The Daily Campus

Issue date: 9/26/06 Section: Focus

The range of critiques is vast, yet most deal with the same questionable elements in a particular story. "The Great Gatsby" received flack in 1987 due to "language and sexual references in the book." "To Kill a Mockingbird" was temporarily banned in Eden Valley, Minn. in 1977 for the use of the words "damn" and "whore lady." "Ulysses" was burned in the United States in 1918, in Ireland and Canada in 1922, and in England in 1923. The extent to which these burnings occurred isn't described on the site, but England banned the book in 1929. "The Lord of the Flies" was challenged at Owen High School in 1981 because it was seen as "demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than an animal." "1984" was challenged in Jackson County, Fla. because it was believed that the novel was "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter." In 1960 a teacher in Tulsa, Okla. was fired for assigning "Catcher in the Rye." After appealing, the teacher was reinstated, but the book was removed from the itinerary in the school.

After reading a few of these challenges, it is clear why the ALA strongly promotes BBW and firmly believes in former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr.'s words, "If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society itself offensive or disagreeable."

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