in Wonderland: https://tinyurl.com/yawbkbl6 and quote by Lewis Carroll both explain how Alice is free of provoking animal
For younger readers this book carries very strong language but it has a strong message. One of those is that it shows what students will do for drugs. While researching the book you discover that in South Carolina, 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 students 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 doe...
A second reason why banning the book Of Mice and Men would be bad idea is because the book is very well writte...
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky is banned due to the use of drugs, alcohol, and smoking. There are occurrences of homosexuality, homosexuals and offensive language. There are multiple occasions with sexually explicit content and has been deemed unsuited for minors. I believe this book should not be banned to any grade higher than elementary because it deals with real life situations and delivers a very powerful message that many people can relate to.
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
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.
The banning of books has long since been a tradition for the censorship of the media, and no book has seen the red tape more than J. D. Salinger’s picaresque novel The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger’s Catcher examines Holden Caulfield, an emotionally conflicted teenager takes New York City after leaving his prestigious school to find his way back home. Upon the opening of the novel, Holden explores controversial slang, curses, and sensitive topics. The language of the novel, which includes but is not limited to, curse words, coarse language, and slang all are a major factor people often have for disputing Catcher. Holden often uses common curses from “hell” (234, 4, 74, 173), to the shortened “damn” (72) from “goddam” (234, 97, 185), as well
Throughout history, books have majorly impacted the societies in which they were written. Many of the most significant classics in history were challenged or even banned by the people of its time. Great novels, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, have been through their fair share of challenges over the years. People of the 1800s had very strict standards that are very different from ours today, and they did not appreciate it when those beliefs were tested. Three of the most common reasons for challenging books throughout the centuries are sexuality, profanity, and religious beliefs. The question that arises from this information is: what values did the society of the 1800s hold that made them feel these topics were offensive enough to ban books containing them?
Would you really ban a book for mentioning a word that is out of the norm for children? I sure wouldn’t. When the word “scrotum” was mentioned in Susan Patron children’s book, “The Higher Power of Lucky”, many librarians pledged to ban the book from elementary schools. Was it the right thing to do? In some cases it is but it all depends on how the book is being perceived. Although the book talks about Lucky growing up, it shouldn’t be a problem talking about this kind of language and body parts to children that are old enough to understand growing up. Librarians shouldn’t be losing focus on the big picture of the book instead of starting a controversy over something that has been done before in a children’s book.
In a review written by Marshall University parents called the book “Pornographic” and careless in its “treatment of sexuality” (Banned Books: Eleanor & Park). Throughout the book there are multiple small sexual comments made, but the worst one wasn’t spoken... “She’d already finished her homework. Some creep had written do i make you wet on her geography book, so she spent a really long time covering it up with a black ink pen” (Rowell 75). These words being written anonymously on her book make Eleanor feel violated and disgusting, so someone can only imagine how a parent or school supervisor might feel reading it. According to BBC News, “For most challenged books, the issue is usually sex or sexuality” (Rohrer). Another way sexual content is featured in this book is between Eleanor and Park themselves, during a steamy scene between the two, Park becomes concerned, “Once it started to get dark, he felt like his parents could walk in at any minute, like they should have been home a long time ago and he didn’t want them to find him like this, with his knee between Eleanor’s legs and his hand on her hip and his mouth as far as it could reach down the neck of her sweater” (Rowell 252). Although many mature scenes are included throughout this book, sex is not directly featured. Eleanor and Park should only be
In this time period most kids have access to learning about what they want from the internet. Books are a better source to learn information from. In the book ‘Of Mice and Men’ readers learn about things such as friendship, loneliness, and compassion. People seem to think that because this book contains foul language that kids should not be reading at school. Without this language the book would not be as good as it is and kids would not learn the valuable lessons it provides. In all, one reason kids should get to choose what they read with their parent’s consent is because it educated them on topics that will helps kids be better
As it is inevitable that children will grow up to be exposed to the world's evils, which are shown in novels like Fahrenheit 451, teaching the context and meaning of those evils in a learning environment allows for more of a educated understanding and a fuller grasp on the issues within. By reading controversial novels in schools, students in middle and high school will benefit tremendously by being exposed to them in a learning environment. Although teachers and parents have control as to what the students are exposed to at a young age, Fahrenheit 451 should not be banned from middle and high schools as it depicts the effects of censorship on a dystopian society through use of controversial material which doubles as
One of the main purposes for writing Alice in Wonderland was not only to show the difficulties of communication between children and adults. In this story, almost every adult Alice talked to did not understand her. At times she messed up what they were saying completely as well, which many times stick true to real life circumstances. This book shows that kids and adults are on completely separate pages on an everlasting story. Carroll points out that sometimes children, like Alice, have a hard time dealing with the transition from childhood to adulthood, 'growing up.' Alice in Wonderland is just a complicated way of showing this fact. Lewis Carroll's ways with words is confusing, entertaining, serious, and highly unique all at the same time. And it's safe to say that it would be difficult to replicate such and imaginative technique ever again (Long 72).
Lewis Carroll's Wonderland is a queer little universe where a not so ordinary girl is faced with the contradicting nature of the fantastic creatures who live there. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a child's struggle to survive in the condescending world of adults. The conflict between child and adult gives direction to Alice's adventures and controls all the outstanding features of the work- Alice's character, her relationship with other characters, and the dialogue. " Alice in Wonderland is on one hand so nonsensical that children sometimes feel ashamed to have been interested in anything so silly (Masslich 107)."
Alice in Wonderland, a tale many children and adults read at some point or another , has been banned since 1931 in China, because the Governor of Hunan Province thought that “Animals should not use human language, and it was disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level.” Alice in Wonderland has been banned as early as the 1900s in other countries. It was temporarily banned from classroom use at Woodsville High School in Haverhill, New Hampshire, because the novel was said to have expletives, references to masturbation and sexual fantasies, and “derogatory characterizations of teachers and religious ceremonies.”There are some rumors that claim that Dodgson was a pedophile and that he was sexually attracted to the girls he told his tale to. There is a another rumor that got spread around that he photographed them nude which is the base of this argument.
The construction of children’s literature was a gradual process. For a long period of time children’s books were frowned upon. The stories were said to be vulgar and frightening. Adults censored children’s ears to stories of daily life, tales with improbable endings were not to be heard. It was not until the mid 1800s that stories of fairies and princesses began to be recognized. Although children’s literature was accepted, the books were not available for all children. With limited access to education, few public libraries, and the books’ costs, these texts were only available to the middle and high- class. As public education and libraries grew so did the accessibility of books and their popularity. They no longer were considered offensive, but rather cherished and loved by many children. Children’s literature became orthodox and a revolution began, changing literature as it was known.