Banned Books: An Evaluative Essay

Some people feel our world is corrupt due to what is between the cover of a book. They feel words inspire immorality and sinful actions. Their objective becomes a war against controversial books. These people feel they are protecting themselves, their families and communities from perceived injustices and evil, and preserving the values and ideals they would have the entire society embrace. The problem with this justification is it includes the values and ideals only they, the censors, would embrace. Democracy is not defined by one man stating what he feels is right for society; rather, it is what the majority of society feels is right. The freedom of expression is one of those rights. By censoring or banning books because of subject matter, language usage, or violent situations, a person’s rights are being violated.

Oscar Wilde said, “The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its shame.” When books are banned, it demonstrates a refusal of censors to look at the world with open eyes. They turn away from the truth, just as they turn away from the words on a page. Even history text books can be controversial. The Civil War is a topic frequen

Many people underestimate youthful intelligence. By assuming young readers can not understand and appreciate an author’s wording, censors misjudge student intelligence. Banning a book cheats a person of enjoying a valuable part of literature. Author Kurt Vonnegut’s works are often challenged because of his dull reaction and sarcastic approach to war and massacre. Misunderstanding provokes this ridicule. Vonnegut uses the phrase “So it goes” to describe numerous senseless deaths in his book, Slaughterhouse Five. He does not mean to devalue the importance of life, but rather, the phrase is used to emphasize the horrible reality of lives lost (Cain). Graphic descriptions of murder or other heinous crimes are thought to pollute a person’s mind. However, these descriptions make the reader aware of the extreme severity of the dangers in his surroundings.

Shielding children from the cruel reality of the world does not do them any favors. Personal experience and inspiring tales can help children interpret the world, its achievements and its flaws. “Children are not innocent. They are just inexperienced,” said Judy Blume, an author and veteran of the fight against censorship (NY Times website). Throughout adolescents, a child is taught to use his or her imagination. A child is read stories of a talking cat or a silly old bear while still young and naïve. These stories inspire the use of his or her creativity. The ideas of such characters are for pure amusement, and eventually become evident to the child to be fictional. Unfortunately, some feel certain characters are a bad influence among children and should be banned. These characters often stepped out of the “accepted” boundaries of society. In the book Blubber by Judy Blume, the young characters curse and the cruel “ring-leader” is never punished for her acti

Some topics in this essay:
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