Censorship

What do Anne Frank, JK Rowling, Ernest Hemingway, and Shel Silverstein have in common? They have all had their writing banned in at least one public school at some point. Even the Merriam Webster dictionary was temporarily banned from a California school district in 2010 because it contained a definition of oral sex.

Oftentimes, a book may be banned due to parental complaints. Data taken between 1990 and 2000 shows the top 5 reasons that people challenge books:

1. Sexually explicit material
2. Content containing offensive language
3. Material that is not considered age-appropriate
4. References to the occult or Satanism
5. Violent material

Banning books is censorship, and censorship in any form is detrimental. The basic right of freedom of expression is ensured by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. This guarantees everyone the right to express his/her opinion, even if that opinion might be considered unpopular by others.

The First Amendment guarantees any reader the freedom to complain about a book. However, it also protects writers who wish to express themselves with words. Taking a book out of the school system because of parental concerns not only hinders the artistic expression of the writer, it also deprives readers of experiencing a unique story and reaching their own conclusions.

Reading is a form of escape. I personally like to read because it allows me to experience how other people live. In the real world, not every story is a happy one, but sheltering children is not the answer. I have read many books throughout my life, but ultimately they did not define my fate. Huckleberry Finn never turned me into a racist; Harry Potter never drove me to practice witchcraft; and The Catcher in the Rye never created a desire to be expelled from school. What these books did do, however, was allow me to step into a world different from my own and imagine the possibilities, for better or worse. And for that, I am grateful.

To learn more about censorship, visit the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck is my favorite writer. I first became interested in Steinbeck before reading any of his actual work. He was born in the Salinas Valley of California, which is also where my mother is originally from. When I was in the sixth grade, I went to the Salinas Valley to visit family. There were little Steinbeck memorials and museums throughout the region, and I became curious about him.

When I returned from California, I decided I should read a Steinbeck novel and went to my local library. The librarian thought I should “start big” with The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck’s most well-known novel and the one for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. The book focuses on the ill effects of the Great Depression and the hardships of the American working class as a result. At the time of its release in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath shocked the nation with its depiction of American tragedy, and it helped change laws to help working class citizens.

The Grapes of Wrath struck a cord with me, as my own great grandparents traveled from the Midwest to California during the Great Depression in order to find work as field laborers. This was how my mother’s family had originally landed in the Salinas Valley in the first place.

In addition to the American working class, Steinbeck has touched on other themes as well:

• East of Eden illustrated on the idea of good versus evil;
• Travels with Charley denounced racism;
• and The Winter of Our Discontent focused on the dwindling American moral compass.

Each book listed above is profound in its own way, and all of them are among my favorite Steinbeck novels. East of Eden held a special place with Steinbeck as it contained several characters based on his own family members. I strongly suggest that anyone who reads East of Eden also read Steinbeck’s accompanying journal entitled Journal of a Novel: the East of Eden Letters. In it, Steinbeck writes about his struggles as a novelist and knowing that after painstakingly putting words on paper, these precious ideas may be picked apart by the public and the critics.

My favorite Steinbeck novel is The Winter of Our Discontent. The book focuses on Ethan Allen Hawley, a man who is going through a mid-life crisis of sorts and his struggles with feeling that he could have been more in life.  The Winter of Our Discontent focuses on the declining morality of Hawley, as well as the declining morality of society in general.

I have read nearly every Steinbeck book—most of them I love; some of them I don’t. For me, the value of Steinbeck’s words resides in the everyman nature of who he seemed to be. He himself was a working class laborer before publishing his first book, working odd jobs as a fruit picker, painter, and in construction, to name a few. His respect for the average American is evident in his writing, and each character he creates is a labor of love. This is why I admire the writing of John Steinbeck.

(John Steinbeck photo © Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy)

An Introduction

John Steinbeck once wrote, “A book is like a man – clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly.” This statement sums up my love of books, and reading in general.  Stories can be anything – nothing and everything all at the same time.

Overall, it is difficult to pinpoint where my exact love of reading began. This is true of most things, I suppose. Thinking of something you love and then recalling exactly when that love began is nearly impossible to do. I simply remember being impressed by words as a child, and I would read anything that was put in front of me, whether a book, cereal box, pamphlet, etc. And I am still this way—if it is in front of me, I will read it.

Although I cannot pinpoint the exact origins of my love of reading, I do have distinct memories of loitering at the library as a kid or borrowing books from my father’s comic collection. And my love of reading grew, in part, from my mother’s hatred of reading. She has dyslexia and grew up in an era where not much was known about the disease. As a result, my mother was not a great student; she hated reading in particular, and to this day is self-conscious about her reading ability. As a kid, I remember helping her read words in newspaper articles and writing out the grocery list because of her difficulty with spelling. I honestly have no recollection of my mother reading a book to me when I was a child; I always read the books to her.

My love of books ultimately revolves around my love of words. Words have power—there are few things as effective as a well-placed adjective. And, most importantly, the experience of reading is unique to each individual. Two people might read the same book and find different qualities that appeal to them based on their own personal life experiences. Likewise, I could read the same book during two different times of my life and experience something completely different each time. A passage that seemed important once may no longer seem important or vice versa. The book takes a different shape for us as our own life evolves, and the reading experience is rarely the same twice. Reading allows us to bring our own uniqueness to the process. Books provide the canvas, the words provide the paint, but ultimately the finished product is left up to us.

          

(my favorite childhood reading items:  Archie comic books, Clifford, and the Weekly Reader)