Challenged/Banned Books
Various reading materials have been challenged or banned for a depressingly long time. What follows are several lists of highly challenged or
banned books as cited by several organizations (and some that I can't cite, but distinctly remember).
Once, when I was checking out both Jazz and The Lottery (at the age of 15), the check out lady asked if my mother knew I was reading such "trash." I gave her a perplexed look, replying, "yes ma'am." As I was leaving the building, I heard her talking to the next woman in line : "Some parents just
don't care what their kids read." The second woman agreed.
I often wonder about those who seek to ban books such as those listed above. Many of these books, particularly those noted by the Christian Science Monitor and those I recollect from memory, are considered by many as classics. I feel as though I am a better educated, more well rounded person for having read them. Yes, the novels that I have read from these lists contain subject matter that some people (obviously) consider offensive. In On My
Honor, a boy dies in a river, after deliberately disobeying his parents' instructions to stay away from it. However, it also teaches children to obey their parents.
Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have both been challenged for their racist language. I attended a class that was reading a portion of one of these novels aloud my junior year in high school. One girl refused to read the word "nigger" aloud, despite its context. This same girl's parents later informed the teacher that she would not be attending class for the unit on Mark Twain, because the parents thought the material and the man behind it were objectionable.
"Offensive" literature, such as that listed above, often contains descriptions of real situations. There are indeed Heathers, as Leslea Newman tells us, who have two mommies. Brothers named Sam, as J.L. and Christopher Collier indicate, do die. These situations are challenged or banned because they are considered controversial, and damaging to those who read such literature. However, as I said before, these events happen in the "real world". Isn't that why we educate our children; to prepare them for the "real world"? (I'm leaving the phrase in quotation marks because I refuse to believe the world and its realities wait for a high school or college diploma) If children are sheltered from the "real world" as presented in literature, then what will they do when presented with it in that world? Or, as seems to be the more likely case, if children are already seeing these and more graphic events on television, in the movies and newspapers, etc., why not let them read? (Then again, the PTC is on a rampage to censor all of that,
as well)
Many of the literary works in the above lists touched my heart, taught me something, and gave me someone to connect to when I thought no one understood. Others scared me (and who doesn't like the thrill of safe fear? Amusement parks build rides for that very reason); others made me laugh, made me think. So I read them. Isn't that what is important? Open your mind beyond your limited world. Travel for free, in the comfort of your own
home. Make friends you never knew you had, think thoughts you've never thought to think before. Read a book. If you're the adventurous type,
read one of the books above. Take responsibility for your own education, instead of letting someone else decide.
A list of the most challenged/banned books of the 1990's, as found in Banned in the USA.
Other challenged and banned books include (as noted by the Christian Science Monitor ):
Another challenge, according to the American Library
Association:
Additional materials that have been challenged or banned, from memory:
People like the feeling that they are doing something forbidden, be it taking a cookie from the jar, petty shoplifting, reading someone else's journal, or
perhaps reading a book that's been highly criticized. My initial reason to read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery was because it was so highly controversial
(and I love a good controversy).