Are there not some books that should be banned? Who should decide when something is "age appropriate" for you? For people in Canada?

I truly do not understand the point in banning books. The material may not be appropriate at certain times or places but that's no reason to go and put a label on the piece of literature. I don't believe that any novel should be banned, if you don't like the context then you don't have to read it, but it'll still be around, and so will the issues in the real world.

Banning books is wrong, deciding when a book is age appropriate to be reading, talking about, or studied is completely understandable. It is just like movies, if there is certain material in a movies you have to be a certain age to watch it. There is G rated movies that anyone can watch because the content is not offensive in any way, shape, or form. There is books like that, example Robert Munsch books. There is PG, PG13, 14A and R rated movies and there is books that could fall in to the same categories. I think that I should have the freedom in our free country, to read any piece of literature that I please. When studying novels in classrooms it is a little bit of a different story. If we were to put a rating system on novels, like we do movies it would be a lot easier to understand what is acceptable.

Even if that were to still cause problems, a list of book choices should go out at the beginning of the school year to see what novels parent think there children should be studying. It would help to get parents involved in the education of there children. Since the

majority of students in elementary or high school are under the age of 18, if a novel was "rated R" the parents would sing off on the novel being studied. Some material in novels is had to understand fully at a certain age. Reaeding a novel like Catcher in the Rye in a grade 9 class would be hard for the students to understand. However reading it in a grade 12 classroom is completely appropriate for the age. The students can understand the information and rarely have it influence there life choices Banning novels is bad, making them age appropriate is completely appropriate.

What are some common elements that people see in books that they like to ban?

Censorship- the act, process or practice of censoring.

There are many reasons why books get banned and it is all because of censorship. Ideas should not be banned from reading, especially in a free country. It's not like the books that are banned, 99% of the time have absurd or crazy material in them, they usually have ideas that are happening all over the world or did at one point or another in history. Its crazy really to banned books, books are a way or learning or understanding new ideas. They help our mind to grow, and because some people get offended the books cannot be studied. These issues aren't new they have been around for 100s of years and individuals should get the chance to understand and discuss them, not banned them.

The majority of the books that are banned have one or more of these common ideas:

Racial Issues- books that have racism, towards any race, in them are rarely excepted.

Encouragement of "damaging" lifestyles- homosexuality, prostitution, or alcoholism in the book

Blasphemous Dialog- words that are offensive to anyone, example, using words like "God" or "Jesus" in a swearing context

Sexual situations or dialog- are censored 99% of the time.

Even though these things take place in society, people don't want to read about them. Maybe they don't want to admit that these things do happen. Just because we censor them out of books doesn't mean we can censor it out of real life.

Why ban these pieces of literature? What is in them that makes them so inflammatory?

There are many books around that are banned, they are banned because of the material that is inside of them. Books get banned from being read in a classroom setting for having questionable material in them, that brings up topics that parents do not want their children to be involved, aware, or exposed to. When novels, like Catcher in the Rye for example, contain material like a young 16 year old boy drinking, smoking, getting kicked out of school and having prostitutes in his hotel room, it stirs up a lot of discussion. Parents question whether it is right or necessary to be reading books with this type of material in them.


Other pieces of literature are banned if they are insulting or racist towards an individual or groups of individuals. If there is crude material, swearing, killing, harsh ideas, bad characterization and sometimes homosexuality books may also become banned. People are free to buy these pieces of literature, 90% of the time, but they are not allowed to be read in a classroom. Novels like Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men and How to kill a Mockingbird, were all banned for similar reasons. All there novels have much questionable material in them; racism, foul or crude language or ideas, this offends a large group of people. All three of these books have been banned and unbanned for years off and on, they are all great written piece of literature but because offensive material they aren't studied. It's a shame really, some people want to shield their children from the real world and things that take place every day somewhere in the world. These books are all based in earlier years, with events that were so common and normal for their time and everyone should understand that.


Books weren't written to offend people, they were simply ones ideas and thoughts. They are for the enjoyment of others and because of material in some of them and they way some people interpret that information or idea books become banned.

Photo Essay..

Death of a Salesman.

Final days and thoughts of Willy Loman.

Advice To Holden..

I think that Holden is very lonely, lost and confused boy. He has been in private boarding schools through the most crucial years of his life. All through his teenage years his parents have sent him from school to school, if he was kicked out they would find a new one. I think this has affected Holden a lot. His younger brother, Allie died when he was really young and he misses him. I think Holden just doesn't understand his feelings and how to express them, and not having his parents around to guide him hasn't really helped.


I think Holden should realize just because things don't go his way in life he needs to accept them and find a way to continue living, instead of doing the things he does. Holden smokes a lot of cigarettes and goes to bars and drinks a lot as well. He seems to have a good heart but is just very confused.


Holden, I think that you should realize the opportunities that you have in life and stop taking them for granted. You have a good family, even though you may not see them as much as you like, and you get the opportunity to go to very big name schools. Stop getting yourself kicked out of everyone you go to, if you rather go to a school closer to home, talk to your parents and try to tell them how you feel. Tell them you feel lost and abandoned when your all alone, at a school so far from home. Talking to someone about how you feel usually helps. You should also try to turn your life around, stop smoking cigarettes and drinking so much, your sixteen and a border line alcoholic.


You have a good heart and care deeply about your family and people close to you; take advantage of that when deciding what to do in life. Let those around you help you, don't push them away every chance you get, they are there to help. You need to try and be a little more open minded about the things and people in the world, not everybody and everything is "phoney" or "lousy". Life may not always go as planned but you need to carry on, pick up the pieces and start over.

Poem..

Last Night

What was I thinking,

when we all sat inside,

not a care in the world,

as you pulled into drive.

With the sun almost rose,

and every word spoken tied,

we spun from that place,

leaving not a beer bottle dry.

Not thinking of consequences,

too much careless fun,

being none of the wiser,

trouble was here to bring some.

A turn to sharp,

and as we fly,

last night of fun,

for You and I.

~Emily Harris.

This poem is about a couple of young people and their last night. They are all having a good time and drinking beer,"leaving not a beer bottle dry". Then they decide to drive drunk, not thinking about the consequences of their careless fun. "A turn to sharp" and they get in an accident. The audience knows this because of the line "A turn to sharp, and as we fly, last night of fun, for you and I". The sad thing about this is that it is so common. People are fully aware of the consequences of drunk driving; getting in an accident and killing or hurting yourself or another innocent human being. You can even lose your licence if a cop pulls you over, but people continue do to it. But why?

Maybe it is just ignorance or laziness, but what ever the reason it needs to stop. The police try their best to spot drunk drivers on the road but they can't always catch them. There is even organizations against drunk driving like, MADD; Mothers Against Drunk Driving. This still doesn't stop them, every year the number of people who drive drunk continues to increase even with the amount of police organizing Ride on holidays, people continue. In 2007, it was estimated that 3,045 individuals were killed in motor vehicle crashes in Canada and a minimum of 1,239 were related to impaired driving.

There doesn't seem to be a way to get a hold on these individuals, they need to start thinking of the consequences of their actions and maybe more stern punishment should be taken when they are caught, although Canada does have the strictest for BAC in the western world.They have just recently moved the legal blood alcohol content from 0.08% to 0.05% which is a good start. To many innocent people are being killed to allow this to continue on. If individuals want to have the opportunity to legally drink and legally operate a motor vehicle they need to do both legally.

English class...

Blog was created for Mr. Chesser's English class!
Enjoy!