To Kill A Mockingbird Should Be Banned Research Paper

Name: Mirza Naveed
Teacher: Ms.Wenda
Class/Hour: 9th Grade Honors English Hour-3rd
Date Due: 28 May 2013
To Ban a Mockingbird Or Not? That 's the Question!!!!!

The first amendment states, that the citizens of the United States have freedom of speech, press, and religion. What if, there are people who are trying to limit this amendment, through banning pieces of literature, like books? An example of a book that groups of people are trying to ban is the famous To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Three reasons why To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned, is first that it provides modern-day students an excellent glimpse of history that occurred in the past. Second, this book teaches very essential lessons of life that modern-day students could not experience in the present. Lastly, this book out of many books in the world, serves students worldwide as a grand model of writing. Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, should be taught in the classroom because it gives a glimpse of the past to students of the modern world, teaches students very important lessons of life, and shows students a grand example of fine literature. First of all, the book, To Kill a Mockingbird provides students a door to the past to see the history that occurred in this time period. To Kill a Mockingbird provides students a
door to the past, by using descriptive language, highly complex vocabulary, and characters with personality to bring out the culture that happened back then. For example, Scout states, "Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalk, the courthouse sagged in the square."(Lee, pg.5) Scout is using both descriptive and figurative language to describe this town to help us visualize how Maycomb and any other town in the south looked liked in this era. Also Scout states, "The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb. They did not go to church, Maycomb 's principal recreation, but worshipped at home."(Lee, pg.9) This quote is explaining how back then, people of the south were really religious, and how going to church was a very vital way of life back then. Also thanks to higher-end vocabulary, it forms images in the readers head. The article, "Celebrating the freedom to read....whatever" by Reading Today says, "Harper Lee 's story of lawyer Atticus Finch 's defense in the 1930s of a black man for rape."(pg. 14) The article is summing up the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird, so the reader can understand the background information of this book. Also the reader can relate this with other prior knowledge they 've already known about this time period. This is one aspect that the book provides for why it should not be banned, and be taught in the classroom. The second aspect is that To Kill a Mockingbird shines as a grand and popular example of a great work of literature. A reason being is that it uses highly complex vocabulary, organization of the plot, and has many lifetime lessons that serve as an appealing characteristic to many age groups in the world. In the article "Celebrating the freedom to read....whatever" by Reading today, it states, To Kill a Mockingbird, a book that nearly every high school student reads, marked its 50th anniversary of publication July 11." (pg. 14) This tells that this book have enjoyed lots of success and is a timeless classic in the world of literature. Also the same article mentions, "The title sells nearly 1 million copies every year, has more than 30 million in print, and has never been out of print."(pg.14) The article is stating that To Kill a Mockingbird is very popular among all age groups, and that people all over the world still have an interest in timeless classics, such as To Kill a Mockingbird. Two aspects have been mentioned, now it 's time to move on to the third aspect of why this book should not be banned. Next, To Kill a Mockingbird teaches student 's important life lessons that people who lived back in this time experienced. One lesson the book teaches is that even if someone does something bad to you, you should not give into the temptation of doing something bad to that person. For example, Miss Stephanie Crawford explains that, "Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr.Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him. Miss Stephanie said Atticus didn 't bat an eye, just took out his handkerchief and wiped his face and stood there."(Lee, pg. 217) In other words, Atticus knew that he would make the situation worse by trying to get back at Bob Ewell which is why he just took in what happened, and not make the situation worse with Bob. Another example of a life lesson is when Atticus explains to Uncle Jack, "Jack! When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness ' sake."(Lee, pg.87) Even though Atticus implies that this lesson is for children, the most important lesson coming from this quote is that a person needs to acknowledge both sides of the story before taking action. In the article, acknowledged as " To Kill a Mockingbird ' Banned at Canadian Catholic High School by the Digital Journal, "It is, however, something that occurs as parents seek to protect their children from information they consider adverse to their perception of the world." (pg.1) The article is explaining that even though some parents think this book might have information that is harmful to their children; in reality this information can be actually beneficial to their children. After the three aspects that have been mentioned to support this book, it 's now time to discuss the aspects against the book itself. People who are against the renowned To Kill a Mockingbird either did not read the book thoroughly enough, or are close-minded and just focusing on when racism is mentioned. An article known as "To Kill a Mockingbird ' Banned at Canadian Catholic High School" states, "A parent had complained about a racial epithet used in the book which documents racial injustice as it was practiced in the Deep South at the time the book was written(pg.1). However, the parent who complained about this did not realize that the characters in the book show feelings and emotions against racism. For example, Scout explains, "Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side. She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember."(Lee-pg.6) Calpurnia is a colored person; however she is still highly respected by the entire Finch family. Also to Scout, Calpurnia is like a motherly figure to her and she knows in her heart that she can always trust Calpurnia, even though she is a colored person. If students of the present do not have access to this book, then they possibly might make the same mistake, and then the future will possibly fall into definite chaos. The famous novel known as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee should be taught in the English Curriculum.
Three major reasons why is that it gives a glance of history that occurred in the past, it teaches very fundamental lessons of life, and serves to students around the world as a popular masterpiece of writing in literature. These reasons alone help To Kill a Mockingbird stand out in the world of Literature. Students now and beyond will keep reading no matter what, and they should and always will have the right to read whatever they want. To Kill a Mockingbird should always have a place on the shelf, and always be a part of the English
Curriculum.

Work Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books Inc., 1982. Print.
Carol Forsloff. "To Kill a Mockingbird ' Banned at Canadian Catholic High School" Digital Journal, August, 2009, Web.
Francine Falk-Ross, Terry Sherer, Marlow Ediger, " Celebrating the freedom to read....whatever" August/September 2010, Web.