To Kill a Mockingbird - Censorship Rears its Ugly Head Again
76Be prepared for a book censorshiop rant! Once again, To Kill a Mockingbird has been removed from a classroom due to a complaint by a parent. The parent of a child going into Grade 10 has complained about the use of the "n" word in the novel and it has been removed from the class curriculum. The Dufferin-Peel Catholic Schoolboard in Brampton, Ontario accepted the complaint of one parent of a soon-to-be Grade 10 student at St. Edmund Campion Secondary School, and removed the book from the class.I think that 15 and 16 year-old children are at a level where they should understand the theme and plot of this novel. Obviously, the parent in question has not read the entire book and does not understand what this classic novel is trying to say.
To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. In 1962, it was made into a very successful movie with Gregory Peck. The story is one of rape and racial inequality. As someone said, "only the bad people use that word in the novel." And this is true. You cannot just erase words out of the vocabulary because someone actually has used them and continue to use today. It is not giving people a license to use this sort of language by having a novel that features the word. The aim of this great novel is to promote racial harmony, not to endorse racism. I challenge anyone to read the novel from cover to cover and tell me that it is racist in any way.
I have heard the argument that if you are not black you can't understand why people would get upset. However, as quoted in the Toronto Star "But at a school with a significant black population, teachers say the book is a relevant and favoured tool for discussion on racism." That is the point of the novel in the first place.
Now I don't want this to disintegrate into a discussion by some that racism does not exist and some people are over sensitive because that is not what I am saying. Racism does exist and it is books like this that can help to eliminate it.
My main point of this rant is that the complaint of one parent should not be enough to have a classic removed from study. Don't the other parents with children in the class have any say in whether or not their child should have a right to read it and study it?
The fact that this is one of my favorite novels of all time makes it worse and more maddening. I even named my cat Boo Radley.
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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960, Hardcover)
Current Bid: $26.00
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Harper Lee To Kill A Mockingbird SIGNED BY SCOUT FINCH
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
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Comments
Oh, man! What is the matter with people ? This is one of the most powerful anti-racist stories ever written.
Sad isn't it? People have objected to "Huckleberry Finn," which many believe is the greatest American novel for the same misguided reason. One must wonder if the person who objected actually read the book or watched the movie and what his or her reading level is.
Here we go again. This is so ridiculous. As a HS English teacher in Chicago, I cannot tell you how many times I had the best and most intelligent discussions on racism with my students, because of this book. They were 100% African American and they "got" the book and what it was trying to say, and the "N" word was never a problem.
If the people in that book had said "African-American" would the censors have been happy?-- even though the racist people in that time, especially, would not have used another word.
The use in the book is to be authentic to the story in a particular time and place. It demeans, not the black characters, but the haters.
It's the 21st century and people still want to ban the classics? I must be hearing things. There is no book known to man that can outdo what the internet can provide. I've seen things on the internet that gave me nightmares, mostly through e-mails that were sent to me in bad taste. Kids are growing up way too fast these days (dammit, I'm turning into a fuddy-duddy now).
Look on the bright side, UW. Banning books usually have a revers-side effect. Banning things only increases interest! Heck, look at marijuana. I hope this made you smile :)
That is a shame.That is my favorite book. Private schools are too sheltered. Life is not censored and books shouldn't be either. You couldn't go a minute in my high school without someone using the "n" word. It is just a word, what matters is the context and intent in which it is used. The author is not using it in a degrading fashion but to revel racist injustice.
Censorship is bad, period. It is a sign of little minds incapable of big thinking.
In South Africa we had for years a Publications Control Board with a lot of old aunties who read books deemed to have questionable content and then gave a recommendation whether or not the book should be allowed in the country. The reading level of the aunties (they were of both sexes, by the way, not just women) can be judged by the fact that they once banned Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty"!
Censorship is a case of delegating your thinking to someone else and that can't be good. The use of particular words needs to be understood in the context in which they are used and the purpose for which they are used. Wishing them away by banning them is not going to deal with the issue at all, just sweep it under the carpet.
Thanks for your rant and please excuse mine!
Love and peace
Tony
Great comments from everyone! I'm glad you feel the same way. Maybe those against can have the ban overturned. Like dohn says, the kids who are denied reading it might be curious now with all the news coverage and actually read it on their own time.
I think the parent who complained is very narrow-minded and needs a whipping.
I was but a child when I first read that wonderful book and I remember the movie well too. It spoke volumes to me about how one should not be full of hatred for anyone because of color. I still have that copy in paperback and have reread it many times. Yes, that word is understandably demeaning and derogatory but it needs to be left in these types of references for teaching young ones as it did myself. I even found that word twice in the Apocrypha.
You gotta be kidding! I mean, I know you're not, but please! This is also one of my favorite novels, but as you said, that's really beside the point, isn't it? Geez, what's wrong with the world...
This is exactly the example of what is going wrong with our country. One person complains and poof, there is a new law. Why should we al suffer because of one? A friend in Ohio wrote me earlier this year, she said that the school cancelled a trip to the great museum they have, because of the naked statues in thier ancient wing. Can you give me a break!!!!! How are our children supposed to learn when they are so wrongly over protected from reality???
There's something we can agree on, jiberish!
I guess Canada and the US are not all that different when it comes to silly censorship. Not taking kids to a museum because of those amazing Greek statues? That is sacrilege :) Those are the same people that painted underwear on the Sistine Chapel figures...
This has to be my one of my all-time favorite books. I read it as a child and I must admit it had a profound effect on me. I just love the movie - the cast is phenomenal. I can't believe the knee-jerk response to a protest about a word - especially to a word used in such a way as to teach us that it is a DEROGATORY term. Well I better not get started - I live in country where our minister is forbidden to wear his collar into a school because it is a religious symbol!
I'm with you. While it's cheering to know the N word is more obscene now than the F word and that does affect society -- when it comes to classics and history, it's important for kids to study the subject as what it was. They need to know what it meant. Some of them may grow up without ever hearing it and not realize that books like this helped change America's view on racism.
I am especially disgusted when books that were historically significant, books that did help end racism, get chopped and the kids don't get them till college. It hurts them and gives a false impression that racism was never worse than it is today -- very false, I've lived through way too many decades when it was a ton worse.
I've heard they tried to ban Mark Twain novels for a similar reason. These people are mental midgets. Good hub. And I've always liked Harper Lee :)
I have this book and loved reading it in the correct manner of which it was written. Harper Lee did a fabulous job writing this story in a way everyone can relate with. I hope the book continues to be a classic for many years to come.
Please - this is one of the most beautiful American novels ever written - I think the people making the decisions to remove these literary works because of this kind of pressure need to make a stand and refuse!
Wow, at times, one parent could change the curriculum...hhmmm I am a parent myself, and I understand, Uninvited Writer, why you spent time writing about this. You helped make the novel a classic in the real sense--some people read it and forget the details, but the feeling that enveloped you as you turn the novel's pages are just remarkably unforgettable. Hubpages is fortunate to have you.
TKAMB is to date one of my favourite books ever....hence u can see why I've enjoyed reading this hub. thank you for defending it here....!
One of the best books ever written. I loved it when I read it as a child and loved it when I re-read it twenty years later. One of the most anti-racial books ever written. To read it is to understand the plight of those who fight for racial equality. Aticus Finch was probably my first hero.
Censorship is just wrong. As you say, kids in high school can understand the reason for using words and the context that those words are used in.
Apparently, there's a father down in Texas who wants Fahrenheit 451 banned from the school curriculum because it "offends God and talks about our firemen" or something like that. Dunno, I just dunno! lol
Storytellersrus says:
3 months ago
That is a crack up, considering Denver chose To Kill a Mockingbird as its Denver Reads: http://www.examiner.com/x-11219-Denver-Young-Adult
You are awesome, UW!