FREE ESSAY ON CENSORSHIP

CENSORSHIP

The subject of censorship is a very controversial one, especially the banning of books.
Many people believe they must protect themselves and others from the evils of many
classic books and works of art because they can be deemed indecent in one way or another.
Many believe that this is absurd and censorship in its current form is a violation of our
First Amendment right to free speech. Personally, I align myself with the latter, however
I do feel there are occasions where censorship is justifiable. The censorship of books is
a division of censorship that, apart from Internet censorship, receives the most
publicity. Banning books is the most popular form of such censorship. Many banned books
are literary classics, such as The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, which was listed
as the number 6 most challenged or banned book in a list compiled by the American Civil
Liberties Union in 1997. This book has been banned from school libraries all over the
country because of the main character's teenage angst, which many feel is too graphic for
teenagers, and its profanity. Profanity, whether it be frequent or a rare occurrence, is
a characteristic of many literary classics, as is the use of racial epithets.
In the book Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (ranking number 2 on the list), an epithet is
use many times over to describe the people of color in the book. Now since the book was
published in 1885 and such language was common at the time, I do not believe that banning
such a book is necessary. An excuse commonly used by advocates of banning books that use
graphic language or racial epithets is that they do not want children exposed to it. It
is my belief that since by the time the child is required to read such literature in
school, they are at an age where they can distinguish between things that should and
should not be said and it is the job of the parents to educate the child that just
because they say it in a book does not mean he or she should.
Another subject common to banned and censored books is sexuality. An excellent example of
a book in question containing sexual content is The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier,
which ranked number 5 on the ACLU's list. Now considering the fact that this frequently
banned book is written for young adults of middle and high school age, I'm sure the
author included this content, and the often graphic language associated with such
content, because it made the book more realistic and possibly because it made the novel
more appealing to the age bracket. 
Fiction is not the only genre faced with banning and censorship. Educational books such
as the sex education text It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris and The New Teenage Body
Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsmanare under attack because they discuss
sex-related topics. All I have to say about this is sexuality is a fact of life, not some
forbidden subject. Adolescents need to know this information so they don't go off an ruin
their life by having a baby while they are in their teens or catching a disease because
they didn't have the information to protect them. 
Sometimes books are banned or censored for unusual and often ridiculous reasons. An
example of such is the banning of Little Red Riding Hood in two California school
districts in 1989. In the story, Little Red Riding Hood is bringing a cake and a bottle
of wine to her grandmother's house. The districts claimed they were concerned because of
the use of alcohol in the story. Even the popular children's' book series Goosebumps, by
R.L. Stine, has been challenged across the country by parents and school officials. They
say that the book is too scary for kids. I am curious as to why they say this, because I
remember reading the books in elementary school, and to my peers and I, they were comedic
rather than scary. By the time a child can read these books, I feel, they are old enough
to know that it is just a story and the Goosebumps books are all about getting kids into
the fun of reading.
As I have said before, there are certainly occasions where censorship is justified. For
example, the Kenneth Starr report on President Clinton's affairs with Monica Lewinsky and
the attempts to cover it up is certainly not for kids. Due to its graphic sexual content,
I would not be surprised if it was censored extensively or even removed from the Internet
sites it is currently on. I do believe when censorship is used, it must be used with
common sense. Instead of banning classic literary works and educational from school
libraries and classrooms, classes could possibly discuss why the authors use such
language and content in their books. Why ban a good book because it has a few
profanities? If censorship must be used to control inappropriate content, it should be
used to prevent children from gaining access to materials such as pornography on the
Internet rather than the sex-ed book in the school library.