Censorship In 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

The Eleventh Circuit Court held that if school board believes the books are too vulgar and sexually explicit for students which means that if any school curriculum regulations are ‘‘reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns” they can remove books from the curriculum. However, they decided to keep the book in the school library and allowed teachers and students to discuss the material during class discussions.

Censorship takes away the intentions left by the creator. It becomes bland, and unoriginal. Words set the mood of the story and character’s behavior within a work. It is important for explicit material to remain raw and natural. It is meant to show what’s underneath the rock, and behind closed curtains. For example, in Fahrenheit 451, Captain Beatty states, "So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless” (Bradbury 39). Books expose man as imperfect beings that make mistakes, emotionally hurt, and live in a troubled society. Instead of dealing with their personal problems and society’s, the people ignored books, simplified them to sentences through censorship, and eventually banned them from their own lives. They surrounded themselves in a bubble of ignorance from the world to live in bliss. Their solution for happiness was removing evidence of controversial and troubling flaws from their lives entirely. Books burned away, so they no longer had to face their faults or take notice of their society’s and government’s corruption. As Captain Beatty explains, "’Now let 's take up the minorities in

Censorship is not having a say in any written material because the government does not approve of it. In the book "Fahrenheit 451" censorship is not a good thing because people didn’t have such freedoms like that of free speech. The author Ray Bradbury wrote the story to show how important censorship is so that is way there is so many problems throughout the story. In Bradbury's novel, he uses tone in several ways to illustrate damage censorship has on society through his use of charged words, his use of historical symbols and his reflection of historical positive role models.

Has anyone ever heard of a banned book? This book by Harper Lee, To Kill a

Reasons for banning and/or challenging To Kill a Mockingbird are usually the same or very similar. Mostly for the references to rape, profanity, use of the word “nigger” and sometimes because of racism. One time in Cherry Hill, NJ, To Kill a Mockingbird was banned in fears of black children becoming upset reading it. Most school boards will try to justify the bans by demonizing To Kill a Mockingbird and Harper Lee. In 1966, Lee wrote a letter of response to the attempts of banning To Kill a Mockingbird, discarding it as “immoral literature”. She said: “Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board 's activities, and what I 've heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read. Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that To Kill a Mockingbird spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners. To

The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, and The Jungle. What do these three books have in common? Aside from being extremely influential pieces of literature, would you believe that these books have been censored, or even outright banned for their supposed questionable content and backwards morals? Some argue that the censorship of certain books helps keep dangerous knowledge, questionable morals, and inappropriate content away from the general public. However, the restriction of information is not only unfair, but unconstitutional. By denying a reader the right to a certain piece of literature, we are creating a very biased selection that only displays what the censorer wants the public to see. Literature should never be censored, as it has the potential to unfairly skew views, common knowledge, and

A white woman accused Tom Robinson with rape and harassment. Now that the trial is over and we know that it is not true, he was sentenced to prison. Tom eventually tried to escape. Tom was shot seventeen times. I can see how Tom would try to escape for something he did not do. To be shot seventeen times you will die. Tom Robinson died having to deal with racism his whole life. Tom was a great man. Tom would help out around with the Ewells without even earning a penny. Saying that they were going through the Great Depression, I would say he is very loyal. For this to happen to him was tragic. Now Boo Radley had been prisoned in side the basement. When he was younger he stabbed his father with a scissors. Ever since then everyone had been scared

This novel deals with the issues of racism, this helps develop the main idea. When Scout goes back to school after Atticus has taken the case, the text states, “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an’ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank.” This shows that it takes little time for people to start making negative comments about someone’s decisions. It also shows that what family says influences the action of children. Another example of racism is in chapter 9 when Atticus was talking about defending Tom Robinson, the text states, “Of course I do.

Approximately there are hundreds of challenged books that were either censored or banned from schools for the violence, language, and descriptive content. However, most of these books are bestsellers from children reading them and becoming all-time favorites. How would you feel if your favorite book was banned from you? There should be age restrictions on some books but not take away their readings away. Therefore, there should be no books banned from children or teenagers.

In the novel “The Catcher in The Rye” Salinger, the author, uses Holden’s interactions to both criticize society as well as reveal Holden’s symptoms of his psychological problems. In the novel, Salinger presents how unsympathetic people can be towards each other especially if you are like Holden, an emotionally scarred male teenager dealing with past trauma. Salinger also shows us that due to those unsympathetic behaviors and the trauma that comes with dead family members.

A school district in Mississippi decided to remove To Kill A Mockingbird due to its issue with civil rights, along with racism. The school’s decision to ban the book had risen a debate of censorship across the country. “To Kill A Mockingbird has been one of the most consistently challenged banned books since its release in 1960, according to the American Library Association’s list of censorship attempts.” “A number of those instances were over the author’s use of a racial slur about black people.” When the school removed the book from the curriculum, the other schools in America chose to be aware of their books and their learning

Some assert that censorship is not necessary because it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution which guarantees the right to free speech. In an article titled “Banned Books” it states, “According to the ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano, ‘Not every book is right for every person, but providing a wide range of reading choices is vital for learning, exploration, and imagination. The abilities to read, speak, think, and express ourselves freely are core American values.’” (Brunner 1). In this quote, the ALA President explains in her point of view why the use of censorship is unnecessary.

Censorship, according to The American Library Association (ALA), is the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are offensive. Books are often banned due to political, legal, religious, or moral reasons. Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird has been taken away from numerous schools curriculum due to its foul language, mention of sexual abuse, poverty, and racism. Banning a book that highlights the fundamental truth about American history does not make sense. To Kill a Mockingbird should be read in America worldwide because the book has important principles imbedded in the story for adolescents to learn, many of the themes still exist today and history should be taught, regardless of how horrific it is.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been challenged/banned countless times since it’s original publication in 1960. The reasoning people could have behind banning it is that they feel that the racism, language and subject matter in the book is offensive, inappropriate, immoral and that it encourages and condones such things. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, during the depression from 1935-1937, and is told from the perspective of a little girl named Scout. In the book Scout’s father Atticus teaches her and her brother Jem many valuable lessons. The things Atticus teaches Scout and Jem are things we all need to know. To Kill a Mockingbird is an inspirational book that teaches valuable moral values,

school and college students. For instance, in the article “The Ironic, Enduring Legacy of Banning ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ for Racist Language” Avi Selk mentions the schools and the school boards who recently attempted to ban “To Kill A Mockingbird” and most of them are middle and elementary schools. The book was perceived as offensive because of the language within it’s pages. The schools and parents failed to receive “To Kill A Mockingbird”’s message and instead focused on only part of what was said instead of why. Selk said “It was not images of race, but of sex, that caused the first big uproar. The school board of Hanover County, Va., banned the book as “immoral literature” in 1966 because the plot centered on rape.” If that’s the case, why allow middle schoolers and elementary kids read the book? This is why “Mockingbird” should be reserved for high school and college students. The book is centered on a loaded plot and does indeed use some explicit language but that doesn’t mean that that qualifies the book to be banned. There’s quotes directly from the book that demonstrate just why Harper Lee used the language she did and it reads like this, “What exactly is a n—– lover?” Scout asks her father. “It’s hard to explain.” “Ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves,” he tells Scout. “It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.” (To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee) The text directly from the book is a perfect example to show that the use of the “N-word” wasn’t used to promote the word but to shame it and the use of it back in 1960, in Alabama, in which the book was set upon. Allow the students who can fully understand and not take offense to “To Kill A