In the letter "Ban Those Books!" the author takes a strong stance on the censorship of "evil- minded books" from schools. The emotional investment fueling the author's argument is made apparent by the abundance of illogical and overgeneralized statements used in just about every sentence. The distorted claims made by the author raise doubt in any reasonable and objective audience and, therefore, does not convince them of the authors message.
The writer uses several tactics to try to sway the audience in favor of censoring books in the school system. For instance, the author tries to win the audience over by humbly referring to himself as "a simple man, a plain old farm boy". He also attempted to relate to his readers by claiming that "the …show more content…
He makes the claim that the "placement of immoral books in our schools is part of an insidious plot designed to weaken the moral fiber of our youth from coast to coast." To back up his claim, the author refers to an incident in Wettuckett, Ohio where an increase in students cutting class and a decrease in students attending college dropped occurred after books such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were introduced into the school library. However, the author failed to cite the source where he pulled this example from. For all we know, he could have made up the story himself. Even if the incidence in Ohio was true, the author makes an ill-logical assumption that the student's actions were in fact spurred by the introduction of these radical and free-thinking books. He states "If [our children] hadn't read about such undesirable characters as Huckleberry Finn, our innocent children would never have behaved in those ways". However, who's to say that the books were the only factor affecting their children's behavior? Who's to say that the books were even a factor at all? The author falsely attributed that the children's undesirable behavior was a result of the introduction of new books while failing to acknowledge any other influential environmental
The writer uses several tactics to try to sway the audience in favor of censoring books in the school system. For instance, the author tries to win the audience over by humbly referring to himself as "a simple man, a plain old farm boy". He also attempted to relate to his readers by claiming that "the …show more content…
He makes the claim that the "placement of immoral books in our schools is part of an insidious plot designed to weaken the moral fiber of our youth from coast to coast." To back up his claim, the author refers to an incident in Wettuckett, Ohio where an increase in students cutting class and a decrease in students attending college dropped occurred after books such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were introduced into the school library. However, the author failed to cite the source where he pulled this example from. For all we know, he could have made up the story himself. Even if the incidence in Ohio was true, the author makes an ill-logical assumption that the student's actions were in fact spurred by the introduction of these radical and free-thinking books. He states "If [our children] hadn't read about such undesirable characters as Huckleberry Finn, our innocent children would never have behaved in those ways". However, who's to say that the books were the only factor affecting their children's behavior? Who's to say that the books were even a factor at all? The author falsely attributed that the children's undesirable behavior was a result of the introduction of new books while failing to acknowledge any other influential environmental