Essay On Banning Book

Books have been banned/censored throughout history. For example, the Catholic Church created the Index of Banned Books in the 1500s. The goal of the Index was to prevent the population from reading books that went contrary to the Church’s teachings. Anyone caught reading or selling these books was severely punished or even killed. However, book banning has been especially prevalent during recent times. This is due to the increase in both literacy and governmental control. With governments worried about the implications of ideas dangerous to the regime spreading throughout a country, they began to ban books on a large scale. An instance of this occurred in the Soviet Union, where many religious books were banned for political reasons. Today, however, the reasons behind book banning are unclear. Why is it that we ban books that teach valuable lessons? Is it because censors are simply trying to protect children from …show more content…
Don Gallos, an English professor at the Central Connecticut State University, argues in his article that banning controversial books for teenagers will deny them knowledge they need for a better future. This will cause serious future issues, because an ignorant society cannot function as well as a knowledgeable one. The lack of knowledge may even make it easier for a despotic government to replace a democratic one. An example of this was shown in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, where a dictator known as “Big Brother” exerts total control over his country by severely restricting the media, and imposing surveillance on all citizens. The government in 1984 even tries to alter the English language itself, by instituting a new language called “Newspeak,” which severely limits freedom of thought. If we begin to censor books and restrict our citizens’ thinking, further restrictions on thought will soon follow, and soon the government could degenerate into a