SCANDAL: She’s reading banned books again
My favorite books that are banned in the United States
“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame” -Oscar Wilde
In school, I had to read some of the classics; the books everyone has heard about. To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, Catcher in the Rye, etc. If you heard of it, I had to read it. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I realized the books I had to read were actually banned in schools across the country. My high school just so happened to be the kind of place that didn’t stifle my knowledge but tried to grow it.
To make a long story short, I didn’t like that I had to read these books. But, the one thing I hate the most in this world is someone telling me what I can’t do. So now, I read all the banned books I can. These are my favorite and why I think it is stupid they are banned.
To Kill a Mockingbird
It’s a classic. Most of us should’ve read it at some point. The reason it’s banned I find ridiculous. The complaint that is throw around the most when talking about this book is its frequent use of the N-word. I don’t think the people complaining about this book have ever read it the whole way through or even read the summary on the back. The use of the N-word and how it makes the modern day reader uncomfortable is the whole point.
Fahrenheit 451
This was one of the few mandatory reading books I absolutely loved in high school. The irony of people actually burning this book is something that makes me laugh in bewilderment. They must be reenacting the book right? They must be doing it for satire, correct? I read somewhere that people were upset that this book promotes overthrowing government. Don’t tell them how the United States were founded because it might blow their minds.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Now, in same cases I understand banning books that are mandatory in classrooms. I don’t like to be told what to do either. However, I didn’t know Harry Potter was now a mandatory read for children. In Texas schools, parents were petitioning for this book to be removed because they had objections to the depictions of “mysticism and paganism”. The pastor of St. Joseph School in Wakefield, Massachusetts, deemed the novel’s sorcery-heavy story line inappropriate for a Catholic school. Parents said the pastor thought most children were “strong enough to resist the temptation,” but his job was to “protect the weak and the strong.” Even children are not allowed to enjoy magic and fantasy anymore and it’s sad.
A Court Of Mist and Fury
Sarah J. Maas just so happens to be one of my favorite authors. A Court of Mist and Fury is the second installment of the ACOTAR series, an adult fantasy series. In May 2022, a Virginia legislator tried to sue Barnes & Noble for selling this book to young adults without their parents consent because he believed the series was targeted towards minors to corrupt them. Barnes & Noble, along with the book’s publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, assured that the book is “for mature audiences only” and released the following statement:
“We ask that our customers respect our responsibility to offer this breadth of reading materials, and respect also that, while they chose not to purchase many of these themselves, they may be of interest to others,” the company added.
The Handmaid’s Tale
This book is an impactful one, as it takes on the themes of politics, gender roles, and rebellion. Those themes are the very reason it’s one of the most banned books in the country. The radical political movements of today mirror some of the aspects in this book and when that was brought to the mass population’s attention, they revolted. Many claim this book is inappropriate and corrupts young minds. Those “young minds” are the ones currently reaching voting age and just now getting into politics. Politics that just so happen to sadly resemble those within this book.
The craziest thing to happen, in my opinion, was that individuals started burning The Handmaid’s Tale in public as an act of rebellion and to get it banned across the country. Margaret Atwood, the author of this book, took a stand and decided to make an “unburnable” copy of The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood and her publisher auctioned off the book in the name of fighting censorship in the United States.
If you’re feeling a little rebellious, here are some more banned books to try:
In my humble opinion, people need to read more and complain less
