What is censorship? What is its purpose? Many adults think children need it, but do they? Censorship is forcing someone’s own beliefs on someone else, as well as deciding what their limits are. The purpose of censorship is just a form of control over someone and their beliefs. The novel Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is about a teenage girl, Hannah, who committed suicide. Through fictional cassette tapes, we learn the reasons behind her actions. Because of its serious subject, many parents are worried that if their children read these kinds of books, they will start to copy the character’s actions. However, although many parents want to ban this book, it should not be banned because the story helps the reader become more comfortable acknowledging suicide as a real life issue and promoting meaningful conversations on a difficult subject.
Many of these banned books have taught us valuable lessons, such as how to identify warning signs in a suicidal person. Thirteen Reasons Why also helps teach readers things you can do in response if you think someone you know could be thinking of hurting themselves. One of the lessons the author teaches is that everyone’s actions can affect each other in very powerful ways. One of the things that most affected Hannah was by rumors spread by her classmates. On page 156 of the novel, Hannah reflects on the power of other people, saying, “No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people.” Reading the book shows a glimpse of how a suicidal person might feel, and how we can prevent these feelings from happening. Most writers write these books to help young people in traumatic states know that they’re not alone.
Despite the merits of many censored books, adults think books like Thirteen Reasons Why aren’t appropriate for certain ages to read. Many think the subjects mentioned are too difficult or mature for young readers to handle. If books reflect what life is like, the newly written books with dark topics in them might make the reader think that’s how life really is. However, this book is written in a way that clearly doesn’t promote Hannah’s actions, but tells why she did it and how we can prevent things like this from happening in our own lives. In the words of Hannah herself, “Because it may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters.” (Asher p.30) Some adults think the solution is adding age ratings to our books like we do to movies. Movies and video games now days have age ratings, so some people think books should too. However this fails to take in account how people develop at different paces with different reading interests that may not fit into a specific age group. As explained in the article “Age-rated books: Right or wrong?” by BBC News, “Children read up and down. They read over and over again. They read the same book at two different ages and get something totally different out of the experience each time.” This shows that books for young readers can’t be categorized by one age, and doing so will only limit many learning opportunities.
Young adults should have the right to choose which books fit their own comfort level. When questionable topics are mentioned, the author is usually putting them there for the purpose of helping the reader visualize the text better, not just because it makes the book more dramatic. According to Meghan Cox Gurdon in the text “Darkness Too Visible”, “Foul language is widely regarded among librarians, reviewers and booksellers as perfectly OK, provided that it emerges organically from the characters and the setting rather than being tacked on for sensation.” Gurdon states that some allow these books to be acceptable because as long as the content that’s being questioned is there to help describe something in the book, they should be okay to read. Also according to BBC News, the cover illustrations and blurbs are alternative indicators for readers to know what to expect in a book.
Books shouldn’t be banned just because they bring up topics that people are afraid to talk about otherwise. Supporters of book censorship are missing the true point of the authors to educate the readers on important, although difficult, issues. Creating age ratings on books will just catch more attention towards the book and make those under the limit want to read them even more. Instead, I think we should include these books in our school curriculum, where we have the opportunity to responsibly discuss and understand them with our peers and teachers. Avoiding what makes us uncomfortable does not help anyone; instead, we should face them together.
Works Cited
Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.
BBC News. Age-rated books: Right or wrong? BBC News, 20 Aug. 2008. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Gurdon, Meghan Cox. Darkness Too Visible. The Wall Street Journal, 4 Jun. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
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