Book Banning's Steal History - Censorship of 'Maus'

This term in our humanities class called 'Forbidden Books' we learned all about religion and the history of book bannings. During this time we read two books. One was the 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' and the other was a book of our choice. Both books were banned somewhere and at some point in time. These books helped us to better understand the ideas, dogma and motive of those who want to ban books like these. Through this we took a step into their shoes whether or not we agreed with them. Exploring points in the book that could be considered controversial helped us to later take stance on the controversial statements and decided if those things warranted a banning. Personally in my read through of these books I found that such small misdemeanors could not possibly outweigh all the good the book offers to a reader or class of readers. In most cases the 'bad' parts of the book were so integral to the underlying message of the book that to remove it would be to steal the part of the book that helps the reader to evolve through the writers unique perspective. Finally we took the banned book of our choice and wrote an analytical essay that considered the perspective of who banned it, and explained whether or not it should really be banned and why. My book of choice was 'Maus' a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman banned by a Tennessee countys' school board. Here is my essay.

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