The Importance Of Banning The Raven

“To hear one voice clearly, we must have the freedom to hear them all” (Brock). To truly understand anything, we must see it from many different views, and the best way to do that is to look from another person’s perspective. “The Raven” should not be banned because it is a book that can teach people valuable lessons, taking it away would be harmful to the development of many people, and banning it violates the rights the First Amendment gives to every American citizen. The acclaimed poem, “The Raven”, by Edgar Allan Poe, should not be banned from schools and public libraries.
Banning “The Raven” violates the First Amendment rights given to every citizen of the United States. The First Amendment states that people have the freedom to petition the government, assemble peaceably, worship any religion they choose to, publish anything they want to, and speak whatever they would like to. Banning any piece of literature violates both the right to freedom of press and the right to freedom of speech. Many other countries ban literature because it violates that country’s fundamental beliefs; China even holds public book burnings. Americans have
R. Martin once said, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” Literature develops the imagination and gives everyone a chance to live many different lives. While reading, anyone can step out of their own skin and into someone else’s for a while. It gives the mind wings, so that even those who are physically grounded can fly just like the raven from the work in question in their imagination. It also allows people to learn about harmful experiences without going through them. It promotes empathy and allows people to feel what others are bearing. In “The Raven”, the woman the narrator loves passed away, and readers are shown the misery his life becomes afterwards. It can teach them to empathize with people who are experiencing something difficult such as the loss of a loved