Semi-formal "think piece" for my mass communication class

Books: Their Impact and Influence

For anyone that has thoroughly enjoyed a novel, there is no shred of doubt in their mind that it took them to a place they had never been. In chapter three, I completely agree with the two points, “Books are wonderful sources of entertainment, escape, and personal reflection,” and “The purchase and reading of a book is a much more individual, personal activity than consuming advertiser-supported or heavily promoted media”. In my life, I can recognize several times where books have taken my imagination and reality to new heights.

An Individual and Personal Activity

Before I was even able to read, I remember being deeply affected by books. The movie The NeverEnding Story convinced me that books harnessed an intense power. While stretching my imagination, I would take one of my Grandma’s large hardcover books, her skeleton keys, and a flashlight. After pretending to break the keys from the wall, I would hide in the closet and pretend to read the book; tell myself a story. From then on, books had my full attention.

Entertainment, Escape, and Personal Reflection

I remember reflecting on the stories of The Boxcar Children. I found the stories relatable because there were so many times that I wanted to run away and live on my own. In fact, when I was seven years old, I packed a bag and ran away. In my bag I had packed a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, a change of clothes, and a blanket. I was missing an entire day before police found me hanging out at my school playground, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while swinging on the swings. The school groundskeeper had called police when he found me hiding in a basement window well cover. Though this was pretty extreme, I seemed very content and happy with what I had done. I felt safer than I did at home. I was very imaginative, like Ramona from Beezus and Ramona. Though I knew that these books were make believe, I remember applying them to real life.

Other books that aided me in escape and personal reflection were Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp, and Go Ask Alice. These three books allowed me to think outside my own box. I was not alone when I read them. Other people’s lives are much more difficult and complicated than mine. These books made me realize that I was not such a bad kid after all, and life is composed of chance and circumstance. I was also very fond of poetry. I felt like poetry left me to develop my own interpretations and conclusions. Poetry allowed me translate it in a way that these words became my voice, with my own experiences and life.

Banned Books and Censorship

The list of banned books in chapter three does not surprise me at all. At the second I begin to feel surprised, I realize I should not be at all. Literature is daring and dangerous. It makes us feel and experience things that our culture does not view as sound. I am more surprised that there are not more books on this list. Of the 50 books listed, I have read about a dozen of them. The act of censoring books does not settle well with me. If we are to censor one, then we would have to basically censor all books. No book is safe from individual interpretation. For example, my interpretation of a harmless children’s book series like The Boxcar Children, was that I could live the way they lived. No matter how young I was, I could do it. Of course I learned that I could not take certain books literally after that, and that I needed to weigh the outcomes of such decisions. The reason I learned my lesson was because I was punished, and not because the books were taken away. I learned from personal experience that certain books are fiction, and not true reality. Some of these things we read, they need to be kept in our imaginations, and that indeed makes them more special.

Censoring The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes away part of our history, disallows parents from teaching their children right from wrong, and keeps children from reflecting on valuable lessons. I can see where parents would want to voice their concerns on what their children are reading, but I feel like censorship is becoming the root of the problem rather than fixing the problem. Censoring books is feeding into ignorance to the point where we cannot confront and restructure imbalance on an individual level. Without a composite of certain things in human nature, how are we to discern right from wrong? Censorship could very well be dumbing down our cultures, and make us devalue things of importance.

Reading in Daily Life

I would have to say that I do not know how to really feel about the graphic on page 67 in our textbook. I am sure that we would all like to believe that perhaps adolescents and teens are becoming more intelligent in what they buy into in newspapers, magazines, or online. The last couple of decades have been an overload on media. Everything from war, to celebrity life and whereabouts. Maybe kids are sick of living in fear of the world around us, and want to escape into an alternate reality. That other reality is available in books. If these statistics are true, there seems to be a small book revolution. It is like books are the French in the American Revolution, supplying everyone for their needs in an all out war. The real question is who will win in this battle? Will the power of literature overthrow governmental control of what we are allowed to or should read?

With these findings, whether the statistics are true or not, bring me to a conclusion. Books allowed me to ignite my imagination and create my own worlds. To escape the hard realities I lived, and save myself from my unhappiness. Literature helped me relate, compromise, and conclude. Without books, I most likely would not be who I am today because I would have fallen victim to the irrationalities and hypocrisy of daily life. Perhaps other people share these same reasons, and that is why they are investing more time in reading. Our futures may rely on the generations after us because they will be the ones making the hard decisions. Read on, kiddos, create a literary revolution!