Many authors, artists, and philosophers have argued that no book should ever be banned, no matter how many people it may offend. As Salman Rushdie said, “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” Isaac Asimov, the science fiction author and former president of the American Humanist Association, put it this way: “Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.”
Despite the consensus around free speech among some of our greatest writers and thinkers, a huge number of books in the United States are frequently challenged and often banned by school districts and libraries. Ironically, many of these banned books are considered classics — titles that could quite easily appear on a recommended reading list from a professor or literary critic.
Here is a selection of quotes from some of these frequently banned books, from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to The Hunger Games.
Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain has been subject to bans since it was first published in 1885, due to misinterpretation of its racial subject matter and the use of historic vernacular that includes racial slurs.
It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.“The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank was banned in 2010 by a Virginia school system for what it considered sexual content.
Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place… With us it ain’t like that. We got a future.“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck has been banned or challenged more than 50 times since its publication in 1937 for, among other things, the use of racial slurs and stereotypes, offensive language, being “anti-business,” and general “vulgarity.”
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance.“The Handmaid's Tale” by Margaret Atwood has frequently been challenged or banned, including a recent banning in Texas for, among other things, being considered sexually explicit and “anti-Christian.”
It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights — if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different.“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison has been one of the most frequently banned books in the United States in recent decades, due to controversial topics including racism, incest, and child abuse.
If you were drifting with a thousand other people, could you really still say you were lost?“Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult was banned in 2022 by a school district in Utah because of graphic but necessary depictions of a school shooting.
So many people enter and leave your life! Hundreds of thousands of people! You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go!“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer was one of the most banned and challenged books in the U.S. between 2010 and 2019, typically for its use of “lewd and possibly offensive materials.”
As long as you can find yourself, you’ll never starve.“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is, perhaps surprisingly, one of the most banned books of the last decade; in 2010 alone, there were 348 cases involving the banning of the trilogy due to perceived insensitivity, offensive language, violence, occult/satanic content, and for being “anti-family” and “anti-ethnic.”
Photo credit: sjbooks/ Alamy Stock Photo
