Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Banned In Schools

Supporters of banning say profanity can negatively influence the actions and thoughts of readers, especially younger readers that may not have heard or read many corrupt words. Huckleberry Finn, a book commonly inveighed for its use of contentious racial language, is commonly challenged for that reason. For USA Today, Martha Moore wrote, “When the younger reader is staring at that word five times on a given page and the instructor is saying, 'Mark Twain didn't mean this and you have to read it with an appreciation of irony,' you're asking a lot of a younger reader”. Granted, foul vocabulary is a challenge that academies need to address, but not through barring novels. Besides, if the reader is sufficiently mature for the book, they can still learn from it. For instance, some racial characterizations do not intentionally persecute people, but show the contrasting tensions between them, conforming to the time period. Again, the article “Huck Finn Navigating Choppy Waters Again” revealed, “The word is there for a reason… The word is terrible, it's hurtful, but it's there for a reason” (Moore). The racial epithets used in that book convey the attitude of Missouri in the 1840s when friction between African Americans and white people was rising. Additionally, banning a book due to concerns about the language is not beneficial to pupils because it prevents them from learning from other components of the book. “Often the organizations or schools that ban these books fail to see the book as a whole; they often center on the one page, the one scene or even the one word containing the offensive language or meaning and judge the whole book based on that one aspect,” according to an article by Adriana Lopez. She makes a sound point. A book contains a whole plot with themes that

“Children deprived of words become school dropouts, dropouts deprived of hope behave delinquently. Amateur censors blame delinquency on reading immoral books and magazines, when in fact, the inability to read anything is the basic trouble.” (Peter S. Jennison) Censorship could easily be one of the biggest controversies around the world today. The book “Harris and Me” by Gary Paulsen, about a boy who stays with his distant cousin Harris on the family farm because his parents are a bunch of “puke drunks.” Spends the summer fighting “commie japs”, hunting mice, and tussling with the rooster Ernie. This book was banned by the ALA for nothing more than profanity. If that’s even the right term, especially for today in our society. This book was taught in my sixth grade class and I have adored it ever since, but I was baffled to find out it

Although there is a lot of foul language in To Kill a Mockingbird readers are not encouraged to use that kind of language.

There has been much controversy over whether or not the novel To Kill a Mockingbird should be banned or not. This novel teaches students about the racism and prejudice of the 1930’s resulting in why the world is the way it is, as well as many important life lessons, therefore it should be continued to be taught in schools. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned because it teaches about life in the past and why the world is the way it is now, proving that this novel has the ability to effectively educate kids about the past and potential impact of human behaviour.

The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee should be read and taught in school considering the facts that it teaches the important message of learning to stand in other’s shoes, and that the reader can see the wide range of diversity such as socioeconomic status and race. In the real world, we will come across many different people with different backgrounds and views. It is easy to look at those people and think, “they are strange,” or “they don’t understand anything.” I admit, before reading this book I was insensitive to this and didn’t even realize when I looked at people and made those assumptions. This book has helped me be not so judgmental and be able to see from other people’s point of view. While some may say this book shouldn’t be taught because it is “racist” or

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

To Kill a Mockingbird was once a book “every adult should read before they die.” The book is a classic, and a great example of American literature. However, many have complained about the book, too. I’ve read it and I personally think that it’s great book. I totally disagree on banning the book. Although I do think that there should be some sort of label on the book warning people about what’s in the content.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been banned and/or challenged over thirty times since its publication in 1960. Effectively preventing many students from enjoying the novel and benefitting from its message. To ignore racism is no different than denying it ever existed. To Kill a Mockingbird is appropriate for mature adolescence/students and should not be banned from schools. Despite its sexual related content, or profanity, a valuable lesson remains that should be taught to students.

Many books around the world have been banned because they are offensive. One example is Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel about the journey of a thirteen-year-old boy named Huck, who fabricates his own death to run away with an escaped slave named Jim. The two voyage in a raft along the Mississippi River to gain their individual freedom. In addition, Huck gains a new understanding about humanity. Huck Finn has been creating great controversy on both sides of the argument: to ban or to keep in the school curriculum. Currently “much debate has surrounded Mark Twain’s Huck Finn since its publication in 1885, but none has been more pervasive, explosive, and divisive than that surrounding the issue on race”

In this essay I will be describing and telling you whether or not To Kill A Mockingbird should or shouldn't be taught in the 9th grade. To Kill A Mockingbird is a very good and intellectual book to read. It is a winner of the pulitzer prize and a wonderful book it talks about this family(Atticus, Scout, and Jem) back in the day when black people didn't have many right and privileges. They live in a little town called birmingham Alabama, the kids father is a lawyer and is defending a black guy(Tom Robinson) that got accused of Rape. The reason for the father (Atticus)defending this man is because he knows that Tom Robinson didn’t rape this girl. Overall this book shows how you should act toward someone if you know they are not guilty even if they are black(Everyone Is Equal). So in my opinion this book should be taught in the 9th grade because it shows how white people acted toward blacks back in the day.

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

Atticus says "She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she

It is odd to think that a high school student would pick up the word “nigger” and use it against another student because high school students have already been exposed to topics such as slavery and racism. Therefore, it would be unlikely for a student to use “nigger” against another student given the fact that race is still a “volatile and divisive subject” in this country and high school students is not ignorant infants that can’t distinguish the rights and wrongs about the word “nigger.” (Williams, Randle). At this point in time teenagers are exposed to excessive profanity through the media, music lyrics on TV and many times it is not censored. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be kept in library shelves and schools in its original form because students can receive moral lessons and therefore, mature as human beings. A big part about how a student can react to the novel is how the book is being taught. Teachers should acknowledge the intention and purpose of Mark Twain, which was to appeal to the reader 's emotions through the use of specific diction. Along with teaching the literary elements of the novel the teachers should also imply the ideas and controversies that are being presented in the novel. Twain’s purpose was also to capture the moments that defined the 1800s such as slavery and racism. After all, the novel should be taught in its original

Huck Finn is a historical fiction novel that uses offensive language in a satirical way to portray slavery in the nineteenth century. The novel is questioned for its historical inaccuracies and use in junior high and high school classrooms. Some believe that the “reading aloud of Huckleberry Finn in our classrooms is humiliating and insulting to black students” (Wallace, 17). Yet, others believe that “one gathers a deeper understanding of the meaning of living in a slave society such as the one Huck and his peers lived in” (Barksdale, 49). Because of the novel’s vulgar language and repeated use of the “n-word”: “the appellation commonly used for slaves in slavery time, appears more than 200 times”, the novel can become a source of discussion within the classroom environment (Barksdale, 52). Although students would have to be prepared for the “far-flung historical and psychological causes and consequences”, after reading the novel, its negativity and racial discrimination can be discussed rather than its status as a literary classic (Barksdale, 53). This novel can create a safe way to discuss the use of racial profanities as well as racism during the 19th and 20th centuries compared to the racism experienced in the 21st century. If teachers and students are able to discuss The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in a constructive manner rather than

How much should be censured by school systems and why are some books accepted while others are not? This is what some people think about when deciding whether or not to ban certain book from their school systems. Furthermore, why my topic on whether or not To Kill a Mockingbird should or should not be band in school systems is important to talk about because it is a book that has an enormous amount of people that argue over it. Moreover, people who want To Kill a Mockingbird to be band believe that the book has negative impacts on children's minds however people who don’t want To Kill a Mockingbird to be band believe that the book teaches important topics that is usually hard to teach students. In addition to this, To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned from school because it teaches children good life lessons about empathy and doing the right things.