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Censorship In Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

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Censorship Writing is an outlet, a way for many authors to put their soul on paper, to take their innermost thoughts and invite readers to immerse themselves in a glimpse of a writer’s personal world. This notion puts writing on a highly emotional and very delicate level. With so much time invested into each individual sentence on a page, an author has a connection to his or her work like that of a mother to her child. However, that connection is sometimes threatened by various people in society who believe that a book’s content should follow suitable guidelines. In other words, numerous novels, many of which are literary classics, are being banned across the nation in a widespread cry for censorship. “Censorship is when a person or group successfully …show more content…

“A climate of intellectual freedom is one where any individual may express any belie for opinion regardless of the viewpoint or belief of any other individual, organization, or governmental entity” (Symons). This “intellectual freedom” is threatened daily by the act of censorship. Censorship takes original thoughts and twists them to suit certain people’s wants. Also, books with literary merit are often sought out to be removed from stores and libraries due to cursing, sexual references, certain religious aspects, and many more similar reasons. “In 21985, the one hundredth anniversary year of publication of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twains classic narrative… became the subject of intense controversy over perceived racism in the novel”(Rise in Censorship). If each piece of writing that was criticized for being unacceptable was taken away, there would hardly be any reading material available at all. With a dependency on censorship, a void of knowledge would appear because the nation would be lacking the deep understanding that books so often teach. Also, another major problem with many people is that censorship is said to be against the First Amendment. The First Amendment grants free speech and when this is taken away, so are opinions and the right to express

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A Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart, once said, “Censorships reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself.” Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury shows us a futuristic society that he believes we are heading for. In his book, novels are banned and it is up to a group of firemen to go around and burn them all. In the end, an unexpected hero arises to go against his current society’s beliefs, and it shows his struggles along the way. Bradbury’s relatable themes make the reader think of the similarities between the book and their world, and is a key element in why the book is so successful.

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Imagine if your life story got banned because it was too graphic and contained excessive coarse language. Well this is the exact situation Jaycee Lee Dugard found herself in with her novel A Stolen Life. Although most believe Dugard should not be in this situation due to the fact that her novel reiterates the ‘stranger danger’ concept, she has a right to tell her story, and the ban keeps her kidnapper’s crime a secret. This novel should be free to read without challenge because it demonstrates the danger of interacting with strangers, it allows Jaycee to reveal her what happened in captivity, and banning it only protects the kidnapper. Censorship is the practice of limiting access to information, ideas or books in order to prevent knowledge or freedom of thought as well

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Censorship; an integral part of any dystopian fiction. Whether part of the main plot or merely a background feature, its constant presence suggests something about where authors think society is heading. Books like Orwell’s 1984, inspired by Nazi Germany and the USSR, pit the protagonist against a tyrannical government that watches their every move and that has banned all kinds of subversive literature to keep the population obedient. But as societies around the world appear to be getting more and more democratic, this scenario looks more and more unlikely. Instead, life is becoming increasingly Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451-esque, as society finds different ways to censor itself.

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a novel that can teach us a lot about our society, and how it is developing. A main issue that is addressed in the novel is censorship, something that affects Montag’s society in an unimaginable way. The frightening part about the novel, however, is that Bradbury’s fanciful warning is not too distant from our reality. In this novel, censorship is at an astronomical level, everything is censored, be it books, education, even talking is discouraged.

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To reveal meaning of his novel to the reader, Ray Bradbury develops a significant theme of censorship. The suppression of books began as self-censorship when people stopped reading literature gradually over time as the culture around them grew shallower. The cofounders of LitCharts, explain how the society works, “in such culture, books became shorter, magazine and newspaper articles became simpler, cartoon pictures and television became more prevalent, and entertainment replaced reflection and debate” (Fahrenheit 451 Censorship ). This passage suggests that the restraint of books resulted from the people themselves. In addition, the containment of special interest groups’ controversy slowly vanished from society.

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Censorship can be defined as the prohibition of any part of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security. The uses of censorship, the overuse of technology, and conformity are evident in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. However, in the text, censorship impacts society the greatest as it affects people’s critical thinking as well as distorts information. Censorship is used throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451, and the government uses it to control the citizens.

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As stated in America, the land of the free, however it is not always the case when it comes to some issues of censorship. After its first month of publication of Mark Twain’s novel The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, it has been banned at many high schools due the judgement that this novel promote racism with the excessive use of the N-word. This ties a knot to the utilize of censorship issue in the real world example. Ray Bradbury propose the idea about the problem of censorship in his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. In this novel, Bradbury depicted a futuristic society where books are forbidden, it is illegal to own any book, if found, the books would be immediately burn by the firemen.

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Present-day society is not as sensitive to decisions and the written word as the society in Fahrenheit 451, but it is a possibility that America’s current society may evolve to become more technology-based, but it seems unlikely that it will adopt censorship in the

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Geoffrey S. Fletcher, an American screenwriter and film director, has always been “...interested in how innocence fares when it collides with hard reality” (Geoffrey S. Fletcher Quotes). If Fletcher wishes to examine this change of unknowingness he is interested in, the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, perfectly depicts how the purity of a child changes when that child is forced to face reality. Lord of the Flies is a novel about how lack of control can turn the purest beings on earth, children, into ruthless savages. A plane strands a group of boys on a deserted island, and readers observe the characters losing their incorruptibility while trying to form a coherent civilization. Advancement in maturation is shown in the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, through the loss of innocence in Jack, Piggy, and Ralph.

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In society, censorship is seen through the internet and media. Censorship is a complex issue that affects access to information and freedom of expression. Censorship raises questions concerning the boundaries of free speech and the control of information. Censorship is used by authors in a multitude of different types of literature to warn the readers of censorship in the world today. Especially seen when Bradbury uses the burning of books to warn the characters of censorship.

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The world gets crueler everyday. There are new crimes being committed daily, and sometimes it can be because of what people are subjected to. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, this topic is discussed. In order to create a more positive environment, the world needs censorship. Without it, kids would be surrounded by bad influences, people would always find topics to argue about, and lives can even be ruined without it.

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“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” Readers throughout the globe enjoy all kinds of books every day. Books can bring different people together through sharing the same likings. The controversial issue of book banning will be examined in Six Dr. Seuss Books Won’t Be Published Anymore Because of Racist Images – by Mark Pratt, Why “ Fahrenheit 451” Will Always Be Terrifying – by Jeffrey Somers, N.C. School Board’s Decision to Ban Award-Winning Novel Incenses Community– by Los Angeles Times, What It’s Like to Top Banned-Book Lists Around the World – by Dave Pilkey, and The First Amendment.

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Banned Books “Writers want to talk about creation, and censorship is anti-creation” (The New Yorker). The prohibition of a book or a film because of obscene, violent, racist or any other offensive content is the definition of censorship. Censorship gives authors constraints and limits that they must respect in order to avoid getting banned, acting as a threat towards them. The problem is that society does not appreciate the hidden meaning or reality of these books. For example, Of Mice and Men is a book written by John Steinbeck, which is banned for the use of racial slurs and violence, a normal behavior during the Great Depression, the time when the book takes place, that is why it is an example of modernism and people should be open minded

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“We cannot have a world where everyone is a victim. "I'm this way because my father made me this way. I'm this way because my husband made me this way. " Yes, we are indeed formed by traumas that happen to us. But then you must take charge, you must take over, you are responsible.”

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Censoring Knowledge Censorship, in a crumbling world, does not act as glue; but rather, as a hammer. All throughout Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, examples of censorship are seen. In his made-up dystopian society the “more powerful” characters use censorship to cover up anything that is seen as risky or “inappropriate”. In this novel the largest group of censored objects are the books. Books could change one’s view entirely.

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