The Problem with Book Banning

Nouvelage, Elijah. “A Destroyed Road and Home Are Seen in Guayama, Puerto Rico, Days after Hurricane Fiona Dropped over 20 Inches of Rain on the Island.” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/ 2022/09/24/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-fiona-aftermath/index.html.

Works Cited Acevedo, Nicole. “Puerto Rico Hurricane Survivors Remain Hopeful and Skeptical after Biden’s Visit.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 4 Oct. 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/puerto-rico-hurricanesurvivors-remain-hopeful-skeptical-bidens-visit-rcna50472. Lewis, Rachel. “Is Puerto Rico Part of the U.S?” Time, Time, 26 Sept. 2017, https://time.com/4957011/is-puerto-ricopart-of-us/. Khalid, Asma, et al. “Will Disaster Response in Puerto Rico Improve under Biden?” NPR, NPR, 23 Sept. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/09/23/1124822808/will-disaster-response-in-puerto-rico-improve-under-biden.

By Forest Pelletier ’23

America, the land of the free? Despite our signature catchphrase in the last couple of years there has been a surge in book censorship not seen since the 1980’s. Throughout the country various groups have successfully pushed for the banning of books they disagree with in their districts. Many such books include topics of gender, sexuality, and race. Regardless of the intent behind a book's content, groups of differing viewpoints have sought to remove them from their local schools and libraries.

Historically, book banning has been used in many different places as an attempt to suppress an opposing viewpoint. Many of the groups leading the charge have argued that it is within their freedom as parents to get rid of the books from their children's schools, but is this not restricting the freedom of their child to read what they would like?

28 Many of the targeted books come from a diverse range of authors representing groups that are often not portrayed in literature. These books act as resources for young adults to tread through their feelings and feel as though they are seen and have support. However the reading of these stories does not only help those who find similarities in their own story, it also improves the emotional intelligence of the reader. Reading fiction and non-fiction books that follow the perspective of characters in a story has been shown to increase a person's empathy along with their ability to tackle tough problems by keeping an open mind to new information and perspectives (Djikic et al, 2013).

Oftentimes the age and maturity of the reader is brought up as an excuse to get rid of books from a school. They argue that books including sexual content, assault, rape, racism, homophobia, genocide and various other mature or downright horrible things are too much for young adults. Within an unguided and naive child, they may very well be right. However that is not a reason to isolate them from learning of these things that they eventually will come upon themselves. Books are a form of sharing and remembering the experiences of others in a form that lets us learn from the past. Depriving young adults of the ability to learn of such things is an injustice to their development, leaving them ill prepared for their future in our world where this content very much exists. If the worry is truly that they are not mature enough to tackle these issues alone, then the focus should be on guiding the younger generation through these tough topics that plague many of us today.

Works Cited Djikic, Maja, et al. “Opening the Closed Mind: The Effect of Exposure to Literature on the Need for Closure.” Researchgate.net, Gravity Research Journal, Apr. 2013, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 247163935_Opening_the_Closed_Mind_The_Effect_of_Exposure_to_Literature_on_the_Need_for_Closure. Friedman, Jonathan. “Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools.” Edited by Nadine Farid Johnson, PEN America, 19 Sept. 2022, https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censorbooks-in-schools/.

“Collection of Frequently Banned Books.” USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/ books/2021/09/27/banned-books-week-the-bluest-eye-harry-potter-1984-handmaids-talegoosebumps-golden-compass/5758877001/.