Censorship (and how its effects people)

Essay by gbhforever13Junior High, 9th gradeA+, August 2006

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

JD Salinger woke up one morning to realize that the book he had worked so hard to write and had put so much time into had been banned by censorship laws. A lot of things, not only books, have either been banned or altered because of the governmental censorship laws. Many people have been arrested for breaking censorship laws but cases are always fought with the refutation of weather or not it is affecting our 1st amendment rights. Some cases state yes your rights cancel out your uncensored actions, but others say the 1st amendment rights cannot change the fact of the censorship laws. Censorship effects people by taking away our books, changing the things people have made for the world to see, and with the large separation of church and state.

Censorship laws have banned hundreds of books. Some books even just for three offensive words. Books have had "Banned Lists" for over five hundred years.

The Catholic Church published the first banned book list and only people of the catholic religion had to abide by them. Now our government puts out banned book lists that everyone must follow. Maya Angelou's book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, was banned because of the way she described her very traumatic childhood. If it was her life how can the government censor it? The fourth grade level book, Bridge to Terabithia, has been banned in almost all elementary schools in Ohio and Illinois. There was a public burning of the novel, The Satanic Verses, because it sent out messages of Satanism. That was a major event that started more and more books getting banned. The ironic thing about banned books is, some of the so-called "worst" books are the most often read.

So many great things have been altered just...