Ever since To Kill a Mockingbird has been published, there have been many people who have said that it is having a negative influence on our children and should be banned permanently. Some argue that the novel is a presentation of what could happen, and banning the book is hiding the truth from our children. Also, this novel helps children decide what is good and what is evil and tampering with their reading experience will change their views. Others argue that this novel is not appropriate for our children to read or will discourage blacks because of how they are portrayed in the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been banned many times and people have had diverse opinions about its banning. In the novel blacks are shown …show more content…
W.C. Bosher a parent and prominent physician was disgusted that the novel was about rape and reported it to the school board. The school board pointed their finger at the state. The State Board of Eduaction was asked about the novel being banned, they blamed the county saying that “ Shah 2 the county was free to keep the novel on their shelves” (Johnson 23). Later the Hanvoer County board banned all copies of To Kill a Mockingbird. After the banning the county’s secretary, Rosewell Page Jr. told the members of the board to rescind the action. “The novel is considered immoral literature by many and, therefore, is certainly not proper for our students to read” (Hollins). There is conflict between children and their elders where elders wisdom is questioned by children. Also blacks are de-humanized shown by the court case where Tom is convicted based purely on his race. "She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man” (Lee 206). Words such as “whore lady” (Lee 91) and “nigger-lover” (Lee 90) are also used which are improper for children to read. In 1966 Hanvover, Virginia banned the novel To Kill a
was challenged by parents of students attending Cummings High School in the year of 1986. Apparently, the book was arequired reading, and parents pushed for it to become an optional reading assignment. Some parents did not want their children to
The main reason for the banning of this novel is because of the profanity according to NCAC. NCAC states that this novel has " been challenged or banned due to objections to profanity." Therefore this novel should be banned from high schools and libraries. The use of profanity causes a sense of disproportion for the youthful minds reading this publication.
If a controversial book will be read in the classroom, it is the teacher’s responsibility to prepare the student for it. The teacher must ensure that the book is age-appropriate for the student, and is appropriate for the subject matter that the teacher is covering. Reading books such as Catcher in The Rye without discussion can be more harmful than helpful to a student. The Catcher in The Rye has obscene language, violence, occult practices, and sexual references (Doyle 2010). This book should only be read by a mature age group with a
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and was published in 1960. This novel is included in various curriculums to enable students to take this well-written novel to identify the themes and messages and be educated from their literature. Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. The different forms of prejudice that will be analysed are racial, class and social, thus, leads to the citizens of Maycomb to marginalises characters and treat them as an insignificant. It is evident that many characters in this novel suffer from different types of prejudice, which creates a sense of marginalisation. Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell and Arthur Radley are the important, main
Why do certain people rule over what each child can and cannot read? Is that not the parents’ job to determine whether or not is it appropriate for their child? When a book is considered banned, parents, teachers, and librarians are discouraged from providing the book to their children. Many of these adults then disapprove of the book without even reading it. Junie B. Jones is thrown from the realm of possibility for many children just because the loveable character has some flaws.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, has been challenged dozens of times because it has been claimed it does not benefit the public, but in reality, the book benefits the public more than they think. In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are very valuable lessons that are taught, but parents are too afraid to let their children learn the truth. The book still relates to today’s events and causes us to realize how similar they are. To continue, while book may have some negative points, there are more influential positive messages, and it still relates to current events.
Lessons learned from reading fiction can be very useful to use while approaching your issues. Fiction fills our beliefs and desires and teaches us things we have didn’t know. Evidence I can pull to help support my claim is that real world problems are no joke. These issues shouldn't be taken lightly. Fiction can teach you life lessons that you may or may not known. The school board needs to think this through. If the school board makes this decision on taking away fiction from school, today's society, in my opinion, will get mad. Today's society can tear people down easily. They can adapt to many different things at once if they wanted to. They can make things worse for people or make things good for people. Not only is this book about fictional issues, it’s also about real world problems and how fiction can relate to us, the readers. “Researchers found that people who read Literary fiction, led to better results in every subject. That same year, they found that people who read fiction had a higher brain activity than others who didn't.” Fiction, in my opinion, should be taken down, because of this
It has been over fifty years since Harper Lee wrote her classic book, To Kill a Mockingbird (TKM). “Harper Lee’s work is so powerful and popular that it has never been out of print,” (Price). Since then, the outside world has changed with significance. People wear jeans instead of slacks, pocket calculators have more computing power than the rocket that put humans on the moon, and culture is advancing faster than the rocket’s return. Through all these changes that have taken place since 1960, TKM remains ever present in the today’s competitive world and it “represents the best and the worst parts of American society” (TKM: Still Relevant). The symbolism and underlying messages of the book, specifically the illustration of the mockingbird in society, is extremely relevant in today’s world.
LT Vigil Mrs. petty American Literature March 1, 2016 An Unexpected Mockingbird: how one judges Though out the book To Kill a Mocking Bird, there are many types of metaphors found in the book. Some may show how it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Others may show how America used to be in the past, or how the times have not changed.
Again it is shown in the trial. The book says, “‘The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box,’” (220). When in court, the ideal is that there will be no bias and that everyone will say the truth. But again, humans are not perfect, so these expectations cannot always be reached. In the trial almost didn’t matter what the conditions of the order, because of the judgment towards black people. Tom was seen as guilty anyway. One of humans most primordial instincts is to survive, and to do that you have to look out for yourself. Humans are generally very selfish and tends to do things only if it benefits them. This can be seen in trials like these because the judges and many other white weren’t able to see past their own hate towards
That being said in the previous statement, the only reason there was a trial is because Tom was black. The entire book is based
There are multiple examples of prejudice and racism throughout To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. During the course of the novel, numerous characters experience terrible and demeaning examples of prejudice. Even though the Jim Crow Laws are contemporaneous with the Great Depression, there are still many different examples of racism and prejudice present throughout the 1930’s.
Nelle Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird was published in July 1960. Since then, it has won numerous awards and has become a book read by nearly every student in America’s public schools at one point or another. Books so widely read as this have a power over the minds they touch; it is a subconscious power, something absorbed while you try not to fall asleep listening to the droning voice of the reader. No matter how little attention a student paid to the novel, the message of strength in the face of a decision between what is obviously right and what everyone else says must be, is one that lingers in their mind.
Naturally, To Kill a Mockingbird’s use of explicit racial language and depictions of African Americans are two of the major reasons for its being
As a reader, we follow the trial, and the story around it, learning grave and sad details of what it must have been like to live as a black man in the 30’s. The novel has been called a “degrading, profane and racist work that promotes white supremacy” (Banned Books, 2016. Para. 28)., and was ultimately banned for it’s use of the N-word. To Kill a Mockingbird “became both an instant bestseller and a critical success” (To Kill a Mockingbird, n.d. para. 1). quickly after being published and has only recently been challenged for its language.