Many of the freshman class at Duke University were outraged at Fun Home, the book selected for their class. Written by Alison Bechdel, it is a short novel with an LGBTQ+ theme. While Duke University was not opposed to the book, many of the class of 2019 refused to read it for moral reasons. While Duke University bowed to the overwhelming pressure of the students, the question still stands: Is banning a book the correct course of action?
According to Dr. David Carithers of the English Department, Dr. Henry Parker of the Philosophy Department and Jim Nance of UTM’s Paul Meek Library, this school does not have a policy on banning books or censorship.
“We are against it,” says Jim Nance, a librarian for the Paul Meek Library. Many of the faculty at UTM agree that books should not be banned.
Many books that students have read in school are being banned for various reasons. Books such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell have been banned from school systems for the use of “inappropriate language.” Others such as The Call of the Wild by Jack London and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne have been banned for being “too radical” or “pornographic and obscene.”
When asked if he had ever heard of a book being banned in Tennessee, Robert Fish, a senior English major, said he had heard of the want to ban Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling for themes of “witchcraft.”
Across the campus, many students stated that they would never support the banning of any book on this campus. When asked if he had ever had a student come to him with a book that the student considered offensive, Dr. Henry Parker stated, “I’ve had a student come to me with the opposite problem being, ‘Why didn’t I include certain books?’”
When asked how they would respond to a student that was offended by a book in their curriculum, Dr. Carithers said, “The best thing would be, if they are unhappy with the materials in the class, they really should look into dropping the class.”
