Censorship In The Bluest Eye

Coming in to this class, I had no particular book or book challenge that I wanted to research. For me, it is much less about the book and much more about the reasoning and the effect it had. My partner, Cara Forbes, however, had already found a book that she had read that had been challenged in our area. Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye was challenged in a Buncombe county high school in the fall of 2017. Assigned at the start of the semester as a class reading for an junior level honors English course, this book was challenged for graphic depictions of child molestation. Having not yet read the book my self, I immediately thought, "How graphic is 'too graphic'?" I wondered what exactly parents were afraid of. Yes, child molestation is a difficult and uncomfortable subject, but if the book is read in the classroom

Explicit censorship is the form we are most familiar with, book challenges that result in a text being removed from a library or reading list. Implicit censorship, however, happens before there is even a chance for anyone to read a book. It occurs when publishers will not publish a book because of its content or authorship. The biggest worry for me, when it comes to censorship, is the implicit form. This is because it eliminates the ability for people to form individual opinions on a book and eliminates discussions before they have a chance to happen. In regards to the case that we will be investigating this semester, I find myself wondering what would have happened if noone every put The Bluest Eye on the reading list? What would have happened if the conversation had never been started? I wonder what the seniors at that school, who would have read it before it got banned think about whether or not it was appropriate. Above all else, I wonder if anyone in that junior class became enticed by the banned label and read it