Words: 2021
I have made to my paper regarding the mid-term prompt #2, if this book should be banned from the high school curriculum across the country, include many things. I added more ways of which this book would harm individuals in high school who read it, because this is the main focus of my paper in regards to the prompt. I also included more in-text citations from The Bluest Eye to support my claim and my evidence that support it.
I included another counter argument that others might use against banning the book from high schools, which is always good strategy in an argumentative paper. I incorporated that France may have taken Morrison intentions out of context, but still that it doesn’t affect the way that it comes across to students who read it generally. This book bothered me personally with the sexual content, rape scenes, incest, and pedophilia, and I stated that before but did not state how it supported my argument. So, I included how it may have harmed or affected others who read it, just like it affected me.
I added topic sentences to the beginnings of my paragraph to help support my claim and show what my paragraph was going to contain and be about. Most of my revisions involved stating the harm or danger or the negative effects that reading this book could have on the high school students, because this was the main focus for taking the book out of the high school curriculum. I stated how it could have affected them either directly or indirectly, but would still have implications on them that could reverberate forever, or lead to even worse things.
An example of this is from a personal experience. I had a friend who was cheated on by her boyfriend, she was so distraught that she went to a party to try and forget about it and ended up ranking a little more than she should have and was unable to give consent to sexual activity, so she was technically raped. This has stuck with her deeply since the day it has happened and it has “haunted” her I guess you could say. She hates talking about it, she looks at guys differently, and she looks at the whole idea of “sex” and all related activities differently.
This excerpt is actually from an addition I included in my essay during this revision process, but am 100% positive that if she were to read this book and read those sexual or rape instances, she would be greatly affected and have he reoccurring nightmare present in her head once again and even though she might be able to relate to those times in this book, it is not in a positive way and would not make her feel better. So , that is just one example of many of how students could be affected and harmed by the events in this book.
Option 2- Banned Books This novel, The Bluest Eye, has stirred much controversy over the years about whether or not it should be included in some high school curriculums. Personally, think it is a 17 and up (maybe 18 and up) novel due to the sexual references. It is not just the sexual references, I read things in my freshman ear of high school that were about sex. It is how in depth she goes with every sexual instance. It is how these instances in the novel could affect the students reading it in harmful ways I think this book should at least wait to be read in college, maybe even sophomore year because not every student is 18 as a freshman.
I could not even believe was reading this as part of a school assignment. I would have been okay skipping over the sexual instances in the book, but was unaware of when they would occur. Some people may argue, “But The Bluest Eye sis great piece of literature that explains a culture. Well, I have heard that 50 Shades Of Grey is a great well-known work of literature, but we aren’t forcing high school or college students to read that. At times when Toni Morrison was explaining Pauline having sex with Coolly (peg. 129-131 ), a man having sex with a brown girl (peg. 4-86), and when Coolly and Darlene have sex (debatable turned into rape) in front of two white men (peg. 147-149), it would last for 2-3 pages. I took photographs of these parts and sent them to my brothers and girlfriend and said, “This is what I have to read for English class at SCHOOL! Some of these excerpts included lines such as, “Then he will lean his head down and bite my tit… L want him to put his hand between my legs. He does, and be soft and wet where his fingers are strong and hard… He puts his thing in me. In me. In me… L know he wants meet come first.
But can’t. Not until he does (130). ” Another is, “She hopes he will not sweat-the damp may get into her hair; and that she will remain dry between her legs- she hates the plucking sound they make when she is moist… She will make rapid movements with her hips, press her fingernails into his back, suck n her breath, and pretend she is having an orgasm… What it would be like to have that feeling while her husband’s penis is inside her. The closest thing to it was the time she was walking down the street and her napkin slipped free of her sanitary belt.
It moved gently between her legs as she walked. Gently, ever so gently. And then a slight and distinctly delicious sensation collected in her crotch. As the delight grew, she had to stop in the street, hold her thighs together to contain it (85). ” My girlfriend and brothers were in shock at what they had read, and I too felt very awkward reading these parts in the book. My girlfriend is a senior in high school, one of my brothers is my twin and in the same grade as me, and the other is 22 years old and we all couldn’t believe that this literature was part Of an assignment.
My girlfriend stated “this disturbs me” in response to these sexual instances. I would’ve expected it to disturb my girlfriend, but the fact that it also disturbed my brothers was proof to me that this book took these instances too far. If it bothered all of us as much as it did, I am positive that other students who have read this book were disturbed by these instances as well. I believe this book would have the same cultural effect and would have won a Nobel Prize without the use of all this intense content and language.
I think this book is taking the topics of sexual assault, pedophilia, and incest much too lightly. Granted, Morrison states that Mackey France takes things she said out of context, however a general reader in high school is not going to pay too much attention to trying to figure out what an author meant to say or imply in simple passages. When many students read the book, based on the way in which Morrison references and describes sex, rape, incest, and audiophile, she describes it as if it is not as big of a deal as it really is in society.
Therefore, agree with France when she states “… Morrison, says that she wanted the reader to feel as though they are a ‘co-conspirator’ with the rapist. She took pains to make sure she never portrayed the actions as wrong in order to show how everyone has their own problems. She even goes as far as to describe the pedophilia, rape and incest as ‘friendly, ‘innocent’, and ‘tender. M Granted the novel was written in 1 970 when acts such as pedophilia, rape and incest were not punished as harshly by law or looked at as strange s they are nowadays.
However, in modern society we cannot have high school and college students thinking acts like these are “mild” or that ifs not a big deal to commit them! Even fifths is not the message that Morrison meant to get across to the readers, it is commonly picked up by them (obviously based on the controversy). Maybe schools could have read books like these in the ass’s and Us, but as time goes on and things in society change, it causes other things to change, such as rules or laws. It is not okay to have urges to steal, rape, have incest, or be a pedophilia.
Yes, everybody has their own problems and views on life, as Morrison says, that is never going to change. However, how individuals express these problems and deal with them need to change. Having high school and college students read these problems be explained as “not a big deal” may have bad implications to our youth and generations to come. These problems may become more prevalent in our society if people do not portray them as bad or negative. Some may argue, “kids these days are learning about and participating in sexual activity at younger and younger ages.
This book won’t bother them. True, but just because kids that age know about it more and may be doing it does not mean they want to read about it in a book as part of a school assignment. Especially because if a student has been raped and try to forget about it or have had traumatizing thoughts about it, and this book brings it all back and may have negative consequences to themselves or others. This book could affect them either directly or indirectly, but would still have implications on them that could reverberate forever, or lead to even worse things.
An example of this is from a personal experience. I had a friend who was cheated on by her boyfriend, she was so distraught that she went to a party to try and forget about it and ended up drinking a little more than she should have and was unable to give consent to sexual activity, so she was technically raped. This has stuck with her deeply since the day it has happened and it has “haunted” her guess you could say. She hates talking about it, she looks at guys differently, and she looks at the whole idea of “sex” and all related activities differently.
I am 100% positive that if she were to read this book and read those sexual r rape instances, she would be greatly affected and have the reoccurring nightmare present in her head once again and even though she might be able to relate to those times in this book, it is not in a positive way and would not make her feel better. Even if one has just had sex before and regrets it and doesn’t like to think about it, this book would make them uncomfortable. And for those that know less or aren’t sexually active, this book may bother them (or their parents) immensely as We have seen by all the complaints and controversy towards the novel.
It could possibly be an “optional” or “extra credit” assignment in schools. To sum it all up, I feel this book should be banned from high school curriculum and questionably concerned in regards to reading as freshman in college (like am). The depth in which these sexual scenes are written is too much, and should not be force ably read for school at ages under 18. Corruption of our youth could occur, and the topics in this book are too intense and inappropriate in society to be portrayed as “okay. ” If you’re under 18 and want to read the book, go for it. But it should not be mandatory for a student’s grade.