What does censorship mean? The term comes from the latin word censere, “to give as one’s opinion, to assess.” Applied to modern times, it is the oppression of ideas or information found as obscene, therefore restricted from an audience. The United States has asserted to stand for the liberty of its people, along with the promise to protect them. The protection includes censorship in books, movies, etc. The first book to be ever banned in the U.S. was in the 1600’s, and the banning of books has not stopped since then. A long list of banned books has built up, including J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and John Knowles’ A Separate Peace.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was published on July 16, 1951. It tells the story from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy, Holden Caulfield, who is in a psychiatric hospital. He speaks of what occurs to him between a two-day period. After leaving his school, Pencey Prep, after getting expelled, he has nowhere else to go and heads into New York City, confused, depressed, and completely resenting the adult world. This novel is particularly a favorite amongst
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It takes place at an all boys boarding school during World War II. It is told from the view of a 16-year-old boy named Gene Forrester. His best friend is Phineas, or for short, Finny. Their friendship and what occurs during that one year, pushes Gene to go from the state of innocence to losing it almost completely. The novel was first challenged in New York in 1980. Veron-Verona High School called it a “filthy, trashy sex novel.” It was accused of rude and graphic language, along with nontraditional values and sexual content a few times after 1980. The accusations are very slight, and in my opinion those are not valid enough reasons to ban this novel. There is nothing in the novel obscene enough to draw the message away. It pulled the curtains open in a different place for me to see during World War