"If You Assign My Book, Don't Censor It" Critique
Noe Perez
Dr. Wolfgang Lepschy
ENC1102
02 August 2013
If you assign my book don’t censor it critique In “ If You Assign My Book, Don’t Censor It” published in the Washington Post on November 28, 1999 Mark Mathabane argues that the decision taken by officials of Kearsley High-School in Flint, Mich. of censoring “Kaffir Boy” is unnecessary and disrespectful. He gives a series of examples of how it is a bad decision to censor the content of a book since most of the times this distorts the main ideas and the purpose of the text itself. Kaffir Boy is a novel about Mathabane’s life in South Africa, during the apartheid period. Although Mark agrees that some of the content is a little harsh and might not be suitable for a younger audience, he greatly disagrees with the idea of censuring sentences in the book, he later defends this by stating that books are not written with the comfort of readers in mind. Mathabane also suggests that if the important and mature scenes in the novel are taken out, the most important aspects for the knowledge and significance of the story will be destroyed. At the end he offers some possible solutions like the creation of reading-list guidelines. Mathabane’s article makes a good use of logic, establishes credibility by using some of his personal experiences and by using a positive attitude. He emotionally appeals the audience and offers a good, clear solution that provides the reader with alternative points of view about the subject. In the first paragraph Mathabane refutes the decision made by school officials to censor “Kafir Boy” and tap several sentences of the book. According to the article, the decision was made after a half- dozen parents disagreed with the graphic descriptions from the book, especially from one of the scenes that Mathabane consider is crucial for the understanding of some important values and lessons. In the scene he talks about how he and his friends became engaged in
Dr. Wolfgang Lepschy
ENC1102
02 August 2013
If you assign my book don’t censor it critique In “ If You Assign My Book, Don’t Censor It” published in the Washington Post on November 28, 1999 Mark Mathabane argues that the decision taken by officials of Kearsley High-School in Flint, Mich. of censoring “Kaffir Boy” is unnecessary and disrespectful. He gives a series of examples of how it is a bad decision to censor the content of a book since most of the times this distorts the main ideas and the purpose of the text itself. Kaffir Boy is a novel about Mathabane’s life in South Africa, during the apartheid period. Although Mark agrees that some of the content is a little harsh and might not be suitable for a younger audience, he greatly disagrees with the idea of censuring sentences in the book, he later defends this by stating that books are not written with the comfort of readers in mind. Mathabane also suggests that if the important and mature scenes in the novel are taken out, the most important aspects for the knowledge and significance of the story will be destroyed. At the end he offers some possible solutions like the creation of reading-list guidelines. Mathabane’s article makes a good use of logic, establishes credibility by using some of his personal experiences and by using a positive attitude. He emotionally appeals the audience and offers a good, clear solution that provides the reader with alternative points of view about the subject. In the first paragraph Mathabane refutes the decision made by school officials to censor “Kafir Boy” and tap several sentences of the book. According to the article, the decision was made after a half- dozen parents disagreed with the graphic descriptions from the book, especially from one of the scenes that Mathabane consider is crucial for the understanding of some important values and lessons. In the scene he talks about how he and his friends became engaged in
Cited: Assimov, Nanette. “Banned autor talks to kids.” sfgate.com. The San Francisco Chronicle, 2 May 2007. Web. 4 August 2013. Mathabane, Mark. “If You Assign My Book, Don’t Censor It.” The Washington Post 28 Nov. 2013; B1. Print.