Why Is Cujo Should Be Banned

Stephen King’s Cujo is definitely not a book for all ages, but it is appropriate for students in high school. By the time you get to high school, you’ve already been exposed to foul language and violence. Reading this as a 10th grader, I had no challenge in reading the book, it was a fairly easy read and did not take very long to read. Swearing is used frequently throughout the novel, maybe even excessively in some scenes. In particular, almost every time Gary Pervier speaks he swears. Within his first introduction to the novel, he uses curse words over fifteen times. (King 33-35). However, being in high school, there are students in school that swear just as much as Gary Pervier, if not more, every day. Also, the violence or gruesome scenes

As I mentioned, swearing, violence, and sex references are a major component of the book. These reasons are typically noted when schools decide to ban it. In 1985, just four years after being published, Cujo was banned by the Board of Education in Washington County, Alabama for using “unacceptable language” and being “pornographic”. It was then removed from all school libraries in Washington County (“Challenge/Banning Factors”). An occasion more recent includes the 1998 incident, where the principal of Cook County High School in Prineville, Oregon, Cris Yeager, threw the book in the trash. He claimed, “It’s not what most parents would want their children to read.” A parent in the school district, Sue Baca, cited profanity, violence, and sexual content as justifications for banning Cujo. She then proceeded to say, “I object to any book by Stephen King as he writes horror fiction, which has no value,” (Foerstel 259). Cujo does include all of these age sensitive topics and includes them frequently. The first time Gary Pervier is introduced he says, “A little heat ain’t gonna kill ya. Ain’t gonna kill me either, but it b****es the s*** outta my hemorrhoids. Well, I don’t give a s*** if they get as big as f***ing golf balls.” (King 35). This is just one occasion of the amount of profanity, this quote being particularly vulgar. Also, sexual

Some of the inappropriate profanity, violence, and sexual content is not as inappropriate for students in high school who have already been exposed to content of such nature. Also, there is some value that can be seen from this book. First, Cujo is an entertaining book. It has a very interesting plot with many twists and turns that always keeps the reader trying to figure out what is going to happen next. Stephen King does a good job of making the novel scary, but not scary enough that people would not enjoy it. Also, King is a good writer and his novels show that with their literary composition. He includes good vocabulary, a variety of paragraph and sentence lengths, and creates a setting that makes the reader feel like they are a part of the story. Many horror novels also include a discrete and often ignored life lesson about fears. Cujo showed that having fears was normal and dealing with those fears only came through confrontation. Donna Trenton was terrified that Cujo was going to kill her if she stepped out of the car, especially since she had already been bitten on the leg and stomach by him, but she she still got out of the car, grabbed the baseball bat, and killed the dog. Cujo also sets a somewhat realistic horror story as well. Unlike a horror novel with ghosts and witches, this included a friendly dog that got rabies, and due the psychological damage caused by rabies, he killed several people.