Analysis Of Lois Duncan's Killing Mr. Griffin

Is it fair to have a book that many people consider a must read to be taken off the shelves of bookstores and libraries everywhere because it made some people upset? Many people think that taking books off the shelves is a violation of a person’s first amendment right, their free speech. Lois Duncan’s Killing Mr. Griffin has been challenged countless times by many groups of people who feel that the book’s plot and language should not be something that people are reading about and the authors of the inappropriate books are to blame. When groups of people join together to try to get any book off the shelves and out of the minds of readers the first amendment becomes a very important issue. The first amendment guarantees the freedom of …show more content…
Between the years 1990 and 2009 a total of about eleven thousand challenges were presented by parents, administrators, patrons, board members, and many others for reasons such as offensive language, violence, sexually explicit content, content that is not appropriate for the intended audience, expressed religious or political viewpoints, and many others. About one hundred and forty three books have been banned by the U.S. government because of various reasons. The intended audience of Lois Duncan’s Killing Mr. Griffin was Those who have opposed the publishing of Killing Mr. Griffin say that the language is bad. A bigger issue they have with the book is the plot. “This seemingly horrific story is not about violence and sex, but about the life altering consequences of deviant behavior” (“Killing Mr. Griffin, Lois Duncan”). A book’s plot and what the reader is intended to think can be very powerful. Some readers might not like the book because they think that a certain target audience should not be getting exposed to any sort material that may affect their way of thinking. The book, Killing Mr. Griffin, has been challenged lots of times by lots of different people from concerned parents to school board members. For example, in California, the book was banned in an elementary school. In 2001, the board of South Carolina 's largest school district voted to remove the book from its class reading lists, but it was …show more content…
On which readers and challengers alike find very important is found between chapter one and chapter three. In this passage, the students discuss and start to devise their plan after they have had enough of Mr. Griffin and bad language is used. “Plan to kill the bastard” (Duncan). Other obscenities are used in the following responses. “I bet we could scare the shit out of him” (Duncan). In these statements the students are referring to their teacher who they think is horrible. “For all we know she may even like the bastard” (Duncan). Another part of the book that would be subject to lots of controversy would be towards the end when the student 's’ plan is put into action. In this part of the novel, horrifying details are mentioned and a person is kidnapped, tortured, and left to die. The controversial content that is mentioned in the book should be read by the intended audience. If the book is read by the intended audience, then people should not be having a problem with it. By age eighteen young adults have probably been exposed to the sort of language that is presented in the book. Because of how society is and the media access that young adults have there is no way that they would be unfamiliar with the concept of death and committing