Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Allowed In Schools

824 Words4 Pages
“Some are blue jays, others are mockingbirds, never to be shut down.” Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a winning novel. The novel’s racial slurs, profanity and very frank discussion of rape have led people to challenge its appropriateness in libraries and schools across the country. Despite the heated controversy this incredible book should continue to be mandatory reading in schools because of the significance of the themes of injustice and discrimination, moral development, and death of innocence that are embedded in the importance of the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the sleepy Alabama town of Maycomb, three years after the Great Depression. The story is narrated from the perspective of six-year-old Scout Finch, who lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged advantageous lawyer. Atticus is assigned to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman. Although many of Maycomb’s citizens disapprove with his decision, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability despite putting his family and himself in jeopardy.…show more content…
We are free people therefore we should be able to read freely. There are many benefits to the First Amendment such as, having this free expression allows people to help advance the knowledge of society. However, even in our own school district, CCSD, children’s rights to read what they please are taken because the board states that, “the Board is legally responsible for the selection of all instructional materials.” (Cherry Creek School District Policies) Our First Amendment granted Harper Lee the right to write the book, To Kill a Mockingbird and because schools are allowed to make their own decisions about what they provide and allow their students to read, it was
Open Document