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My son read The Bluest Eye in his junior year literature class. He found it to be a very thought provoking book. In fact, the kids had a choice of a few books for their research paper and he chose The Bluest Eye. This book is not appropriate for very young students but I did not think it was out of bounds for juniors in high school. By the time students are 16-17 years old they are familiar with sex, rape, incest, pedophilia and racism.
The book is very thought provoking. There is so much junk literature being taught in the name of multiculturalism it makes very little sense to ban good multicultural literature simply because the subject matter is difficult.
I also read The Bluest Eye in high school and we read Dawn by V.C. Andrews which also had a rape scene. Of course it was tough to read through the bad parts but we were reading to understand the characters and how they become who they are by the events in their lives. Everyone has experiences with people who have been through traumatic events and we were learning to really exam and try to understand people.
Because it is written in an inappropriate manner for teenagers to read. A book that graphically describes sex acts is NOT a book that should be read in school by our kids. Period. You can discuss pedophila without graphically describing what it's like to rape little girls. However, I don't think pedophilia is a subject for the ENGLISH classroom even if the book wasn't written like porn. I could see it in a psychology class in college but not a high school English class. There are lots of other books that are difficult to read that don't graphically depict sex acts to choose from for our kids to read.
As to me, I wouldn't read it because of the graphic descriptions of sex acts. I'd rather read the works of writers who don't have to stoop to titillation to get their books sold. If you want to discuss pedophilia by all means DISCUSS it but I really don't need read about how painful it was to him to pull his penis out of her tight vagina after she had passed out. Seriously? That's garbage. If I wanted to read that crap I'd go buy a Penthouse magazine and read the letters to the editor. Except Penthouse has the good sense not to discuss sex between adults and children (at least I hope they do. I don't read their magazine either but I assume if they were discussing pedophilia it would be in the news.)
Good point Ivory! I think the publishers of Penthouse know better than to publish something that crosses the line the way this book does.
I didn't read this book but in browsing the reviews on Amazon, it gets many favorable reviews but there are a substantial number of reviewers who felt the book is poorly written. There are comments such as:
"It jumped around too much for me.....I couldn't follow the story and stayed confused."
"This was such a boring book. I tried to stay with it but could only get ten percent in before giving up in disgust and boredom."
"But the story repeated and repeated itself. I find it difficult to understand how she won prizes with this."
"this has to be the worse book I have ever read..... the characters in the book are barely made known to the reader... the story skips over to too many non-important people in the book. to say Toni Morrison is a writer is so far from the truth as a person can get."
"A book club of 25-30 year old females read this and no one really enjoyed it."
I wonder how this book was an Oprah Book Club Selection.
Why don't you read common core your self instead of listening to news articles. I would suggest you click on your state then select subject and grade and read it and tell me if you find any thing wrong with common. It should be for you to decide it's not good to let someone spoon feed you their agenda. Rather it's pro or anti common core you can't let someone cherry pick data from Common Core to try and manipulate you.
Also about The Bluest Eye I haven't even read that section of Common Core for the specific state your talking about but each grade has a list of books and The Bluest Eye must be on that list along with several other books. So if a teacher or school chooses The Bluest Eye as one of the books to read for your 11th grader then they will read it. With Common Core it depends on the teacher and the school they choose the curriculum from a list of approved books or topics. I'm not saying Common Core is great or terrible but it does make kids learn for their yearly test. Click on your state read the Standards and tell yourself if it's something wrong all of the Common Core curriculum (or just some of it).
Good point Ivory! I think the publishers of Penthouse know better than to publish something that crosses the line the way this book does.
I didn't read this book but in browsing the reviews on Amazon, it gets many favorable reviews but there are a substantial number of reviewers who felt the book is poorly written. There are comments such as:
"It jumped around too much for me.....I couldn't follow the story and stayed confused."
"This was such a boring book. I tried to stay with it but could only get ten percent in before giving up in disgust and boredom."
"But the story repeated and repeated itself. I find it difficult to understand how she won prizes with this."
"this has to be the worse book I have ever read..... the characters in the book are barely made known to the reader... the story skips over to too many non-important people in the book. to say Toni Morrison is a writer is so far from the truth as a person can get."
"A book club of 25-30 year old females read this and no one really enjoyed it."
I wonder how this book was an Oprah Book Club Selection.
Toni Morrison is a Nobel and Pulitzer prize winner. LOL at poorly written.
Good point Ivory! I think the publishers of Penthouse know better than to publish something that crosses the line the way this book does.
I didn't read this book but in browsing the reviews on Amazon, it gets many favorable reviews but there are a substantial number of reviewers who felt the book is poorly written. There are comments such as:
"It jumped around too much for me.....I couldn't follow the story and stayed confused."
"This was such a boring book. I tried to stay with it but could only get ten percent in before giving up in disgust and boredom."
"But the story repeated and repeated itself. I find it difficult to understand how she won prizes with this."
"this has to be the worse book I have ever read..... the characters in the book are barely made known to the reader... the story skips over to too many non-important people in the book. to say Toni Morrison is a writer is so far from the truth as a person can get."
"A book club of 25-30 year old females read this and no one really enjoyed it."
I wonder how this book was an Oprah Book Club Selection.
Since Morrison recreates black speech in her novels, I wonder how many of these readers simply did not know how to read this kind of writing.
Morrison uses extreme situations to reveal her characters ability to survive. She concentrates on rural black communities. In this particular novel, she alternates between first person narrative and third person omniscient narrative which may confuse people, but it also gives the rural poor black person, the ability to resonate with the reader. Stream of Consciousness can be a real problem for the reader and seem disjointed even though it has a unifying intent.
See the banned book awareness sites about novels with similar themes.
As for the content, The Color Purple deals with similar content as does To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird was on the Banned book list in 1966 for dealing with racism, rape and incest as a parent in Hanover, VA protested that the use of rape as a plot device was immoral. A common reason to challenges brought forth in the 1980’s labeled it a “filthy, trashy novel.”
In 1984, The Color Purple was removed from the Oakland California honors English currriculum due to its sexual and social explicitness. It was eventually returned to the curriculum after 9 months of arguing. Pomperaug High School in Southbury, Connecticut banned it in 1995 because sexually explicit passages “aren’t appropriate high school reading.”
Good point Ivory! I think the publishers of Penthouse know better than to publish something that crosses the line the way this book does.
I didn't read this book but in browsing the reviews on Amazon, it gets many favorable reviews but there are a substantial number of reviewers who felt the book is poorly written. There are comments such as:
"It jumped around too much for me.....I couldn't follow the story and stayed confused."
"This was such a boring book. I tried to stay with it but could only get ten percent in before giving up in disgust and boredom."
"But the story repeated and repeated itself. I find it difficult to understand how she won prizes with this."
"this has to be the worse book I have ever read..... the characters in the book are barely made known to the reader... the story skips over to too many non-important people in the book. to say Toni Morrison is a writer is so far from the truth as a person can get."
"A book club of 25-30 year old females read this and no one really enjoyed it."
I wonder how this book was an Oprah Book Club Selection.
Here's another one
"Be forewarned: This book is pornographic. What a joke that the author has received awards for writing such trash. Violence against women, especially rape, should not dressed up as innocent...EVER!!"
And part of a longer review:
"Worse, however, is that the novel is written with sympathy for the pedophile. Morrison defends her character, and reportedly wrote the story so the reader becomes a “co-conspirator” with the pedophile. According to Macey France, co-founder of Stop Common Core Oregon, Morrison, “says she wanted the reader to feel as though they are a ‘co-conspirator’ with the rapist. She took pains to make sure she never portrayed the actions as wrong in order to show how everyone has their own problems. She even goes as far as to describe the pedophilia, rape, and incest ‘friendly,’ ‘innocent,’ and ‘tender.”"
I'm left wondering what the hidden agenda is for wanting our kids to read this? Acceptance of pedophilia? Rape? Violence against women? This does not belong in the hands of our children. I've read enough to know this is not a book I'd ever want to read. I don't care to be a co-conspirator with a pedophile as he rapes children and I'd question the morals of anyone who would.
"Be forewarned: This book is pornographic. What a joke that the author has received awards for writing such trash. Violence against women, especially rape, should not dressed up as innocent...EVER!!"
And part of a longer review:
"Worse, however, is that the novel is written with sympathy for the pedophile. Morrison defends her character, and reportedly wrote the story so the reader becomes a “co-conspirator” with the pedophile. According to Macey France, co-founder of Stop Common Core Oregon, Morrison, “says she wanted the reader to feel as though they are a ‘co-conspirator’ with the rapist. She took pains to make sure she never portrayed the actions as wrong in order to show how everyone has their own problems. She even goes as far as to describe the pedophilia, rape, and incest ‘friendly,’ ‘innocent,’ and ‘tender.”"
I'm left wondering what the hidden agenda is for wanting our kids to read this? Acceptance of pedophilia? Rape? Violence against women? This does not belong in the hands of our children. I've read enough to know this is not a book I'd ever want to read. I don't care to be a co-conspirator with a pedophile as he rapes children and I'd question the morals of anyone who would.
It turns my stomach as well. I think that people should be allowed to read this book if they choose to do so, but to make it required reading is just wrong.
I didn't read this book but in browsing the reviews on Amazon......
Because anonymous reviews on Amazon is how we're determining the value of literature now? I'll put that in the same catagory as using Wikipedia as solid reference material.
It is your responsibility as a parent to see to it that your child's home life fosters the best possible educational opportunity, regardless of how negligently or ineffectively their at-school experience proves to be.
Monitor carefully all their academic work at school, see to it that their homework is done well, encourage intellectual pursuits and logical thinking. Under your educational custody, no school can harm them, no matter how hard it tries, as long as they are allowed to get on the bus every afternoon and return to your bosom.
Use examples like that described by the OP to impress upon your children that they are growing up under an oligarchical tyranny and that they must be ever vigilant for efforts by Big Brother to divert them down the path of malleable and docile "human resources" to be exploited and harvested by a nefarious system with ends of its own.
I'm left wondering what the hidden agenda is for wanting our kids to read this? Acceptance of pedophilia?
Yes. I'm sure that's the agenda. Good work by you.
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