Should Books Really Be Banned? A Look at the Reasoning Behind it All

The First Amendment of the United States grants us absolute freedom of speech, but in many cases, since the Bill of Rights was written in 1791, not many people are tolerant of this right. One of the cases is those of some schools, libraries, even countries, even our own country that bans books.

Books are our way of escaping into land filled with wonder, romance, and action. Books are also a way of expressing our feelings and our thoughts about certain situations. Books can also be a way of telling a true story of one's own experiences which in turn may assist another with a similar situation they may be going through.

Banning books is a way of proving the world that there are so many people out there that find the book threatening to them in some way shape or form and find a way to remove it from others grasps and preventing them in honoring the Bill of Rights.

One book for example that has been banned is called "America (The Book)" was written and edited by Jon Stewart. Organizations such as Wal-Mart found the images in the book to be offensive and refused to carry the book. They felt as though a majority of their customers would not be comfortable with the images. That' like saying, "let's shield the world from things that a few people see as offensive."

can't hide people from life and what is going on in the world, as well as the fact that everyone has their own opinions. Let's face it, there are worse books out there sitting on the shelves. Those worse books which should not be banned either. The ban, thankfully was lifted the day after its issue because of the complaints received by the library board.

Another example is "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" written by Mark Twain. This book is one of the first Great American Novels that was ever written using common speech. The book was published back in 1885 and was about the relationship between a man and a runaway southern slave.

This book was banned because of its coarse and ignorant language. To this day, the book still shows controversy, which makes me laugh because have you looked around lately and heard the language that is coming out of the children, and I do mean children, around us? Nine times out of ten, they don't learn it from a book; they pick the use up from their elders, their parents, their siblings.

Some people have made comments on the book stating that there is nothing true in it, so why keep it on the shelves. If you look around, there are many books on the shelves that hold no truth in some people's opinions, such as science fiction. There was even a made for television version of Huckleberry Finn that had no cast members and no mention of slavery. This was done in order to clean up the book. That idea is just plain stupid, there we go, trying to hide the world from something that happened in our past. Anything that has happened in the USA's past may be good or it may be bad, but covering it up is no way to teach. Hiding our mistakes makes us a coward and not willing to face the consequences or questions that arise.

We also have a familiar book called "Catcher in the Rye" written by J. D. Salinger and was banned in many public schools in the United States and libraries in the United States because of the sexual situations, immoral acts, and improper themes. In my opinion, this is a joke as well. Sexual situations are going to be a part of everyone's life. Sex is part of human nature. The birds and the bees are taught by, or supposed to be taught by our parents. Finding out about sex in a book is not necessarily a bad thing, it all depends on the context of it, and however our children should never be oblivious to sexual situations no matter how subtle or extreme they are.

Providing them knowledge of the subtle and extreme situations will prepare them for what they will come across in life, when their parents aren't always around to protect them. As for the immoral acts of the book, that is another subject that coincides with teaching our children what is right and wrong and what they will see and hear about throughout their lives. Their going to hear about crime, and murder, it's what we hear and see on the news every day. Improper themes are also one of those things that are based on what the child is raised to believe as improper. But again, they shouldn't be held blind to it.

And last but not least, another interesting book that was banned was called "Eve's Diary" written by Mark Twain. This book was banned because of illustrations of an unclothed Eve. If you follow the story line of Adam and Eve, it wasn't until Eve ate the apple when being naked was a bad thing. The human body is supposed to be a wondrous thing. Women know what they look like naked, and men will inevitably know what a woman looks like naked. We are all built the same, we all have the same body parts, so why are illustrations of an unclothed female so horrible. I'm sure if you look into Health books, you will see naked illustrations of men and females.

In conclusion, I believe banning books is an act of going against our freedom of speech and also a way of hiding what is really out there in the world. We have to be honest with the public and our children, not to mention respect our Bill of Rights.