Banned Books
Banning books are used for shielding children from politics, profanity, religious groups, and more. In America, books are frequently banned or challenged by school boards and parents. Although the freedom of speech right should play a percentage in this act, it doesn’t. In September of 2005, A mom by the name of Laura Mallory tried to ban the widely famous series, Harry Potter, from multiple school libraries.
Harry Potter was written by Joanne Rowling; although most people recognize her as J.K. Rowling. She was born July 31, 1965, in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. She attended the college, Exeter University in 1983. Following college, Joanne taught English in Portugal. During her teaching job, she met her husband, Jorge Arantes. Afterwards, the couple had a daughter named Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes. Jessica was only two her parents split. J.K. Rowling was barely able to financially support her daughter. To attain some money, she wrote the first of many Harry Potter books. The books were written under the name J.K. Rowling instead of Joanne because she didn’t sustain a middle name and wanted to use her initials. She decided to use her deceased grandmother, Kathleen’s, initial to recognize and remember her. Shortly after she published Harry Potter it blew up. Then, she decided to compose a second part, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published on July 2, 1998. This book begins during the summer at the Dursleys, Harry’s horrible remaining family. Harry’s house elf gives him a visit, warning him not to go back to Hogwarts, the school he attends. Hogwarts is a school made for the magic. Normally, you have to be descended from a witch or wizard, but not always. Harry decides not to listen to Dobby the house elf. He can’t tolerate being cooped up in the Dursleys house for any longer, his best friend Ron Weasley comes to the rescue in his flying car. Harry eventually gets back to school and he realizes something isn’t right. Strange things start to take place and everybody is petrified. The chamber of secrets has been opened for the first time since Voldemort. The Chamber of Secrets was built by a Slytherin who disagreed with the Hogwarts board on merits of blood purity. Voldemort opened the Chamber of Secrets through one of the beloved students, Ginny Weasley, Ron’s sister. Harry needed to stop the school from falling apart, he and Ron found an entree to the chamber in Myrtle’s bathroom. When they went into the chamber they found Ginny’s still body next to Lord Voldemort. Harry eventually asked Dumbledore, the headmaster, for assistance. All went well and they get sent off for summer vacation.
Harry Potter has been banned many times throughout the years for multiple causes. The main reason is that Harry Potter promotes witchcraft and satanic ideas. The first example of banning was back in 1999 in Michigan. The superintendent of the school, Gary Feenstra made a regulation requiring students to have their parents sign a slip saying that the child can check out the book from the library. Mr. Feenstra was helping the parents who were concerned about the magic and witchcraft-related topics. From 2002 to 2003 there were two reported cases of book challenges, both were unsuccessful and for more religious reasons. In September of 2005 was when the huge challenge occurred. Laura Mallory, a mother of four wrote a blog post about how this book shall be banned. She attempted on multiple occasions to ban Harry Potter in Loganville, Georgia. She insisted that Harry Potter promoted religion and was violating the separation of church and state. She claimed that the book was teaching witchcraft and helped convert children to the religion Wicca, which isn’t even a bad thing. The religion Wicca is just a normal religion and shouldn’t be disrespected. Laura Mallory went to court five different times to ban this book series. All five times she was unsuccessful and eventually gave up. Currently, she is an ordained minister and is focusing on her family life.
In the U.S books should definitely not be banned, ever. First, Reading books is a way to improve your knowledge of the world. You can use books to enhance your vocabulary and grammar. Reading the news, for example, can help you learn more political views and just what’s going on around you. Also, imagine an adult who can’t read even simple instructions and they buy some medicine, but they can figure out the dosage. Obviously, that won’t go so well. Second, reading helps you out in the long run. Reading helps trigger mental stimulation and studies have shown that staying mentally stimulated can help prevent dementia and Alzheimers. Finally, reading can lower stress levels. Usually when you read you completely forget what’s happening in the world around you and you can just forget about your problems for a minute. Also, nothing is better than making up a mental movie in your head. As you can see reading is important and that’s why books should never be banned.
Bibliography
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_debates_over_the_Harry_Potter_series
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rhetoric/105H17/ajacobson/cop.html
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_the_United_States
https://www.biography.com/people/jk-rowling-40998
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_debates_over_the_Harry_Potter_series
https://www.circlesanctuary.org/index.php/about-paganism/introduction-to-the-wiccan-religion-and-contemporary-paganism
https://www.allaboutreligion.org/wicca-religion.htm
https://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005365