Killing off To Kill a Mockingbird

In October of this past year, administrators of Biloxi school board began an uproar as it removed To Kill a Mockingbird from its reading list. The board claims the book is “uncomfortable” for the students.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a compelling novel that portrays the unruly truth of America’s past. Harper Lee shows that not all are what they seem. She proves that the bad still have the potential to be good. While she uses words that may seem derogatory, she purposes them to show the unfairness people showed in the past to prevent a recurrence in the future.

Now schools are beginning to ban the book from its reading list to prevent the discomfort of students. While the intent is reasonable, the solution is lacking. Teachers must only explain and discuss the novel from the view in which it’s meant to be presented.

Kenny Holloway, vice-president of the Biloxi school board, states to the newspaper, “There were complaints about it. There is some language in the book that makes people uncomfortable, and we can teach the same lesson with other books. It’s still in our library. But, they’re going to use another book in the eighth-grade course.”

Following the choice of Mississippi’s ban of To Kill a Mockingbird, a school in Duluth, Minnesota removes not only To Kill a Mockingbird but Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well. This time the reasons are not because of concerned parents or students but because of the “hope to assemble a more contemporary and diverse reading list for their own diverse high school students.”

Both classic novels present diversity as they both call for change. Change is as diverse as the seasons side by side. For this to be a reason why classical novels are banned is unheard of, yet the truth is that it is evidently now heard.

To Kill a Mockingbird will forever be a novel of truth stacked against the ways of the world. A novel such as this should never be waived from any reading list. The ways of the world will never change unless they are challenged with truth as this novel challenges us.