This paper examines the concept of censorship and its application to William Golding's Lord of the Flies. It defines censorship and intellectual freedom, traces how books have been banned throughout American history, and analyzes the specific themes in Golding's novel — including violence, religious imagery, and the inherent evil of human nature — that have made it a recurring target for censors. The paper argues that censorship limits constitutionally guaranteed intellectual freedom and that Golding's work, like other controversial literary classics, deserves to be read and evaluated on its own merits rather than suppressed.
The paper demonstrates effective use of definitional framing: it opens by establishing precise definitions of censorship and intellectual freedom from authoritative sources (ALA, International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences), then applies those definitions consistently as analytical lenses throughout the discussion of Lord of the Flies. This technique anchors subjective debates in shared terminology and strengthens the paper's argumentative coherence.
The paper follows a classic expository-to-argumentative structure. It opens with a broad definition of censorship and intellectual freedom, then narrows to a plot summary and thematic analysis of Lord of the Flies, examining specific passages and characters as evidence of controversial content. It then widens back out to consider the broader implications of censorship for democratic society, concluding with a clear normative stance against book banning.
Censorship involves the suppression of intellectual freedom and free speech based on the notion that a work, piece of art, or literary masterpiece violates some social or moral order. Lord of the Flies is an example of a literary work that has been censored and has caused controversy in society for many reasons over time. Like many other works — including Huckleberry Finn — Lord of the Flies has been banned in many states, libraries, and cities at one point or another for a variety of reasons. The causes of censorship and the specific reasons for censorship of Lord of the Flies are discussed below.
Censorship has been described in many ways, including as restrictive, abrasive, and simply wrong. Many people in the United States feel that censorship restricts their right to free speech as guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Authors and literary agents would argue that censorship violates a person's right to "intellectual freedom."
Intellectual freedom sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from censorship. It is supposedly a right guaranteed to all citizens living in the United States — the right to express their ideas, opinions, and beliefs on paper or otherwise. According to the American Library Association (ALA), intellectual freedom is defined as the "right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction" (ALA, 2004). Along with this freedom should come the right to freely express one's ideas and all sides of a question or issue. Generally, restricted access to free thought and free speech is considered a dangerous avenue and one that is fundamentally un-American (Douglas, 1953).
Censorship, in essence, is a means of preventing thoughts and ideas from flowing freely. It is a highly arguable, very controversial, and dangerous practice when it comes to the world of literature. Censorship, as simply defined by the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, is considered a "policy of restricting the public expression of ideas, opinions, conceptions and impulses, which have or are believed to have the capacity to undermine the governing authority or the social and moral order which that authority considers it bound to protect" (Abraham, 1967, p. 357).
Generally, censorship inhibits free speech and information sharing. More often than not, censorship occurs within the realm of books, as is the case with Lord of the Flies and other controversial works throughout history. Some other books that have been widely publicized and censored include The Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, and The Grapes of Wrath, all considered literary classics.
The reasons for censorship vary but generally include citations of violence or themes that go against what some consider moral and appropriate in modern society. Some works, such as Huckleberry Finn, have been censored because they were believed to be racist in nature, which conflicts with traditionally accepted moral norms.
Many people believe that censorship is simply a problem of the past. It is not. During the 1990s, censorship was very much a problem in modern society, and it continues to be so today. In early American history — particularly in the 1950s — a great number of literary works and other arts were blacklisted and censored because their content was considered too extreme and offensive to societal norms (Dubin, 1992). Today the same thing is happening in schools and libraries, only it is not as well publicized as in earlier eras.
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding was first published in 1954. The work tells the tale of a group of boys who are stranded on a deserted island. The island is large and the boys find it easy to get lost. They become stranded when their plane crashes. One of the boys, named Ralph, emerges as a leader. He suggests that the boys build a fire to signal a rescue plane, but his plans fail.
Generally the boys live reasonably well at first, simply occupying themselves during the day. However, things take a turn for the worse when food becomes scarce and they begin fighting among themselves. One of the boys, Piggy, is killed. Eventually, Ralph encounters a rescue when a plane lands on a beach at the far end of the island.
The story focuses on Ralph's struggles and growth throughout the novel. Among the central themes is the notion that evil is a necessary part of human nature. This theme includes the end of innocence, proclaimed by Ralph himself when Golding writes of Piggy's death: "Ralph wept for the end of innocence" (p. 84).
Censorship is not a foreign concept in the world of literature. For centuries, books have been banned at various points in society for a wide range of reasons. In the case of Lord of the Flies, censorship is typically cited on the grounds that the book is violent and oppressive, goes against religious ideals, and expresses the notion that man is by nature evil and savage.
Lord of the Flies was also considered "demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than an animal," according to parents challenging the book in an independent high school district in Dallas, Texas (Abula, 1996).
There are those who argue that children should be able to discern the difference between fantasy and reality, making it difficult to justify censorship (Platt, 2001). In the case of Lord of the Flies, children reading it should be able to distinguish between reality and fiction. People are constantly arguing, however, about who needs protection from what — and whether government bureaucracies or "appeals to morality" should settle the question of censorship (Platt, 2001). Censorship generally results in significant costs to society and youth alike. According to one commentary, "we ought to be sure that real, not just symbolic harm results from youthful pursuit of disapproved pleasures and messages before mandating indecency laws and other restrictive regimes" (Platt, 2001, p. 45).
For many, censorship is considered simply a form of bias — a move by those who are opposed to the idea of freedom of expression (Borchgrave, 2003). Censorship has, in fact, been supported and implemented by many agencies, publishers, libraries, states, and even the federal government at one time or another (Borchgrave, 2003). Generally, however, censorship falls under the category of personal bias and opinion.
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