Looking For Alaska: Banned Book Project

Looking for Alaska was temporarily banned from a Depew High School in Buffalo, New York in 2008, because it contains an oral sex scene, a pornographic movie, swearing, smoking, and drinking. The book was being used in an 11th grade Literature class. It was obvious that there was some material in the book that might not be considered appropriate for teenagers. As a result, teachers sent a letter home to parents providing them with the option of reading an alternate book. Nonetheless, parents were worried on behalf of the students who didn’t select to read the alternate book, and had the book temporarily banned from the school. In September of 2009, it showed up on the list of 43 books challenged in Leesburg, Florida.

Banning this book because of sexuality is unnecessary because most teens already know about oral sex, and if someone didn’t, it is still better to find out this way then on the internet. Sexual content on the internet is much more inappropriate than that in books. The purpose of the sex was not to arouse anyone; it was just to investigate the concept of sex among teenagers. As far as the plot is concerned, the sex between Pudge and Lara is used to represent the difference between impassionate sexual actions and sexual actions between people where there is actually an intimate emotional connection. Banning because of the pornographic movie in the book is even less necessary because the miniscule amount of material that are there, are actually used to shun pornography. Alaska actually states that the video isn’t romantic and objectified women, and turns the video off. It is much more likely that teens will take this advice if it is from an attractive girl, telling a boy that this material objectified women, in an interesting book where there is no bias against sex. As a matter of fact, teens would probably believe anything an attractive girl, that liked them, told them to understand! On the other hand, parents are highly biased against sex, and as a result, teenagers will probably not take that advice.

Some people could say that this book encourages sex, drugs, and drinking as filling the void of excitement and popularity. However, at the end of this book, Pudge loses the one he loves most-and death is a symbol, used as a strong indicator that none of these things should be used as a coping mechanism.

Bibliography

Smith, Meghan. "Looking for Alaska." Censor Free Libraries. Americans United, 28Feb2010. Web. 16 Sep 2010. <http://censorfreelib.blogspot.com/2010/02/looking-for-alaska.html>.

Ragheb, Sharazad. "Banned, Censored, Challenged: Looking for Alaska." The Dangerous Pages Review. Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books, 10 Oct 2009. Web. 16 Sep 2010. <http://dangerouspages.blogspot.com/2009/04/dangerous-pages-index-of-banned.html>.