Should Books Be Banned?

I was googling some things, and I saw this recommended search: “why books should be banned.”  Curious, I clicked on the search button.  

Basically, the articles that came up said that books put poison in children’s minds that they can’t get out, and are bad for civilization.  Books that explore ideas such as racial prejudices, unpopular religious views, adult stuff.

Should we ban those books?

This is my opinion, and you’re welcome to disagree.

 1.  Books shouldn’t be banned because there is a thing called freedom.  

Authors have free speech, and readers have free choice.  For children, their parents should determine what they should and shouldn’t read, using their judgement.  For example, a 5 year old probably shouldn’t read To Kill a Mockingbird, but just because a five year old shouldn’t read it doesn’t mean that it’s automatically bad for all age groups.

Still using To Kill A Mockingbird, let’s see why that’s been a hot topic.  To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee, in an attempt to show the destruction of innocence and the problems with racial prejudice.  If we look at why it was banned, it was for its racial and sexual themes.  (I’ll mention that it never goes into much detail.)  However, it is one of the most controversial books.  (Number four on the most banned and challenged classics list, according to the American Library Association.)

I believe that people should be able to read what they want. 

But what about X book?  It’s really bad!  

2. If we ban bad books, we’ll soon be banning good books

What is there to stop someone from claiming that a good book is actually bad?  (Lord of the Rings was banned in some places for being “satanic.”)  As we’ve seen, this is starting to happen.  Many rulers in the past (and present) have burned books that they deem to be unacceptable.  (Hitler did.)  

Some of the titles that were on the most banned and challenged list according to the ALA?

• The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
• 1984, by George Orwell
• Animal Farm, also by George Orwell

I don’t know about you, but Animal Farm was a portrayal of the dangers of communism for me, not something that was poison for minds.

3.  If you want to take away books, you’ll have to censor movies, television, the radio, podcasts, magazines, music…

Books aren’t the only media out there.  Just like people should be able to choose what they watch, they should be able to choose what they read.  

Yes, there’s bad stuff out there.  I’m not saying to go out and read it.  I’m just saying, just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean we should ban it.  There are labels we can put on things (just like on music, video games, movies, and tv.)  

4.  Books Teach Us

I don’t know about you, but reading books teaches me great lessons such as: loyalty, forgiveness, love, selflessness, and courage.  To Kill a Mockingbird might have some bad things in it, but that doesn’t mean that those things were good!  To Kill a Mockingbird has a special place in my bookshelf for the lessons it has taught me, not for the racial prejudice (that is looked down upon in the book anyway.)