The Pros And Cons Of Censorship

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Is protecting students truly what is good for them? Censorship has been around for generations and yet it is still a very controversial topic. Are we protecting people, or hindering them? Many books are being banned from classrooms for their mature topics or explicit language. They claim there is a protection that needs to be placed over students because they are too young. However, the topics censored, such as race and sex, are ubiquitous in society and can help students when discussed because they are able to formulate their own opinion through the guidance of the classroom. Censorship paints a pretty picture of the world by deleting or blurring all the aspects deemed ugly. Nevertheless, this does not inhibit those aspects from existing.…show more content…
With King Lear by Shakespeare, William Henry Ireland had altered the play to a more positive demeanor rather than the original morbid tone (Miller, 2). While this appeased the people at the time, it changed the art work and consequently what is left was not what the author intended. Going back to the Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, textbook publishers began changing the n-word to terms such as “slave” or “servant” (Sova, 1). Expurgating the slur may seem appropriate, but it takes away the effect of the social commentary Twain makes. It effaces the purpose of relegating and ridiculing white society because they are not dehumanizing the black characters on the level they once were. The word is used to denigrate their existence; with the modification, they are just addressing them as servant. The n-word upholds a certain power structure that white people have over black people, and censoring that from the book enfeebles the message. Bowdlerizing does nothing in accompanying the students with the understanding of the story, no matter how politically correct it suddenly appears to be. Those were not the author’s words. Every word changed disengages the author from their own

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