Censorship

Remember reading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 or The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank in school? These are just two famous books censored for their content and watered down to fit the standards of the education system. 

While some books don’t seem to be problematic to audiences, others might find problems and feel the need to ban it. In one famous case, some religious groups wanted to ban J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. These groups claimed that it glamorized witchcraft and would influence their children’s minds. I think they forget the fact that it’s a fantasy book. The rally to ban or censor books just makes it easier for parents and teachers at school to avoid having a proper conversation about literary content. 

Books are here to generate discussion about culture, race and sexuality. It provides a platform to discuss history as it goes along with its literary content. In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, racial slurs are used frequently. 

Recently on a television show there was a discussion about whether they should ban Twain’s novel in Canadian classrooms. On one side people found that banning the book would not influence children to use racial slurs. On the other side people thought that reading the book would allow a discussion about the historical context and racism during the time.

Trying to ban books isn’t anything new. Back when Nazis occupied countries, they burned books and got people to do so too. Book burning events were there to keep people from reading novels which had ideas against the Nazi regime. With book burnings happening more and more back then, some history got lost and independent thinking went with it. 

To ban and censor books is a dangerous action. Whether a book has too much offensive language or has sexual content that doesn’t fit the heterosexual norm, it doesn’t mean that it should be watered down. Novels shouldn’t be censored or banned, instead it should be read and discussed with students. Teachers should generate discussions on the past history and how it connects to the book. Censorship hurts both the writer and the reader when content is deemed too controversial. Otherwise, banning books erases the history that goes with it and without talking about it, ignorance follows.