(no subject)
I was reading through my old homework and I have a favorite assignment from my speech class. Keep in mind I wrote this as a speech. For entertainment purposes only. Forgive the incorrect grammar and syntax.
In our country we would fight to the death to keep our freedom of speech. With that in mind I would like to tell you that all of these books sitting in front of you have been challenged or banned somewhere in the United States. A challenged book is a book that has been threatened by parents and censors, a banned book is one that gets removed from the shelves. Go thru books….
These books are classified into several types of groups: true stories, realistic fiction, and fantasy, each banned for reasons that censors introduce. However, banning these books has a negative affect on middle and high school students especially because it is a time in their lives where they can begin to build a lifelong love of reading and learning. But to understand the subject we must first understand the literature, the first genre I would like to discuss is fantasy, as the Harry Potter series has reached the top of the most challenged novels list according to the American Library Association.
To stand in the light of a fantastical world can be like seeing color for the first time. There are no 3-D graphics or multimillion-dollar budgets, but the excitement and sense of wonder are still intact. Chances are we’ve all read about a fantasy world: how about Rivendel, Narnia, Hogwarts, Wonderland, Oz? All of these books have another thing in common other than being fantasy novels, each have been threatened by censors for the simple element of magic. Censors and parents seem to think that because young adults read about magic and wizards and fun they will don the robes of Satanists and Wiccans. Personally, I think these books are harmless and interesting, but indeed powerfully magical, for I have never seen so many students pick up the 700 page Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and read it in its entirety within a week of receiving it. And the censors want Harry Potter off the shelves at libraries and classrooms. Several central California schools were forced to put Harry Potter away after several parents complained about the books. However, when the parents were later interviewed, several groups admitted they had never actually read the book and withdrew their petition. Unfortunately literature isn’t always so safe, even the genre known as the “Great Classics” has been under fire in the last 20 years.
Several “Great Classics” that have been threatened are books we are all familiar with, Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Catch-22, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse Five, and to Kill a Mockingbird and for all the most interesting reasons. Huck Finn is challenged as being a book that promotes racism and racist language. Yes, there is coarse language in the book, yes there is racism in there too, but the book was written to raise social awareness. And if we do take it upon ourselves to block out all of the n-words and racism, it would be disrespect to the people who struggled and fought for their equality. Instead of hiding the ignorance of our past, perhaps we should teach our young people with it, show them that it is wrong to use the terminology used in Huck Finn, and use literature as a lesson so that our young people don’t forget the dark spots on American history lest they be doomed to repeat our mistakes.
Brave New World is also a classic has been heavily debated, even right here in Norco. In 1993, Brave New World was challenged by the our Unified School district because it “was centered around negative activity.” Local teachers fought to keep the highly used satirical novel because of its literary merit. The novel doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the future but what people should understand is that it is a satire, a warning or what our world could become should we forget our morals and ethics. Fortunately, the book was kept in schools; I even had the pleasure of reading it in high school. In an interview Ms. Sue Schaeffer, a department head for our Unified school district, said that she loved teaching the book because it always got a response from the readers, whether it was amazement or anger or disbelief. She continued on to say that if readers have a moral conflict with the characters and the ideas in the novel, then the novel has succeeded in getting its point across. It seems that if a book makes a student think and question authority or society, censors want to ban it. Unfortunately, banning realistic books that teens can identify with can actually be hurtful to students.
To ban a young adult book classified in the realistic fiction genre is like denying the existence of reality. Abortion, sex, abuse, rape, drugs, alcohol, school, peer pressure, and parents; the pressure on young people nowadays is phenomenal. But instead of hiding our heads in the sand, instead of closing our eyes and hoping it’ll all go away, perhaps it is time to face the realities of today’s teens. Their lives are not always fun, most of us probably remember the awkwardness and pain of puberty; those were the years most of our parents said the words, “Not in my house” about clothes, hair, make-up, music, television, movies, and magazines. In no way am I saying that teens should do, wear, and see everything they want, but to stop them from reading a book because the ideas are different from our own beliefs or because they deal with teens honestly may be more harmful than good. For example, many of Judy Blume’s (the most banned and challenged author in the US) books were challenged or banned as they deal with puberty and her honesty and openness made many parents squirm. One parent wrote to Blume saying that she had blacked out sections of her 13 year-old son’s copy of Then Again, Maybe I Won’t because she didn’t approve of the content about puberty. Ms. Blume discusses censoring parents on her website, she says: “I believe that censorship grows out of fear, and because fear is contagious, some parents are easily swayed. Book banning satisfies their need to feel in control of their children's lives. This fear is often disguised as moral outrage. They want to believe that if their children don't read about it, their children won't know about it. And if they don't know about it, it won't happen.”
However, from the other side of the argument are the teens themselves, a 13-year-old named Elizabeth wrote to Ms. Blume “I don't know where I stand in the world. I don't know who I am. That's why I read, to find myself.” And if we take away the guidance and emotional catharsis a book can offer, where will these youth turn? I know that many young people would rather not ask their parents questions about life because they are too embarrassed or they don’t feel comfortable. And if parents are concerned about what their kids are reading, the National Coalition Against Censorship suggests that take the chance to discuss the material, so that personal values can be expressed without condescending feelings of judgment.
There are several ways to help stop the literary witch-hunt. Several organizations are available including the National Coalition Against Censorship, The American Library Association, Kidspeak.com, and many others that are available if you type, “book banning” into any internet search engine.
After discussing these novels and the reasoning behind their obtuse banning and challenges, I hope that you understand the importance of the different kinds of controversial literature. Please leave the books about harshness of real life, leave the lessons of classic literature, and the fantasy novels that offer so much freedom and fun alone. Because in our world of terrorism, snipers, war, and hate, we have to ask ourselves, just how dangerous and hurtful is Harry Potter?
In our country we would fight to the death to keep our freedom of speech. With that in mind I would like to tell you that all of these books sitting in front of you have been challenged or banned somewhere in the United States. A challenged book is a book that has been threatened by parents and censors, a banned book is one that gets removed from the shelves. Go thru books….
These books are classified into several types of groups: true stories, realistic fiction, and fantasy, each banned for reasons that censors introduce. However, banning these books has a negative affect on middle and high school students especially because it is a time in their lives where they can begin to build a lifelong love of reading and learning. But to understand the subject we must first understand the literature, the first genre I would like to discuss is fantasy, as the Harry Potter series has reached the top of the most challenged novels list according to the American Library Association.
To stand in the light of a fantastical world can be like seeing color for the first time. There are no 3-D graphics or multimillion-dollar budgets, but the excitement and sense of wonder are still intact. Chances are we’ve all read about a fantasy world: how about Rivendel, Narnia, Hogwarts, Wonderland, Oz? All of these books have another thing in common other than being fantasy novels, each have been threatened by censors for the simple element of magic. Censors and parents seem to think that because young adults read about magic and wizards and fun they will don the robes of Satanists and Wiccans. Personally, I think these books are harmless and interesting, but indeed powerfully magical, for I have never seen so many students pick up the 700 page Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and read it in its entirety within a week of receiving it. And the censors want Harry Potter off the shelves at libraries and classrooms. Several central California schools were forced to put Harry Potter away after several parents complained about the books. However, when the parents were later interviewed, several groups admitted they had never actually read the book and withdrew their petition. Unfortunately literature isn’t always so safe, even the genre known as the “Great Classics” has been under fire in the last 20 years.
Several “Great Classics” that have been threatened are books we are all familiar with, Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Catch-22, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse Five, and to Kill a Mockingbird and for all the most interesting reasons. Huck Finn is challenged as being a book that promotes racism and racist language. Yes, there is coarse language in the book, yes there is racism in there too, but the book was written to raise social awareness. And if we do take it upon ourselves to block out all of the n-words and racism, it would be disrespect to the people who struggled and fought for their equality. Instead of hiding the ignorance of our past, perhaps we should teach our young people with it, show them that it is wrong to use the terminology used in Huck Finn, and use literature as a lesson so that our young people don’t forget the dark spots on American history lest they be doomed to repeat our mistakes.
Brave New World is also a classic has been heavily debated, even right here in Norco. In 1993, Brave New World was challenged by the our Unified School district because it “was centered around negative activity.” Local teachers fought to keep the highly used satirical novel because of its literary merit. The novel doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the future but what people should understand is that it is a satire, a warning or what our world could become should we forget our morals and ethics. Fortunately, the book was kept in schools; I even had the pleasure of reading it in high school. In an interview Ms. Sue Schaeffer, a department head for our Unified school district, said that she loved teaching the book because it always got a response from the readers, whether it was amazement or anger or disbelief. She continued on to say that if readers have a moral conflict with the characters and the ideas in the novel, then the novel has succeeded in getting its point across. It seems that if a book makes a student think and question authority or society, censors want to ban it. Unfortunately, banning realistic books that teens can identify with can actually be hurtful to students.
To ban a young adult book classified in the realistic fiction genre is like denying the existence of reality. Abortion, sex, abuse, rape, drugs, alcohol, school, peer pressure, and parents; the pressure on young people nowadays is phenomenal. But instead of hiding our heads in the sand, instead of closing our eyes and hoping it’ll all go away, perhaps it is time to face the realities of today’s teens. Their lives are not always fun, most of us probably remember the awkwardness and pain of puberty; those were the years most of our parents said the words, “Not in my house” about clothes, hair, make-up, music, television, movies, and magazines. In no way am I saying that teens should do, wear, and see everything they want, but to stop them from reading a book because the ideas are different from our own beliefs or because they deal with teens honestly may be more harmful than good. For example, many of Judy Blume’s (the most banned and challenged author in the US) books were challenged or banned as they deal with puberty and her honesty and openness made many parents squirm. One parent wrote to Blume saying that she had blacked out sections of her 13 year-old son’s copy of Then Again, Maybe I Won’t because she didn’t approve of the content about puberty. Ms. Blume discusses censoring parents on her website, she says: “I believe that censorship grows out of fear, and because fear is contagious, some parents are easily swayed. Book banning satisfies their need to feel in control of their children's lives. This fear is often disguised as moral outrage. They want to believe that if their children don't read about it, their children won't know about it. And if they don't know about it, it won't happen.”
However, from the other side of the argument are the teens themselves, a 13-year-old named Elizabeth wrote to Ms. Blume “I don't know where I stand in the world. I don't know who I am. That's why I read, to find myself.” And if we take away the guidance and emotional catharsis a book can offer, where will these youth turn? I know that many young people would rather not ask their parents questions about life because they are too embarrassed or they don’t feel comfortable. And if parents are concerned about what their kids are reading, the National Coalition Against Censorship suggests that take the chance to discuss the material, so that personal values can be expressed without condescending feelings of judgment.
There are several ways to help stop the literary witch-hunt. Several organizations are available including the National Coalition Against Censorship, The American Library Association, Kidspeak.com, and many others that are available if you type, “book banning” into any internet search engine.
After discussing these novels and the reasoning behind their obtuse banning and challenges, I hope that you understand the importance of the different kinds of controversial literature. Please leave the books about harshness of real life, leave the lessons of classic literature, and the fantasy novels that offer so much freedom and fun alone. Because in our world of terrorism, snipers, war, and hate, we have to ask ourselves, just how dangerous and hurtful is Harry Potter?