FREE ESSAY ON BANNED BOOKS

BANNED BOOKS

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted
to suppress any of them. Censors only read a book with great difficulty, moving their
lips as they puzzle out each syllable, when someone tells them that the book is unfit to
read. 
~Robertson Davies
Throughout all of history, human beings have been continuously seeking new mediums of
communication, specifically for the purpose of exchanging ideas and information. This has
been done in a series of ways, including spoken language, hand gestures, and, most
importantly, the written word. 
The written word has an advantage over all other forms of communication, for it allows
many people access to information otherwise unavailable; a story heard can be easily
misconstrued and passed incorrectly, while a physical representation remains solid, and
may be reproduced in large numbers, making it available to many people at the same time.
With this benefit, ideas, facts, and opinions may be spread to diverse groups of people,
spawning fresh ideas and advances in most every field of human development. When the
first moveable type was invented by the Greeks in 1700B.C., making it possible to
transfer hieroglyphics onto clay disks, an almost immediate explosion of philosophy and
education began to develop as a direct result (Banned Books screen 1). Years later, the
Chinese developed the very first books -- blocks of bamboo bound with silk -- doing for
communication what nuclear energy did for fire. From there, the book went through a slow
evolution, eventually reaching the form that we are familiar with today.
Such a vast sharing of knowledge doesn't come without consequences, however. When
opinions are made readily available to a large group of people, beliefs clash, provoking
anger and insecurity. For example, in Athens, Socrates was sentenced to death by the
Athenian Assembly for his writings which glorified male homosexuality, among other
things(DeCamp 4). When a piece of literature doesn't conform to older ideals or questions
a widely practiced religion, people tend to take dramatic action, even going as far as to
ban the work or editing it, only allowing filtered bits to reach the intended public.
This practice, known as censorship, forces thousands of eager readers to yield to the
ideals and standards of others. Although this is disgustingly un-American, this is
commonly practiced in schools, libraries, and book stores, and is most often spurred on
by an angry parent, demanding their child not be corrupted by such vulgar, radical ideas
(Heins 8). In a classroom setting, complaints such as the above are commonplace, and a
surprising number of these complaints are carried through to the fullest extent, that
being the barring of a certain title from the classroom. This is partly done on fear that
comes from teachers and school boards who dread either a lawsuit or a grim reputation.
What threatens us today is fear. Not the atom bomb, nor even fear of it, because if the
bomb fell...tonight, all it would do would be to kill us, which is nothing, since in
doing that, it will have robbed itself of it's only power over us; which is fear of it,
the being afraid of it. Our danger is not that. Our danger is the forces in the world
today which are trying to use man's fear to rob him of his individuality, his soul,
trying to reduce him to an unthinking mass of fear... (Faulkner, quoted in Noble 43).
This seems to be a growing, dangerous trend; a single group of parents becoming censors
for an entire group of children, even those who do not share the adult's point of view.
It seems that overnight we have all of these self-appointed advocates of clean
literature, says Gene Lanier, Chairman of Library Science at East Carolina University. A
book is easier to burn than to explain (quoted in Noble 119). This statement holds a
startling amount of truth, for when a book is banned, it is usually carried out by a
small group of fist-shakers who all subscribe to a similar set of ideals, say,
Christianity. Something offensive to perhaps a few individuals of a certain faith, but
not to the many others who want to read the book is still enough to get a book banned.
When unfamiliar ideals are presented to a child, parents have a tendency to shun the new
idea rather than acknowledge or explain it's existence. An example supporting this theory
is an event that took place in Lubbock, Texas.
A mother came to the schoolboard with an objection to Stone Words: A Ghost Story, by Pam
Conrad, a book stocked by the local elementary school library. The book, which is part of
a Texas Bluebonnet Program, was put in the library as an incentive for children to
develop sophisticated critical-thinking skills; the book itself was selected by a
committee of librarians, parents and educators on the basis of literary merit and
age-appropriate content. The objections presented about the book by this parent were it's
morbidity, lack of family values, new-age theology, and apparently being anti-religion.
The parent requested the removal of this book from the school library (PFTAW 165).
I realize we are not allowed to teach religion in school; however, we should not be
allowed to teach anti-religion, either, which this book is...even though it does not
state clearly that there is no God, the parent said. Most kids don't have responsible
parents. That is a problem. One half of the kids in this school don't have responsible
parents (PFTAW).
Although the mother delivered her argument vehemently, the board agreed that the book
promoted reading and creative writing, one member stating, Students like this kind of
book. Kids come into the library time and again asking for scary books; it's a very safe,
controlled way to scare themselves. If it's too scary, they can close it and go on to
something else. In my experience, kids who read books only absorb what has value and
meaning to them, and if it's too scary or if it's something they don't understand, they
just go right on, they don't worry about it (PFTAW).
Another member, in order to admonish the parent said, You are attempting to impose your
deeply held beliefs on other people...I don't think it's proper for you to say that every
parent in Lubbock who has a child in the school district should be deprived of having
that child read this book simply because they do not share your beliefs (PFTAW).
Although the possibility of another book being banned was shut down in the Lubbock school
district, all too many books, many considered classics, have been banned from classrooms
across America, the supposed land of the free. This is possibly one of the more dangerous
issues facing this country, a country founded on defying such things as censorship; if
this trend continues, we run the risk of creating generations of opinionless (is that a
word? My computer doesn't seem to think so) people who will always rely on others to
dictate what they find right or wrong.
As a supporter of the strict interpretation of the first ammendment which gives Americans
the right to read or write any material they see fit, I feel that schools should abide by
the standards set forth in the first ammendment. It can hardly be argued that either
students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression
at the schoolhouse gate, for this is America, and in America, students may not be
regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which others choose to communicate
with them. If schools would choose to educate and culture students, as opposed to
pleasing their parents, a new interest in learning would be sparked in young people
everywhere, and the quality of public education would certainly increase.
Bibliography
Bibliography
DeCamp, L. -- Lost Continents
Book, 1954
GN, 751 .D38
Heins, Marjorie -- Sex, Sin, and Blaphemy
Book, 1995
Z, 658 .U5 H 43
Marsh, Dave -- 50 Ways to Fight Censorship
Book, 1991
Z, 658 .U5 M37
Noble, Bill -- Bookbanning in America
Book, 1990
Z, 658 .U5 N6
People for the American Way -- Attacks on the Freedom to Learn
Book, 1992
658 . U5 A87
Reichman, Henry -- Censorship and Selection
Book, 1988
Z, 658 .U5 R45