Banned and Challenged Classics | American Library Association

Banned and Challenged Classics | American Library Association:

'via Blog this'


I think it's strange that many of these books are books that cause people to feel compassion for others. Why ban a book that evokes empathy or sympathy for the poor, like "the Grapes of Wrath?" "To Kill A Mockingbird" paints a heartbreaking picture of the unjust justice system, and how unjust it can be for people of color.  Why would our governments and our churches want us to lack empathy and not try to get along with others? What is the crazy-ass plan there?


The Color Purple might cause you to empathize with black people. "Lolita" might help you to understand what goes on in a teenage girl's mind, and also where the mind of a "pervert" might be at. Lolita is not remotely erotic, so why ban it? Even if it was erotic, why ban it, but it isn't erotic so what's the problem? People might understand something which they otherwise would not?


The Lord of the Flies was such a great book it should be required reading for all ten year olds in order that they understand their peers better. Kids are going along  presuming what their parents tell them are true, and it's usually bullshit. My father actually told me the truth, but I didn't believe him. His best advice to me was "Watch out for the fuzz." He was right on. Learning about human nature is such a rude awakening.


I didn't like the "Satanic Verses," and couldn't understand what the fuss was about. Blasphemy, maybe? 


Sophie's Choice is heartbreaking, so why was it banned? People who want to promote not feeling for people who might be Jewish? You have to wonder what the ulterior motive is in trying to stop people from reading books that might make them feel. It's like banning rock music, dancing, and sex...


No feeling, and no fun...kind of like in "Brave New World."

"And in exceptional cases we can make one ovary yield us over fifteen thousand adult individuals." (Babies without sex, and no other kinds of fun, either, except for the drug that knocked them out and made them docile, which reminds me of Prozac, and every person I know on Prozac, as if not giving a shit what's going on is a good thing.)

Banned and Challenged Classics

Each year, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms.  See Frequently Challenged Books for more details.

According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts.

The titles below represent banned or challenged books on that list ( see the entire list here). For more information on why these books were challenged, visit challenged classics and the Banned Books Week Web site.

The titles not included may have been banned or challenged, but we have not received any reports on them. If you have information about the banning or challenging of these (or any) titles, please contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom.

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald 
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger 
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck 
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee 
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker 
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce 
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison 
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding 
9. 1984, by George Orwell 

11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov 
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck 

15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley 
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell 
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway 
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner 
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway 

23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston 
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison 
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison 
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell 
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright 
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey 
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut 
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway 

33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London 

36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin 

38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren 

40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien 

45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair 

48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence 
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess 
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin 

53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote 

55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie 

57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron 

64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence 

66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut 
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles 

73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs 
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh 
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence 

80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer 

84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller 

88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser 

97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike