Ban a Book

Let’s Ban A Book? It seems we are fast losing our freedoms as American citizens. Personal phone lines are tapped, religious freedoms are no longer allowed to be exercised in public schools, and never before has there been such a threat to America's very existence. Our manufacturing jobs have been leaving the country at a steady rate since the 1980's, health care is nearly impossible to afford, employers offer fewer benefits, social Security has been run into the ground, and our nation is in massive debt for trillions of dollars. And since books were hand written, our literature has been censored. In this modern era many would not think banning books, a hindrance on one’s freedom of choice, would be the situation, especially a great American novel such as The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book is a classic, depicting the American dream of the self made man, and it should not have been banned. As with many great American novels, controversy presents itself when the content is considered inappropriate. In the essay ‘We Are Free to Be You, Me, Stupid, and Dead’ Roger Rosenblatt gives examples of shocking attempts to suppress our freedom of expression that is covered in the first amendment of the Constitution when it comes to having a choice of literature. Rosenblatt sarcastically voices his opinion of how ridiculous, for whatever reason, banning a book is. In relation to The Great Gatsby, Rosenblatt says “I assume that The Great Gatsby promotes Long Island” (Kennedy 217). Rosenblatt’s essay shows an overall mockery of the attempts to take away the freedom of expression by public outrage. The Great Gatsby was first challenged at the Baptist College in Charleston, SC in 1987 on the basis of “language and sexual references in the book” were inappropriate. Baptists are traditionally fundamentalists, very strict in their faith, and ones that resist temptations of the Devil that are sinful. The Great Gatsby was written in the early