Literature and language are the keys, not just to education, but also to communication and preservation of history. We communicate through words and stories that share our messages, experiences, opinions, feelings and knowledge. The role and vitality of language and literature in our society is indisputable. But, one of the biggest threats to this form of art, communication, and link to our past and history is censorship. When literature is censored, our voices are silenced. Censorship in society is extremely dangerous because it threatens our ability to advocate for ourselves and others, and speak up to make change. This is the fastest way to turn a society from democratic and free-thinking, to tyrannical and dystopian. Silencing people’s voices and limiting their access to information that comes from books and literature, threatens their ability to explore the new and different ideas that allow society to make change, and that ultimately leads to oppression and suppression of society.
Censorship can take many forms. It can include regulating news companies, and prosecuting newspapers/news publications, like the one you’re reading right now! Especially during times of intense political discourse and a highly charged political climate full of division and disagreement like right now, school newspapers feel especially pressured to self-censor out of fear of backlash from fellow students, parents and administration. But beyond this form of censorship, the arguably most destructive and dangerous form of censorship is book-banning. Books are one of the oldest forms of record keeping and storytelling. Books are the harbors of history and information. Books, whether they are novels, poetry books, or religious texts, contain critical elements of our history and are records of the past. They are the key to understanding everything we as a society have ever been and will ever be. This is why they need to remain accessible and available for us to read. When books are banned, our access to knowledge from the past is prevented, which limits our ability to understand how we have gotten to our current world, and it also means that the mistakes of the past can be repeated because we are no longer able to reflect back on them and see what we can do differently because we can’t even speak of or acknowledge those events and experiences.
Book bans have been sweeping the nation over the past five years with attempts to ban iconic works of literature such as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Handmaid’s Tale and Lord of the Flies, in schools all across the United States. These books convey valuable themes about racism, sexism, authoritarianism, and racial and systemic violence. These themes are complex and controversial, but absolutely, unequivocally necessary to be shared and spoken about nonetheless. If we remove these books that serve as pillars of American literature and are a means of protecting our society and our democracy by serving as a warning of how our country could end up, for example, The Handmaid’s Tale – that depicts a dystopian world that could occur if women are oppressed and cannot stand up for themselves – we remove these sources of power and links to the past that protect and promote a strong future.
In America, we value freedom of speech. Book bannings directly impede this right because books themselves are one of the truest forms of expression of speech. In our own school, there are times where censorship trumps our own voices. Political conversations are often shut down because they make people uncomfortable. But how will we make any political progress or find unity if we can’t peacefully disagree? If we can’t have those uncomfortable conversations, how can we make difficult, nuanced, complex decisions in our real lives?
Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, wrote her novel to serve as a warning of what could happen if we don’t speak out against and call out injustice. Atwood created an unburnable version of The Handmaid’s Tale so that no matter what, her book could not be destroyed, and to ensure that the ideas presented in her seminal work of literature that served as a warning and call to action for the world could not be destroyed. Yet, this book has been banned in numerous countries such as Spain, Portugal and Canada and has been removed from libraries in multiple US States including Texas, Florida, and Oregon. The text has even been altered and certain themes have been completely removed in countries in the Middle East so as to “not put the idea in women’s heads that they would be rewarded for activism” as stated by writer Sima Sharifi from Iran where the book now is banned entirely. The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the most controversial works of literature in world history. But just because it’s controversial, does that mean it must be banned and censored entirely? Absolutely not. Books like Atwood’s contain valuable insight into society and provide commentary that should not be silenced. If we choose to silence those speaking out against women’s oppression and oppression of minority groups, who will be there to advocate for them, if they aren’t allowed to? Atwood herself famously said, “Powerlessness and silence go together.” By silencing people, they can never speak out against injustice and in turn, cannot fight against it and prevent it. And where does that leave our world? As a barren land of cruelty, oppression with a lack of freedom and justice in its truest form. That is the exact opposite of the fundamental beliefs we hold dear as a nation.
Therefore, book banning in and of itself is a threat to our democracy and freedoms and the principles on which our country was founded, and of which, to this day, we believe are the fundamental reasons for it existing. So what can you do to help stop this suppression of expression and fight to stop the censorship of books and language? There are numerous petitions you can sign that oppose book bannings including a petition on EveryLibrary.com which is aiming to reach 75,000 signatures, and one on MoveOn.org attempting to gain 45,000 signatures. There also are many on Change.org. You can also support organizations such as PEN America which “advocates against censorship and challenges book banners in court.” Even simply sending an email, signing up for alerts from these organizations to keep yourself educated and avoid becoming ignorant to this issue, or just signing one petition makes a difference. All of these things help defy the censoring of our voices that results from book banning. But one of the simplest ways to combat book bans is by simply speaking about these books. By keeping them in conversation and relevant to our lives and culture, rather than allowing them to just fade out of our thoughts and minds and become forgotten, we keep the stories, ideas, information and experiences found in these works of literature alive and recognized. I implore you to take the steps, reach out, speak up and refuse to sit by and watch ourselves be silenced and watch history be manipulated and erased through censorship.
Books are protectors of justice, righteousness, morality, creativity and communication. But most importantly, they are the medium that sparks complex discourse, discussion, disagreements and even sometimes conflict. And that is what makes change. Having those difficult conversations and exploring our differences is what preserves and protects our freedoms and democracy. So if they’re being banned and destroyed, what does that say about the fate or state of our country? And if we don’t fight to keep books on our shelves and oppose, and combat, and refute these book bans, what could happen to those freedoms and our beloved democracy? Do you want to live in a country without those freedoms, or without democracy? I will leave you with that question.