According to the American Library Association, A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.
Banned or Challenged Classic Novels:
- The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Challenged because of language and sexual references in the book.
- The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger. Challenged because because the book contains profanities and depicts premarital sex, alcohol abuse, and prostitution.
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Challenged because the book uses the name of God and Jesus in a “vain and profane manner along with inappropriate sexual references.”
- To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Challenged due to racial slurs and that it promotes racial hatred and division.
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Challenged because of the the homosexuality, rape, and incest portrayed in the book.
- Ulysses by James Joyce. Banned as pornographic and blasphemous.
- Beloved by Toni Morrison. Challenged because it contains slavery and sex and is too violent.
- The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Challenged because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women and the disabled.
- 1984 by George Orwell. Challenged because Orwell’s novel is “pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter.”
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Challenged because it addresses pedophilia and incest.
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Challenged due to profanity, moral statement, treatment of the intellectually disabled, and violent ending.
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Challenged due to profane and inappropriate language especially in reference to women.
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Challenged due to the book’s language and immoral content including sexual activity and drug use.
- Animal Farm by George Orwell. Listed as a problem book because “Orwell was a communist”. Challenged in other places because of its political theories.
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Banned due to the use of profanity as well as the decadence of its characters.
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Banned because it contains passages referencing abortion and used God’s name in vain.
- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. Challenged as a ‘sex novel’.
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Challenged for sexual explicitness.
- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Concerns were raised about profanity, images of violence and sexuality.
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Banned due to racist language and the depiction of slaves.
- Native Son by Richard Wright. Challenged as vulgar, profane and sexually explicit.
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Removed from schools citing that the novel glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination
- Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Removed because it it contains vulgar language, violent imagery, and sexual content.
- Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin. Challenged as rife with profanity and explicit sex.
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Banned in several countries due to its socialist viewpoint.
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Removed due to objectionable language.
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Banned for sex, violence and profanity.
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles. Challenged as a ‘filthy, trashy, sex novel’. Other challenges were based on offensive language.
- Rabbit, Run by John Updike. Restricted in schools because of passages dealing with sex and an extramarital affair.