ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Synthesis Essay

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Synthesis Essay Question Order Description - This essay is for an AP English class - have attached the rubric and instructions below, please note that the sources provided are the ONLY sources that can be used - the word "I" cannot be used - 5 paragraph essay (intro, 3 body, conclusion) - intro must have very strong thesis statement - A synthesis essay is an argumentative essay that utilizes multiple sources to support a thesis - Must state a thesis - Must support the thesis by presenting a variety of supporting evidence from sources (Facts, Observations, Statistics, Opinions of experts, Relevant anecdotes, etc.) - Must present ideas logically - Ultimately, must convince readers that your understand the essay assignment and that you can apply both your own ideas and other ideas you've found in the sources to build a persuasive argument Directions: ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Synthesis Essay Question 100 points (5-6 pages) Book censorship is the removal of a book from the shelf of a library. It can be enacted at the national level and can carry legal penalties. Books may also be challenged at a local community level; many schools feel it is necessary to censor the literature students are exposed to, while other school communities feel it is their duty to expose students to ideas that are controversial in nature and to keep the text in its original form. Carefully read the following sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed argument for your own position on whether schools should practice censorship when selecting the literature students read. Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Be sure to correctly cite the sources. (On the AP exam, you may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the descriptions in parentheses.) Source A (Butler) Source B (PBS) Source C (American Catholic) Source D (Newsweek) Source A https://libguides.butler.edu/bannedbooks?p=217686 “Common Reasons for Banning Books” is a list of reasons that are commonly referenced when desiring censorship. It was originally published in 2013 by Fort Lewis College. Common Reasons for Banning Books Each book that is banned or censored is done so for the content within the pages. There are a few common reasons that books have been banned or censored in schools, libraries, and book stores. These include: Racial Issues: About and/or encouraging racism towards one or more group of people. Encouragement of "Damaging" Lifestyles: Content of book encourages lifestyle choices that are not of the norm or could be considered dangerous or damaging. This could include drug use, co-habitation without marriage, or homosexuality. Blasphemous Dialog: The author of the book uses words such as "God" or "Jesus" as profanity. This could also include any use of profanity or swear words within the text that any reader might find offensive. Sexual Situations or Dialog: Many books with content that include sexual situations or dialog are banned or censored. Violence or Negativity: Books with content that include violence are often banned or censored. Some books have also been deemed too negative or depressing and have been banned or censored as well. Presence of Witchcraft: Books that include magic or witchcraft themes. A common example of these types of books are J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series. Religious Affiliations (unpopular religions): Books have been banned or censored due to an unpopular religious views or opinions in the content of the book. This is most commonly related to satanic or witchcraft themes found in the book. Although, many books have also been banned or censored for any religious views in general that might not coincide with the public view. Political Bias: Most Commonly occurs when books support or examine extreme political parties/philosophies such as: fascism, communism, anarchism, etc. Age Inappropriate: These books have been banned or censored due to their content and the age level at which they are aimed. In some cases children's books are viewed to have "inappropriate" themes for the age level at which they are written for. Many books have been banned or censored in one or more of these categories due to a misjudgment or misunderstanding about the books contents and message. Although a book may have been banned or labeled a certain way, it is important that the reader makes his/her own judgements on the book. Many books that have been banned or censored later were dropped from banned books lists and were no longer considered controversial. For this reason, banned books week occurs yearly to give readers a chance to revisit past or recently banned books to encourage a fresh look into the controversies the books faced. Source B https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/flashpoints/literature/huck.html The following is a piece that was published by PBS that examines the controversy surrounding Twain’s novel. Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1885 Samuel Clemens, whose pen name is Mark Twain, published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885 in America. He has been at work for eight years on the story of an outcast white boy, Huck, and his adult friend Jim, a runaway slave, who together flee Missouri on a raft down the Mississippi River in the 1840s. The book's free- spirited and not always truthful hero as well as its lack of respect for religion or adult authority draw immediate fire from newspaper critics. The ungrammatical vernacular voice in which Huck narrates the book is also attacked as coarse and inappropriate. Some readers find the colorful stories Huck tells immoral, sacrilegious, and inappropriate for children. The Concord, MA, library bans Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a month after its publication, calling it "trash and suitable only for the slums." Other libraries follow suit. In the decades after Twain's death in 1910, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn gains the status of a masterpiece. Novelist Ernest Hemingway remarks that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn," and other writers as diverse as American poet T.S. Eliot and African American novelist Ralph Ellison add their acclaim. It is increasingly studied at both the high school and college level, where its literary merit and the insights it offers into American society are praised. In particular, some consider Twain's satire to be a powerful attack on racism. Others see Adventures of Huckleberry Finn not as an attack on racism, but as inherently racist itself. African Americans and others, led by the NAACP, begin to challenge the book in the 1950s, appalled by the novel's portrayal of the slave Jim and its repeated use of the word "nigger." The book is removed from some schools in the New York City school system, and its place on required reading lists is threatened in other cities. Debates about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn continue to the present day. The crux of the controversy remains race, although some, notably Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley, also assert that the book's reputation as a literary classic is exaggerated. In 1998, Kathy Monteiro, parent of a student in a Tempe, AZ, high school, sues the school district, claiming that an already tense racial environment was exacerbated by the assignment of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as required reading. Although the judges decline to ban the book, they do state that a school district has a legal duty to take reasonable steps to eliminate a racially hostile environment and can be held liable for damages if they fail to make this effort. While Monteiro and her supporters hail this as a victory, the questions of whether Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contributes to a racially hostile environment and whether it should be assigned in high school remain unresolved. Source C https://the-american-catholic.com/2013/09/28/you-have-a-duty-to-ban-books/ The following is an article called “You Have a Duty to ‘Ban’ Books.” It was originally published in 2013 by the American Catholic, an online publication centered on politics and culture from the Catholic perspective. You Have a Duty To “Ban” Books Published Saturday, September 28, A.D. 2013 | By DarwinCatholic This weekend marks the conclusion of Banned Books Week, a festival of moral preening in which students, librarians, teachers and others congratulate themselves for bravely demanding that various books not be removed from library (typically school library) shelves. The event ties in to basic modern tropes of progress and freedom. After all, says the common wisdom, who burned books? Nazis. And crazy people in the middle ages who were afraid of progress. We don’t want to be like them, do we? Of course, choosing not to have a book in your collection is not really “banning” it (as in making it forbidden to own) nor is it “censoring” it (removing parts). So to start with much of the furor over the “banning” of books is overwrought. But it is true that, with a little looking, one can find really absurd examples of books being pulled from library collections in order to avoid controversy. One standard complaint is of religious parents of a certain stripe asking that fantasy books such as Harry Potter be removed from children’s sections or school libraries because of their portrayal of magic. Other “bans” are oddly PC. For instance, the edition of Little Red Riding Hood featured in the above anti-gun ad was apparently removed from the school libraries of two California schools some decades ago because Little Red Riding Hood’s basket of food included a bottle of wine. Huck Finn is sometimes removed from school libraries because of its constant use of the word “nigger”. Yet other “bans” involve books which contain descriptions of violence or sex which people are concerned are not appropriate for the age group of children for whom the collection is maintained. However, I believe all this fuss ends up ignoring a basic point: Those who are responsible for assembling a collection of books (whether for their own enjoyment or for that of a some wider group) have an intellectual and moral responsibility to populate that collection with books which are suited to its purpose. If it’s a collection of books specifically for children, this means selecting books which are both age appropriate and which are not likely to damage their intended audience. This last, clearly, is going to leave room for plenty of controversy. For instance, some parents believe that Harry Potter, The Hobbit and even the Narnia books are genuinely damaging to children because they are fantasy. I think this is utter nonsense. These kind of disagreements, like all disagreements as to what’s good and what’s true, will necessarily lead to certain types of controversy and struggle. However, the fact that it leads to controversy doesn’t mean that the basic principle is not worthwhile. I think that if advocates thought about this a bit, they would realize that their objection is not to book “banning” but rather to people with different standards than themselves being in charge of which books will and will not be in the collection of a given library. Would the champions of Banned Book Week really fight to make sure that kids had access to a picture book entitled “The Darkies Need Our Help” in which young readers learned that black people were governed by animal instincts and could only be civilized by the paternalistic guidance of white people? Or how about “They Eat Gentiles” in which young readers were taught, as if factual, the blood libel claim that Jews kidnapped, killed and ate gentile children as part of obscene rites? I would hope that it would be clear to anyone that there are at least some books which it would not be a good idea include the collection you manage for public use — especially given that in the reality of fixed budgets and space, including a book which you are convinced is bad means not having space and money to include books which are better. This duty will require more active intervention in cases where the collection is being maintained for a specific purpose, for instance a children’s collection or a collection which is intended to provide good information on a specific topic. Someone tasked to maintain a children’s collection has the duty to include only books which he reasonably believes are good reading material for children. Choosing not to include a book because you think it’s untrue or offensive is a good action (as is choosing not to include books which you simply think are inaccurate, badly written, dull or ugly.) A person who is responsible for a subject specific library also has a responsibility to use discretion. For instance, when a parish maintains a library for its parishioners use, I think there’s an implicit assumption that the library will contain books that will allow readers to learn about the Church. Thus, the person in charge of that collection has a duty to select books which accurately convey Catholic teaching. That may mean that the collection isn’t as exciting as someone interested in theological speculation might like, but that’s not the purpose of the collection. Most of the claims of book banning center around purpose-specific collections such as school libraries and children’s sections of public libraries, but even with the general section of a public library, I think there’s clearly a duty to exert a degree of quality control. Yes, to a great extent public libraries are simply in the business of stocking books which people want to read. In the non-fiction sections, I would hope there’s some effort put into acquiring primarily books that are accurate. And frankly, I think it would be a good thing if there were more emphasis put on quality in other areas as well. The online catalog of our local city library tells me that it has 25 copies of Fifty Shades of Grey (six of which are listed as “lost or stolen”) plus three copies of the audiobook version and more in the large print and Spanish language sections. This from the library which didn’t have a single copy of Tristam Shandy or Far From The Madding Crowd. I don’t demand that libraries not stock smutty books, but if you want to read badly written smut, I would think the library might leave you to pick it up on your own at least until after it’s managed to stock basic classics. Source D https://www.newsweek.com/how-come-libraries-are-still-banning-books-379958 The following is an opinion piece called “Why Are Libraries Still Banning Books?” It originally appeared on The Conversation, an independent online source of news from the academic community, hosted by Boston University’s College of Communication. Why Are Libraries Still Banning Books? Published October 5, 2015 | By Clay Calvert A dozen years ago, in his New York Times review of the best-selling British novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Jay McInerney (of Bright Lights, Big City fame) called it “stark, funny and original.” Told from the perspective of a 15-year-old autistic savant, the book is now a Tony Award–winning play. But what’s hot on Broadway is sometimes too hot for Florida Panhandle high schools. This past summer, the novel was pulled from the assigned summer reading list at Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Florida. As reported by the Tallahassee Democrat, “The move was made to accommodate offended parents,” who apparently took offense to the dozens of instances of profanity in the text. Whether it’s challenging Harry Potter books for promoting Satanism and the occult or wiping Fifty Shades of Grey from the shelves for depicting “mommy porn,” it’s become all too common for books to be challenged—and sometimes banished—from local libraries and schools. The annual American Library Association (ALA) Banned Books Week, currently in its 23rd year, officially celebrates and promotes “the freedom to read” by raising awareness of books that are most frequently challenged across the nation. Perhaps more significantly, however, Banned Books Week also provides both a rudimentary barometer of contemporary cultural concerns—the flashpoint topics, ideas and words that push our censorial buttons—and a test of our core commitment to the First Amendment. Beware the Parental Penguins The challenged books let us take the pulse of American squeamishness and, more bluntly, intolerance. They reveal the concerns of the day that rub some people the wrong way, so much so that they take the time and effort to file complaints rather just averting their eyes or cautioning their own children. Not surprisingly, sex and sexuality, along with religion, are hot-button topics. Number three, for instance, on the Office for Intellectual Freedom’s list of most challenged books for 2014 is And Tango Makes Three. The children’s book, which was inspired by actual events in New York’s Central Park Zoo, tells the story of two male penguins that hatch and raise a female penguin named Tango. Publishers Weekly called it a “heartwarming tale.” Those challenging it, however, find it anything but heartwarming. Instead, it is “anti-family” and “promotes the homosexual agenda.” Then again, at least the book was not the most challenged this past year, as it was in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010 (the 2014 honor goes to Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian). Culturally, the wrath heaped upon And Tango Makes Three suggests that one recent Supreme Court ruling aside, we are still conflicted when it comes to same-sex marriage (apparently for both humans and penguins). Into the Courtroom Cultural questions, of course, sometimes spill into courtrooms. While the First Amendment explicitly protects freedom of speech, it also implicitly safeguards our right to receive speech. As Justice William Douglas wrote for the U.S. Supreme Court 50 years ago in Griswold v. Connecticut, “The right of freedom of speech and press includes not only the right to utter or to print, but the right to distribute, the right to receive, the right to read and freedom of inquiry.” Griswold’s logic leads to convoluted case law surrounding public schools' ability to regulate and ban books in their libraries. In a 1982 case called Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico, a New York school district sought to remove a number of books from library shelves, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice and a Langston Hughes-edited collection called Best Short Stories of Negro Writers. According to the school board, the titles removed were “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-[Semitic] and just plain filthy.” A fractured Supreme Court wrote that “the discretion of the States and local school boards in matters of education must be exercised in a manner that comports with the transcendent imperatives of the First Amendment.” In other words, school boards have discretion to pick and choose books, but that discretion is confined by minors' rights to receive a wide swath of ideas and information, not just conformist doctrine. The court added that “just as access to ideas makes it possible for citizens generally to exercise their rights of free speech and press in a meaningful manner, such access prepares students for active and effective participation in the pluralistic, often contentious society.” Lofty rhetoric aside, Justice William Brennan cobbled together a few rules that remain in place today: Schools may not exercise their discretion “in a narrowly partisan or political manner,” and they “may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.” The court concluded there was enough evidence to suggest the school district’s reasons for removal violated the principles noted above, and it denied the board’s motion to have the case tossed out. Indeed, the ALA makes it clear that despite a constant drumbeat to pull books from the shelves, “most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.” Of course, a few challenges do result in bans. Ultimately, the problem of book banning and challenging won’t go away. Public libraries and schools with limited budgets must make tough calls on what to buy, remove or put behind the checkout desk. Their choices tell us much about where we stand culturally, while their willingness (for the most part) to combat challenges reflects their unwavering commitment to free expression.