Argument Essay

*I wasn't sure if we had to post our final draft or not, here it is anyway

All over the country, books have sparked arguments. The main question is should controversial books be banned from schools and libraries? Some parents say yes, while teens argue that they are educated and responsible enough to make their own decisions. Parents want to ban books because of content, however, this will prevent children from learning valuable lessons and may actually attract children to read this content. Ender’s Game, a book that has been discussed in our class more than once, teaches about the effects of violence by introducing that violence into the graphic descriptions. No book deserves to be banned and teens, being knowledgeable about social issues and controversial topics, should be able to decide what they want to read. Books should not be excluded from school libraries because they teach important life lessons and teens are responsible enough to choose the literature that they will read.

            Many, especially parents, believe that some books are too dark to be in children's libraries or at school. One prominent example of this opinion is described in the article "Darkness Too Visible" when the mother enters the bookstore. The parent says "nothing, not a thing, that that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff" (Gordon 1). This represents many parents' opinions. In fact, many parents have taken steps to prevent teens from reading these books. New books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, loved books like Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, and more classical books like The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, are ending up on the list of "most frequently banned" books from the past 20 years (Doll 2) . Some are taking actions so severe that these books are actually permanently banned in certain schools and states. I can see how some of these books may not belong in the school library. Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L. James, from what has been written about it, seems to be a pornographic novel. For certain most kids don't want to read a book like that. Other books, like Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, don't have such vivid graphical details but many parents protest against the violence in the book. There is violence in that book, no one could deny that. After all, the book does have many scenes where children beat each other up in cruel, inhumane, ways. However, violence is the norm now for nearly all literature aimed at teenagers. Take The Hunger Games, which is a war trilogy. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer has some pretty violent description in vampires ripping off each other’s heads as well as more details on topics concerning sex, reckless behavior, and suicide. Divergent by Veronica Roth, another popular book, includes the same topics and the violence in the book equals that of in The Hunger Games. Many teen books contain dark themes, and some may be inappropriate to keep in school libraries. However, children adapted to this darkness. Not only literature that is aimed at teens is violent and dark, movies and video games also fall under that category. The ratings on movies and video games have seriously been skewed. Now, the most violent movies are being rated “PG-13” and movies with even more of this content, if that is even imaginable, are getting rated “R”. Naturally, teens are attracted to this content in the cinema and in games because of how effective the advertising is. Over the years it has become so that the most violent media is more popular than media without any suggestions of these dark topics. The teens are not to blame for this growth, the parents and authors aren’t to be blamed either. Society is the one we should be directing our pointer fingers at. Society has allowed dark media to grow more popular. If someone reads a particular book, or watches a particular movie, and then tells the people surrounding them about that media, chances are those people are going to read, or watch, it. That group of people is most likely going to repeat the process of the first person. And there you have it, a chain reaction has begun. The reason why darker themes are cropping up more frequently in YA books than they did several decades ago, is because this sort of content was not acceptable at that time. In addition, technology has progressed a lot and we now have the chance to see these chain reactions occur online.  Teens have adapted to all of this violence and they now are able to recognize the message behind all of the graphic details.

Furthermore, banning controversial books such as Ender's Game may actually bring them unwanted attention. R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps says "It is a badge of honor to have people try to ban your books from schools and school libraries, only because it means your books have become popular and are being noticed" (Doll 3). And Suzanne Collins notes that she has "never noticed any kind of sales decrease because of these censorship campaigns. Usually they prove to be good publicity" (Doll 3). Ms. Stoddard, who works at a bookstore, "admits that creating a separate section [in libraries] may inadvertently lure the attention of younger children keen to seem older than they are" (Gurdon 5).  Some media doesn’t gain that much publicity from being banned. The movie Ender's Game, for example, did not gain any publicity from the critics' negative feedback. The responses on the movie did not affect sales of the book in a positive or negative way. This shows that some books may gain publicity from banning, censoring, or isolation while some books may not be affected at all.

Parents do not understand that these controversial books teach valuable lessons. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, for example, however grim it is in its use of violence and descriptions, teaches about the terrifying results of violent acts. After Ender fights with an older boy, the book depicts Ender crying "I didn't mean to hurt him!" (Card 212) There are many examples of this throughout the book, and all of them show how mentally scarred Ender is after each of these experience. Ender's Game shows teens that the effects of violence are never good and may even hurt you, if not physically, then mentally. If Ender's Game was banned from school libraries, some teens may have no way of learning about violence because their parents are sheltering them from it and schools would be unable to provide it. It is better to educate our youth about controversial issues than hiding those issues away from their sight. It is better to be armed with knowledge about the outside world than go naively skipping around problems that we do not know how to respond or find a solution to. The lessons in some controversial books are crucial for teens to comprehend and are applicable to the world.

These books should not be censored from teens because they teach important life lessons. Some books, such as Ender’s Game, may contain violence. However, teens should know what they are ready to read and what they would rather avoid. They are responsible enough to make these choices and do not need to be sheltered from books.