{"id":108,"date":"2011-06-05T17:26:56","date_gmt":"2011-06-05T21:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?post_type=worldedu_posts&p=13461"},"modified":"2016-07-01T17:40:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T21:40:55","slug":"banned-books-awareness-time-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/2011\/06\/05\/banned-books-awareness-time-kill\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books Awareness: A Time to Kill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here\u2019s a Jeopardy question for you:<\/p>\n

What do The Client<\/em>, The Firm<\/em>, The Pelican Brief,<\/em> and A Time to Kill<\/em> have in common?<\/p>\n

Sure, they\u2019re among John Grisham\u2019s bestselling works, but each has also been removed from a library because someone objected to its content.<\/p>\n

A Time to Kill<\/em>, Grisham’s first novel, <\/em>was released in 1989, and rejected by many publishers before being given a modest 5,000-copy printing. After follow-up novels in the early 1990\u2019s like The Firm<\/em>, The Pelican Brief<\/em>, and The Client<\/em> became bestsellers, interest in A Time to Kill<\/em> grew, to become a bestseller in its own right. In 1996 the novel was adapted into a critically-acclaimed film starring Matthew McConaughey and Samuel L. Jackson.<\/p>\n

In 1984 Grisham witnessed the testimony of a 10-year-old rape victim at a courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi. According to Grisham’s official website, he used his spare time to work on his novel, which \u201cexplored what would have happened if the girl\u2019s father had murdered her assailants.\u201d He spent the next three years on A Time to Kill<\/em> and cited another banned classic, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>, as an influence.<\/p>\n

The story centers on 10-year-old Tonya Hailey, who is brutally raped by two white racists- James Louis “Pete” Willard and Billy Ray Cobb. Shortly after, Tonya is found and rushed to a hospital, while Pete and Billy Ray are heard bragging in a roadside bar about what they had done.<\/p>\n

Tonya’s enraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, recalls a similar case in which four white men raped a black girl in a nearby town and were later acquitted. Carl vows not to allow that to happen again. As Pete and Billy Ray are escorted by police up a flight of stairs inside the courthouse, Carl Lee emerges with an assault rifle and kills Pete and Billy Ray, accidentally wounding Deputy Looney in the process.<\/p>\n

A major variation between the novel and the film lies in the powerful closing argument. In the film, the visual and graphic story is told by Jake Brigance, along with imploring the jury to imagine that the victim was white. However, in the book, a woman on the jury made that speech during jury deliberations. There is a recurring theme throughout the book in that Jake is the only character who does not see the case through a racial lens. He repeatedly refuses to play the \u201crace card\u201d even when baited to do so by several reporters, and is clearly more politically conservative than an attorney arguing such a case at the time was expected to be; he sees the situation from the perspective of the father of a daughter whom he, too, would kill to protect.<\/p>\n

As one might expect, due to the subject matter it found itself on the shelves of the American Library Association\u2019s Banned Books in the American South, particularly in the state of Texas, despite the fact that the setting of it and other novels is Grisham’s home state of Mississippi.<\/p>\n

According to the ALA\u2019s Office for Intellectual Freedom<\/a>, Grisham\u2019s works have been repeatedly challenged for depictions of violence, rape, and the use of- *GASP*- \u201ccurse words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediately after the release of the movie adaptation, it was repeatedly challenged or banned in Texas public schools over an 18-month period for themes of racism and sexually-graphic material. The four books have also been banned since 2005 in prisons across Texas for content that was deemed \u201cinflammatory\u201d by the prison system.<\/p>\n

Grisham discussed the banning of A Time to Kill<\/em> on “The Daily Show: with Jon Stewart<\/a>” in 2005. Speaking on the controversy, Grisham made light of the situation, saying, \u201cYou\u2019re in good company if you\u2019ve been banned. It\u2019ll do wonders for your sales; gives you more clout when you negotiate your next book deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Marshall University, it was also challenged in 2006, but later retained, in the advanced English classes of Fargo, North Dakota North High School with complaints about the graphic rape and murder scenes.<\/p>\n

A Time to Kill<\/em> is currently ranked at number 67 for the most frequently banned book of 2000-2009.<\/p>\n

Sources: American Library Association, Marshall University, LA Times, Christian Science Monitor<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011 R. Wolf Baldassarro\/Deep Forest Productions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a Jeopardy question for you: What do The Client, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and A Time to Kill have in common? Sure, they\u2019re among John Grisham\u2019s bestselling works, but each has also been removed from a library because someone objected to its content. A Time to Kill, Grisham’s […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[377,378,379,2],"tags":[180,428],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banned-books","category-banned-books-awareness-and-reading-for-knowledge","category-censorship","category-social-change","tag-john-grisham","tag-time-to-kill"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/1150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbark.deepforestproductions.com\/column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}