Banned books essay

             Have you ever wanted to read a book or watch a movie that was being banned by your school or community? This type of banning goes on quite often, more often than you might think. The book The Perks Of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a challenged and commonly banned book. Some people believe that is should be banned and others feel the opposite.  This novel features actions and topics that some people may consider inappropriate, but overall there are big overlapping lessons in this novel that are valuable to all of its readers and may be used for the remainder of their lives.

            There are many positive outcomes to reading banned or challenged books independently or in school.  Banned books often feature questionable or explicit content.  For example, in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower there are many examples of drug use, sex, and gay bashing. This content can be seen by some as provoking younger audiences to experiment with inappropriate activities, but many people are taking a different perspective on the substance in the novel and think that this exposure can teach readers valuable life lessons.  In her article “Darkness to Visible”, Amanda Harper states, “Books with questionable content provide teachable moments for readers and their families.” Not only can this book teach lessons to teenagers, it can provide cause and effect to the characters actions.  For example, the main character Charlie in the book takes LSD, a powerful hallucinogenic drug.  The book doesn’t glorify using drugs, but rather provides insight into the terrible effect these drugs can have on people who take them. So by reading this novel teenagers are provided with important lessons about growing up, a much better use of these so called questionable novels than keeping them on the do not read list.

            On the other hand, many people may not want their teenage children to be reading novels like The Perks of a Wallflower because they feel the content could convince developing and curious minds to practice certain inappropriate things.  For example, they see the main character doing drugs such as smoking, and will want to test it out for themselves.  The strong and mature themes that are presented in novels such as these can be seen as providing negative models and examples to teenagers who are easily influenced and possible willing participants.   This is reflected in the article “Can Book Censorship Save Children and Their Innocence” by Jake Rich who states, “Some people may not be comfortable with the idea of a book containing such subject matter being readily available to middle schoolers.” The content may bring up touchy subjects that the readers’ parents might not want their kids to yet explore.  They feel that their child will emulate the actions of the characters in the book.

            Even though some parents may not want kids to be reading banned books, there is a much greater benefit to letting teens read novels like Perks of Being a Wallflower.  These novels provide teens a great example of a person of similar age going through problems that many young people face in that period of their life.  These problems can be anything from bullying to friendship. Reading books with topics that are prevalent in their lives and those around them can be a great learning experience for kids growing up.  A novel such as this can also teach teens how to deal with social problems in their lives and help other kids manage these problems.  For example, a novel that describes bullying and the experiences of the victims will provide the reader insight on how it feels to have this happen to you.  This will discourage the reader to participate in such negative activities.

            The benefits to reading banned books far outweighs the negatives of reading them.  There are many lessons that kids can learn from a novel like The Perks of Being a Wallflower like how to deal with social issues in their lives.  If a teen is prevented from reading this type of content they may never learn how to better handle the social problems mentioned when it occurs to them or to their friends.

Works Cited

-Chbosky, Stephen.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York. Gallery Books, 1999

-Gurdon, Meghan Cox. "Darkness Too Visible." WSJ. Wall Street Journal, 4 June 2011. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.

-Rich, Jake. "Can Book Censorship save Our Children and Their Innocence?" Highlander RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2014.