Have you ever gone to your public library to locate a book only to discover that they don’t carry it because it’s on a list? A banned list. Strange huh?
The truth of the matter is that banned books are just like the rest of books. They can be funny, sad, or happy! It just so happens that they’re also works of literature that have been prohibited by public authorities. Some of the reasons behind why banned books were prohibited to begin with is because their content challenged religious views or sexual mores, or because it was just considered far too obscene, owing to its usage of profanity, violence, and bigotry.
Banned books are often controversial, and it’s hard to understand why they’re banned. For example: the top banned books in the United States are “1984”, “Animal Farm”, and “The Grapes of Wrath”. The argument for banning these is that they contain controversial topics. Yet ironically enough, “Mein Kampf” – Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler’s 1925 autobiographal manifesto – isn’t.
Given all that, in the 21st century one would think that as a global society, we’re enlightened enough to know what’s what and have the freedom to read whatever we want. And the fact is that banned books are actually interesting. Even if they’re challenging and don’t have a happy ending, you can learn so much from them. After all, a book is more than just a piece of literature. It’s a window into the mind of the one who penned it.
There are many good reasons to ban books, but censorship is never justified.
