By Rebecca Wagner, Senior Reporter
Imagine all the books you grew up reading in school or the books you might have seen while you walked the aisles of the library.
Many books are being put on a banned or challenged book list. People have either challenged their content based on moral, religious or political grounds. Some people believe the books are too obscene or controversial to be read by society.
Books like “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and many more are some that have been challenged.
Most of the books that have been banned show parts of history that were made into fiction so that people find it easier to read. Other books that are being banned are books about dystopian societies.
These books should not be banned because they have no real underlying reason to be banned.
I do not think that any book should be banned. There is not a reason that someone should make the decision to ban any book.
Books are created for people’s entertainment or to teach them a lesson.
Take “Fahrenheit 451” for example. That 1953 book is a about a dystopian society. The book stresses the dangers of willful ignorance and the censorship of knowledge.
That book reminds me of how today’s society is heading, too. We start with the banning, and then we get to the burning of the books.
As it can be read in “Fahrenheit 451,” character Professor Faber said: “The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
What I take from that quote is that the contents of a book are there to show the world in different stories.
Many of the people who are getting books banned are more worried about things that are being said in the book instead of the story behind it.
When people ban books, they are removing people’s ability to have their own ideas. By removing the books, it creates an idea that it is OK for people to stop other people’s ideas or viewpoints just because they do not agree with them.
Banning books is not smart because it takes aways people’s individuality. It also takes away a reader’s ability to understand how the world works, and many of these books explain that.
As a young adult, I believe people need to have access to these books because they learn about many different topics that have a stigma around them. These books are there to help people face different challenges and be able to get through the differences without feeling that they are at a loss.
Many people are trying to get away from these because they are uncomfortable, but sometimes, it’s OK to face that comfortability and grow.
“The books are to remind us what a**** and fools we are,” Ray Bradbury once said.