Entry 1: Passage: (Pgs. 10-11) “‘Now,’ says Ben Rogers, “what’s the line of business of this Gang?’ ‘Nothing only robbery and murder,’ Tom said. ‘But who are we going to rob?-house, or cattle, or-’ ‘Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain’t robbery; it’s burglary,’ says Tom Sawyer. ‘We ain’t burglars. That ain’t no sort of style. We are highwaymen. We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money.’ ‘Must we always kill the people?’ ‘Oh certainly. It’s best. Some authorities think different, but mostly it’s considered best to kill them.’” Situation: Tom, Huck, and his friends are creating the rules for a gang, and lay out a plan to murder, steal, and commit a litany of other …show more content…
On page 8, the N-word is repeated 7 times, which is enough for the book to be considered obscene. This book might be challenged in order to prevent students who read aloud from using the expletives. Lastly, the historical meaning of the slur makes the book racist as well, which the school would not want to promote. Entry 3: Passage: (Pgs. 21-22) “Miss Watson’s n****r, Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do magic with it. He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything.” Situation: Huckleberry Finn talks about Jim’s “magic hairball,” and describes it to the reader. Analysis: The passage would be considered offensive for challenging religious beliefs. In the passage, Huck says “He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything.” This statement suggests that there is a significant being, which defies religion. Specifically, this disobeys the Christian second commandment, which states that fake idols should not be made before God. Lastly, Huck also uses a racial slur in an extremely demeaning manner towards …show more content…
Firstly, I believe it is reasonable to challenge this novel because it contains racial slurs. If students read them in a book, they may think that it is okay to use them as a result, so it is best to limit exposure to them. Also, this creates an issue for students who are reading the book aloud to a classroom, because others could be offended by the language. On the other hand, that is a part of American history, and the topic shouldn’t be completely avoided. A solution to this problem could be crossing out the slurs with permanent marker, so students won’t be reading them over and over
Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger, follows the Permian Panthers, a successful high school football team in Texas, while they do everything in their power to win the state championship. Near the beginning of the book, we learn about the star running back on the Panthers, Boobie Miles, and how he has college coaches all over the state who are offering him scholarships to come and play for them. Unfortunately for both Boobie and Permian, Miles injures his knee before the season even starts which forces the team to fall back on the second string running back. Boobie’s knee injury was not the only thing that bothered him, he deals with a lot of racial discrimination also. “The black population in Odessa was quite small- about 5 percent” (102).
This book has won several awards, in 1999 the National Book Award Finalist; in 2000 it won the Michael L. Printz, and the Coretta Scott-King award. Despites its many awards it has also been challenged and banned in many different school districts because parents didn’t think it was appropriate for their children to read. According to Dean 2013, states “Seven D97 families filed a request with the district last month to have the book removed. A "request for reconsidering" can be made under board policy, which deals with educational materials deemed "offensive or controversial. " The policy also calls for an internal committee to be convened to review such materials”.
Every decision people make dictates the direction of their moral compass. Morality is what sets people apart from one another, and distinguishes between right and wrong. Though this difference becomes blurred as society is not black and white, it is a spectrum of colors, which is seen differently by different people. For instance, some individuals may label others with societal bias based on their race, gender, or beliefs, while others can see through the veil and truly understand one another. With this in mind, Mark Twain explores this grey area with the character’s
Would you want anyone to ban books so you couldn’t further your education? School Board members should not ban certain books because students can get more of a challenge from certain books, you also can get many life lessons from a more mature book, and students also get more of a choice which means more books to read. One reason I believe school board members should not ban books is because it gives students more of a challenge. For example, teachers like to challenge kids to read above their grade level and reading more mature books will get them there. However, how will they get assigned harder or more challenging books if those kinds of books are banned from the school library.
Rosa Parks once said, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” She describes that the future of our world has to be aware of things that have happened in the past, such as racism. The NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is a civil rights organization that displayed their position on this certain situation. The NAACP position is correct in that Mark Twain’s un-sanitized version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be taught because the book describes the important awareness of the historical oppression of people, it provides a value of morality from that time period that students should learn, and gives an important lesson about race that should be taught to students.
Of Mice and Men Some people think the book, Of Mice and Men, should be banned in public schools, I think the book should be because of the language and the racial comments. The reason the book might have been banned was because of the severity of bad language. On page four, “So you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I?
(Page 13) Tom has appealed to this boy and now he has every boy in the neighbored doing his chores and paying him to do it. LAter in the story Tom has a great chance to manipulate Huck into giving him all the treasure rather than some but he doesn't. But rather than convincing Huck out of his share of the money tom says “Half of it’s Huck’s and half of it’s mine.” (Page 224)
This shows that they are defined by their name which could be a good or bad thing. Those on the opposing side argue that To Kill A Mockingbird should not remain on the banned book list because it has very important standards of life that are taught within the book. Although this is true they fail to realize that these standards are taught in daily life and within these standards that are expressed in the novel it is taught in a very negative way using racism and prejudice ways surrounding these life lessons.
Hypocricy and Blind Faith Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn took place in the eighteen hundreds when religion and reputation were dominant in peoples everyday lives. It was very rare for someone to believe something different than everyone else. In Twain 's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Tom Sawyer and Huck appear to be very different, but their actions, descriptions, and dialogue bring them together to symbolize society in order to show the blind conformity and hypocrisy that humans often display.
Originally published in 1990, The Things They Carried is a collection of war stories that took place during the Vietnam War. Due to its accurate and honest depiction of war, it has been banned for crude language, violence, drug use, and sexual innuendo. The author, Tim O’Brien, was born in Austin, Minnesota in 1946. Due to his service in the United States military during the Vietnam War, O’Brien is able to depict the war in a more graphic, and realistic manner.
Huck decides to act on his morals rather than be held captive by society; Huck believes that he has to act in the best interest of Jim and does not consider what society believes is acceptable behavior. By stating that he will “go to hell,” Huck reiterates what he promises Jim in the beginning- that he rather be a “low down abolitionist”; these statements combined supports his feelings to protect Jim from society. When Huck and Tom get back to the house, Huck states, “...it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no
Fahrenheit 451 has an astonishingly accurate future depiction of a society in which everyone is too distracted by technology, so they ignore most of the world around them. The community members are not aware of nature or other human beings, and they never take time to actually think deeply about life and ideas in general. Many high school and middle school teach this book in curriculums nationwide, because the addiction to technology and hatred of books portrayed in the book is beginning to be prevalent in our society. This book also glorifies individuality by admiring a girl who is different from everyone else. In the past, many parents have decided to challenge this book due to the violence, the religious discrimination, the foul language, and the references to drinking and smoking.
Hello, my name is Zac, and today I will be speaking to you all about why To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned in schools. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written and published by Harper Lee in 1960. The novel takes place during the three years of the great depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. The novel deals with serious issues of rape and racial inequality. To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned in schools because students such as myself need to exposed to the themes that are in the novel because the novel’s themes have relevance in today’s society.
Censorship is an extremely debated topic in America, with people saying it contradicts with what the Bill of Rights has allowed the American people and how it may deny people use the Freedom of Speech. Yet, the censorship of books in American public schools is one of the most controversial topics today because of the use of racial slurs in classic literature, this is the case with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Opinions on this topic vary, with some of them being: schools should have the right to censor books because they have racial slurs in them, schools should have teachers open up a conversation about race and the use of racial slurs with these books, or schools should not have the right to censor any book. I firmly believe that schools
Huck’s thoughts represent his conscience overruling society and his emotions are more influential. Huck begins to see a glimpse of how he is working against