Banned Books Essay

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is no doubt a classic. British librarians compared it to The Bible, saying “every adult should read [it] before they die.” Despite all this, parents have continuously been upset and have wanted to ban this book from school libraries and classrooms. Lots of books have been challenged or banned due to parents wanting to protect their children from reading these “inappropriate” texts. “To Kill a Mockingbird” is no exception. The story is about two young siblings, Jem and Scout, whose father, Atticus, is defending an African American, Tom Robinson, in court. Tom was falsely accused of rape, but him and Atticus loose the trial because he is black. Parents complain that “To Kill a Mockingbird” is racist, is inappropriate because of rape, and has too many curse words.

Many parents complain that “To Kill a Mockingbird” promotes racism, but the opposite is true. The author, Harper Lee, is trying to teach people not to be racist by putting in racist characters and have them be the “villain” of the story. When Atticus defended Tom in court and lost, Scout and Jem were really upset. Specifically, a line that shows this is, “His [Jem] face was streaked with angry tears . . . “‘it ain’t right,’” he muttered.” Furthermore, Harper Lee is just being historically accurate with racism in this book. The article “Banned Books Awareness: To Kill a Mockingbird” the author states, “unless you’ve never read even a basic history book, you’re well aware the social status and public treatment of most blacks was dismal at best.” This shows that Harper Lee is not trying to promote racism, she is just accurately portraying a Southern town in the 1930s. If you are going to ban this book because of racism you might as well ban any history textbooks, too.

Another thing parents were upset about in the book is the theme of rape. Parents are trying to protect their children, but its better for teens to be aware of topics such as rape. Rape is a real world issue. In the article, “Banned Book: To Kill a Mockingbird” by Brian M, he states, “ . . .it doesn’t prepare our children for facing these dangers when they arrive.” This illustrates that isolating kids from topics such as rape will have a more negative than positive effect. While some might argue that rape is inappropriate for young kids, anyone who is reading this book is most likely not so young that rape would  be something to know about. When asked if banning books because of rape is something she would ever do, a school librarian said, “No, because once you ban a book on one particular subject matter, you open the door to banning books on all other subject matters. The library has an obligation to provide access to information regardless of its subject matter.” If one parent is upset by a book, the school shouldn’t be able to ban it for the whole school. No one is forcing anyone to read something they don’t want to read. Moreover, Harper Lee is not trying to promote rape in the book, she is just raising awareness.

The last thing that upsets parents and teachers about “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the profanity. Parents and teachers think that the language used in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is inappropriate for kids. The school librarian at PS 15 said, “As a librarian, I must provide access to all information to everyone and that includes not censoring books because of curse words or upsetting topics.” The school/teachers should not be able to regulate what every student in the school is reading. If one student/parent feels uncomfortable about a certain book, that does not mean it should be banned for the whole school.

In conclusion, schools and teachers should not have the authority to censor what students are reading. If a student’s parent doesn’t want them reading a certain book, they can choose to not let their child read it. Just because a book is not okay for one student, doesn’t mean that all students shouldn’t read it. Everyone is different and books can be right for one person but not the other.

Social Awareness Project

Overview

Ask.fm Response - Description of the social media ask.fm, why its a problem, and how                                                      we can solve it.

Smoking Reading Response - Response to an article desricibing why smoking was popular, why it went out of style, and how the tobacco companies responded to all of it.

Words poem - An original poem about someone getting harshly bullied

Ask.fm Response

There is a social media called ask.fm that a lot of people at MS 51 have. How it works is people ask you questions, and you answer them. When you ask people questions, you have a choice if you want the person to be able to see who asked, or you can ask anonymously. The fact that you can set it so people don’t see who you are has causes a lot of hate and bullying. A lot of people hear rumors at school and then accuse people of them on ask anonymously. Lots of people get questions saying stuff like ‘It’s funny how you like someone one day and the next day you forget about them, no wonder no one likes you’.

Teenagers can get really hurt by this cyberbullying. When people spread rumors about you, its never a good feeling, but its even worse when someone asks you about it. Especially when you don’t know who it is. Theres just some random person out there who knows these lies about you and you have no idea who it is. When teens get cyber bullied like this, often times people say the same mean things to you. After hearing it so much, they could start to believe it themselves.

Some solutions to this problem would be if people stopped spreading rumors and saying hurtful things about others, but that most likely won’t happen. People could stop using ask, but for some reason a lot of people love it. The last thing is that ask could take away the option of asking things anonymously. As a result, people would stop saying mean things that they would never say face to face.

Smoking Reading Response

Smoking has been around for a long time, and in the 1950s, it was extremely popular to always have a cigarette dangling from your mouth. The article “Kicking The Habit” by Robert K. Elder explains when it went out of style, why, and how tobacco companies responded. Based on the information the author gives in this article, I think that he’s against smoking.

Smoking became popular in the 17th century, and by World War Ⅰ, cigarettes were even in soldiers’ rations. In the 1960s, 42% of American adults were addicted. Tobacco companies used television to advertise with jingles and slogans, and they used celebrities to make smoking seem cool. There had been a few studies of a connection between smoking and some diseases, so many tobacco companies dressed up actors as doctors for their commercials to try to contro\adict this information. As soon as it was official that smoking can kill you, tobacco companies were instructed by Congress that they needed to put “warning labels” on cigarette packs, saying things such as, “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous To Your Health”. As more knowledge about the dangers of smoking was obtained, these warnings turned into thing like this: “Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy.” Tobacco companies knew they were losing their adult customers, so they started to target children. They did things like create logos that were directed towards kids. Camel made Joe Camel, a cartoon camel mascot from their company.

Now that people know smoking cigarettes is unhealthy, companies have made a new product to solve this problem: electronic cigarettes. Even though e-cigarettes are not a bad as real ones, they still contain nicotine, which is what make cigarettes addictive. Companies are targeting children again with this new product, by developing different flavors.

Overall, the author is giving mostly negative information about smoking, which is making me think his views on it are negative as well. After reading this article, I understand the history of cigarettes and smoking. I knew that people smoked a lot more in the 1950s and 60s, but I didn’t know why until now.  They had no idea how bad it was for them. I also think that its very unethical for companies to target children when they’re advertising cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

WORDS

their words cut through me

right past the bone

into my heart

my insecurities’ home

why do I even try

they say those words and

it kills me inside

their words spoken with rage

fill me up and shut me

inside a cage

i scream for someone, anyone

but no one comes

their words make me feel

like im being held down

with a gun

they just say more words

i can’t listen anymore

it hurts, it burns

i shut myself out

but their words cling on

i open my eyes, and see a finger on the trigger

“do it” i dare them

theres no reason to go on

their words just keep pushing

i see the trigger, pulled

and then

they’re gone