How salacious! How raunchy! How WRONG! Sometimes a piece of art causes so much controversy that the powers that be deem it as a danger to polite society. Of course, banning a book just makes people want to read it more. Here they are, the best banned books of all time.
10. The Catcher In The Rye
J.D. Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye got a bad rap before and after it was banned. It’s the story of social outcast Holden Caufield, an angry young man wandering aimlessly through the world calling out everything “phony” in society.
Why was it banned? Holden has a penchant for profanity and sexual promiscuity, which in 1951 was a big no-no. Why does it still get flak? Because, like many sources of art featuring unreliable and morally ambivalent narrators, Holden is esteemed by many for the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable classic.
9. The Handmaid’s Tale
The banning of Magaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. It’s a book about the death of American democracy, which has been replaced by a totalitarian theocratic regime based around the subjugation and control of women’s bodies. Was the dark subject matter the reason for the ban? No, not really. The book rather got in hot water for its perceived railing against a male-dominated world, its critique of Christianity, and its revolutionary feminist themes. All big no-nos for the traditional types who turn to book banning in the first place, which makes it an all the more necessary read.
8. His Dark Materials
A children’s book series? Banned? Yep. The protagonists of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series have one objective: Kill God. That didn’t land well with the Christians. The book is essentially a retelling of Milton’s Paradise Lost. While Milton lamented the concept of “original sin” as humanity’s greatest fault, Pullman reframes it as the most quintessentially beautiful trait our species possesses. A story about how one little girl topples the might of a parallel universe Catholic Church? Sign me up.
7. Gender Queer: A Memoir
Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir was only released in 2019, yet it has become one of the most banned and challenged books in America. I think you can guess why. The graphic novel is a stunning tell-all about one person’s coming-of-age journey of accepting their gender non-conformity in a society where such an identity is seen as taboo. Republican legislators were quick to attempt to rid the book from school library shelves, for fear that the “woke” subject matter would, for lack of a better term, make their kids gay. Because that’s how it happens, right? Hardly.
6. The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye tells the story of a young Black girl named Pecola growing up in the throes of the Great Depression. Needless to say, it is a sobering read. Pecola faces myriad hardships, racism from the mostly white community that her family lives in and sexual abuse from her own father. The heavy subject matter led The Bluest Eye to become one of the most banned and challenged books on shelves, with its detractors saying that it was inappropriate for young readers. Sadly, many young people have already been exposed to the horror that Pecola experienced in their real lives. Art helps people to talk about difficult things and heal.
5. The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was bound for the banned books list by its title alone. Ironically, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammed, and the title borrows itself from a legend that Muhammed once spoke praises of a pagan goddess. The book drew criticism from Christians and Muslims alike, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa in 1989 against Rushdie and his publishers calling for their assassination. Nevertheless, it’s one of the most profound studies of alienation ever written, using magical realism and religious themes to tell a folktale of otherness that must be read.
4. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou’s monumental coming-of-age memoir just so happens to be one of the most challenged and banned books in American history. The book is both lauded and condemned for its frank portrayals of racism and child sexual abuse, as well as teen pregnancy. It is one of the single most powerful memoirs ever written, and one of the most important works in American literature. Despite what its detractors would have you believe, it is not a tale of trauma. It is a tale of how love the written word and by extension oneself can help a person overcome even the most horrific of events with grace, dignity, and joy.
3. To Kill A Mockingbird
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is seen by many as the greatest work of American literature ever written and the most likely candidate for the elusive Great American Novel. It’s the story of a country lawyer’s fight for racial justice and the rights of the downtrodden as seen through his young daughter’s eyes. The book was banned for its unflinching depiction of racism in the South, as well as the rape allegations that are central to the plot.
2. 1984
How ironic, George Orwell’s “Don’t trust the government” manifesto known as 1984 was banned by … the government. 1984 is arguably the most famous work of dystopian fiction ever written, and tells the tale of a couple who are struggling to survive in a totalitarian Western society of the future. The book is brutal in its depictions of despotic depravity, yet was banned due to its sexual scenes and alleged “pro-Communist” themes. I’m sure plenty of the government-friendly characters in the novel would support the decision.
1. The Diary of a Young Girl
Penned by Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl is one of the most important literary works ever created. Published posthumously after her death at the hands of the Nazis, Anne Frank’s diary is a personal account of one little girl’s coming of age during the most devastating event in the 20th century. Anne began writing the diary during the 1942 Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and kept it until her capture and murder in 1944. She was 15 years old. The book was banned due to Anne’s writings about her experiences of puberty and budding sexuality.
Published: Jul 24, 2024 07:00 am