Censorship" (Gilman). In clarification, the act of censorship means, "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable” (Haynes). The central characteristics of censorship can relate to the suppression of an idea or image because it offends or disturbs someone, material that involves social issues such as sexuality, religion, race and intense …show more content…
In an editorial piece written by the Los Angeles Times, these controversial novels are described as “Trigger novels,” where their topics “are not only relevant to sexual misconduct, but also to anything that might cause trauma” (Rosenberg). Yet, profanity appears in many worthwhile books, films, and other materials for the same reasons many people use it in their everyday language, to convey emphasis or emotion. Works with profanity also contain realistic portrayals of how an individual might respond in a situation, and some teachers intentionally select such materials to remove the allure from topics such as cursing. But even minor use of profanity has not shielded books from attack. Katherine Paterson’s award-winning book Bridge to Terabithia contains only mild profanity, but it has been repeatedly challenged on that ground, as have long-acknowledged classics like Huxley's Brave New World, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, George Orwell’s 1984, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, and Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Part of the motivation for school library censorship is to keep material from students that are not appropriate for their maturity level. Sometimes, though,