Banned Books; For Better or for Worse

Today is my 43rd post!  I know that I should be saying that when it's the 40th or 50th and the 43rd seems like an odd number (Ha! get it?).  Having said that, I still think it's pretty cool that I have made it to 43.  

Have you ever read a book that is on a banned book list?  If you like to read, or have gone through high school, you probably have.  A lot of the books on the list are, from what I know, popular books to read in high school and almost all of them are historical fiction.  

If you don't know what a banned book or book censorship is, it's when there is a record that a school has banned the book, or tried to remove it, from the school because it has suggestive content in it. 

I looked through this list, http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics, and the books that I have read from that were banned are: The Great Gatsby, The Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, The Lord of the Rings, and A Separate Peace.  Some other commonly banned books are: Of Mice and Men, Slaughterhouse Five, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Catcher in the Rye. 

Some common reasons for banning books (according to https://libguides.butler.edu/bannedbooks?p=217686) is that the books have: 

• racial issues (encouragement of racism towards one or more groups of people), 
• encouragement of damaging lifestyles (like drug use), 
• blasphemous dialogue (if a character uses God or Jesus as profanity as well as any swear words that a reader could find offensive), 
• sexual situations or dialogue (I don't think this one needs much explanation), 
• violence or negativity, 
• magic or witchcraft themes (the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings are examples of this), 
• religious affiliations (when a book is censored or banned due to unpopular religions mostly witchcraft or other practices), 
• political bias (when a book supports or examines extreme political views like socialism, communism, fascism, etc), 
• or age-inappropriate (when a book is deemed inappropriate for the age range it was written for). 

Before I talk about my opinions on banned books I'd like to share a story from the first link I posted about banned books.  In the 60s a teacher (in Tulsa OK!) assigned The Catcher in the Rye to her class of 11th graders.  The teacher was fired and the book was banned from the school (later she appealed and was reinstated).  I understand this was the 60s but I think that is a little extreme, especially for 11th graders.  

I think a lot of the books on these lists are amazing books.  Lots of them are historical fiction and I think some of the themes in the books are simply being explored and explained whether or not the author agrees or supports those views.  I read The Jungle this year by Upton Sinclar and the first section of the book is mainly about a family living and working in the Chicago packing houses.  At the end of the book, the main character joins the socialist group and I can understand why, when a person is living a life like he was.  At the end of the book, the main character was listening to an extensive speech in support of socialism and how it helps the minority and the people in extreme poverty living in Chicago.  This book was banned, because of those anti-communists and pro-socialist views.  

I think books like The Jungle would be an amazing opportunity to discuss how different political views affect different groups of people, some might be more appealing for the minority and the people stuck in poverty when others might be more appealing to the other groups.  I think the schools that banned that book missed out on an opportunity to have that discussion.  

Books like this provide an opportunity to discuss different views, whether or not they agree with it.  Whether or not the book has "bad" content in it then I think it is there for a reason, especially if it is historical fiction.  I don't want to look at history through a filter in my opinion- that's not really learning what happened.   

I am sure this topic is not as controversial as it used to be and that my opinions are not the unpopular ones, especially for high schoolers, as those books don't seem age-inappropriate.  

What do you think? Comment how many banned books you have read from the list.  And are there any that you are planning to read?  I am planning to read To Kill a Mockingbird and The Grapes of Wrath soon.  

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