So for this category, I had totally planned to use Lord of the Flies. Again, this is something I teach to my students and we will be finishing it later this week. Since I decided not to count Othello, I figured I better not count Lord of the Flies either. Instead, I chose a book that is one of the most banned/challenged books of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Like most people, this is a book I had hear about many, many, many times before but had never read. In all honesty, I hadn't hear anything specific about it, only that it was controversial. After finishing Messenger, I still had plenty of bus riding to do (there and back), so I decided to see what Slaughterhouse-Five was all about.
This book begins with a writer telling about how he is working on a book about the bombing at Dresden at the end of WWII. The first chapter discusses the plans for this book, but also the failure of the book. The author then decides to write about the story of Billy Pilgrim. Chapter two begins, "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time."
The remainder of the book talks about the life of Billy Pilgrim. What Vonnegut means by him being "unstuck in time," is that he travels all around the days he has lived. At any moment he can close his eyes and open them in a different time and place. It just so happens that Billy Pilgrim was in Dresden when it was bombed. Although he survived the bombing and come home to live a long, fairly happy, life, he returns to war many times.
It is also important to note that Billy has been abducted by aliens. These aliens are from the planet Tralfamadore. These Tralfamadorians display Billy as an exhibit in their zoo. It is the Tralfamadorians who teach Billy that "...when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist...When a Tralfamadorian sees a corps, all he thinks is that the dead person is in a bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments."
Billy uses this philosophy as he travels through time. The trouble with Billy's time travel is that he has no control over it. The reader experiences Billy's life all out of order. We are given glimpses of the war, Billy's optometry profession, his wife and kids, his time on Tralfamadore, and even his death. The skipping around can be a little difficult to follow at first, but once you get the hang of it, it gets easier.
I haven't done much reading on the reasons this book is so often banned/challenged. I can only assume it is because of the vulgarity that exists in many of the moments Billy travels to. There are definitely some X-rated things going on, however, a mature reader can easily look beyond them and see the bigger picture. It might also be challenged based on the ideas presented on death/the afterlife. I'll be honest, sometimes it is hard for me to understand these things because I don't believe that any books should be banned. If you don't like it, just don't read it.
So many amazing books have been banned and challenged over time. Some of my favorites (Harry Potter, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird) have been banned for one reason or another. Slaughterhouse-Five is one book that suffered the same fate.
If you are looking for something that can really get your mind going, check out Slaughterhouse-Five.
4 Stars.