Banning Book Censorship Essay

Have you ever read something in a book or an article and found yourself wondering about how much that could affect readers? For some reason, whether due to a personal disagreement with the message, or academic dissatisfaction with content, or something else entirely, you ask yourself ‘How is this allowed to exist, to be circulated and available for our posterity?’ In some form, that sentiment, and the censorship of information which results from it, have both been around for as long as information itself has existed. Whether it be the Church’s rejection of the spread of heresy, or the Third Reich’s manipulation of propaganda, information has always been controlled and taken advantage of. And yet, it may still surprise some to find that information
Almost four hundred years later, books are still being banned based on the fear of information. People of religious backgrounds question books which preach atheism, and fear for their religion. Parents question books which detail graphic or adult themes, for fear of their children’s innocence. Fear has been the primary motivator of literary outlawing for centuries, and it encroaches on our right to information to this very day. As Claire Mullally points out in her article ‘Banned
More often than not challengers wish to protect certain demographics from exposure of particular concepts, for fear of that demographic adopting the concept. This is most clearly seen through parents challenging books which contain some of the aforementioned topics, such as the occult or sex education, with the goal of sheltering their children. However, with the freedom of information set into the United States’ constitution comes a freedom to learn that information. This was the topic of a Supreme Court case in 1982, on which Justice William Brennan “reasoned that the First Amendment right to express ideas must be supported by an implied right to receive information and ideas”, affirming indirectly the impropriety of book banning (Mullally,