preview

Should The Glass Castle Be Banned In The Glass Castle

Decent Essays

A growing problem in schools around the country is the topic of censoring books from children based on parents and teachers’ beliefs on what’s appropriate for students. There’s no doubt in my mind that The Glass Castle is filled with adult themes not primarily written for a younger audience. The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls’ life, largely her childhood with her parents and siblings, and her breaking away from her parents to become a relatively successful adult. The novel contains events of sexual assault and substance abuse, Jeannette’s parents raise her and her siblings horribly and there’s plenty of violence scattered throughout the book- Jeannette tries to shoot another child from her school at one point. However, this doesn’t mean this book should be banned from schools. This book should be allowed to be read by at least high school students not only because of how well-written and a good read it is, but the various lessons about life it offers to the reader, largely through Jeannette’s father. I want to clarify that this book shouldn’t be allowed in somewhere like an elementary school’s library; this book is more fitting for an older, more mature audience. My brother however, who’s in middle school, is a better example of the younger end that could reasonably understand this book. He’s 12 years old on the verge of 13, and after reading The Glass Castle he learned that, in his own words, “If someone is holding you back, you should probably leave

Get Access