Deborah Crossland has a PhD in mythological studies with an emphasis in depth psychology. She teaches English and mythology at San Joaquin County Delta College in Stockton, Calif. Her debut YA novel, The Quiet Part Out Loud, a contemporary retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth with a feminist bent, is due out in June from Simon & Schuster. Here, Crossland reflects on why book bans hinder teens most of all by denying access to stories that reflect their shifting identities and the issues they face.
The argument for banning books in schools and libraries states that removing books that don’t prescribe to “traditional values” is necessary to protect the innocence of children. Removing books from classrooms and libraries has the opposite effect. Instead of protecting children, we are isolating them and relegating them to an existence they might not appreciate or even want. Book banning drives the idea that one group is more important or powerful than another and leaves people, especially adolescents, with a narrow outlook of the world that doesn’t match reality.
Ever since humans have written down stories, and probably before, we have gravitated to the same qualities within them. From the “bromance” in the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Chosen One in stories like Star Wars and The Hunger Games, the same basic plots are reimagined over and over again. Humans need stories, particularly those that center on perennial archetypal themes, on deep universal human experiences and needs. As a mythologist, I’ve studied how the mythologies of traditional cultures provide us with stories that connect us to these themes so powerfully that they still speak to us. And as a former high school teacher and current adjunct professor, I’ve seen the same connection come through contemporary fiction for my teenaged students. YA novels of all genres answer the contemporary adolescent’s need for stories that will connect them to the archetypal realm, especially during this transitional period in their lives as they move from child to young adult, which is why the current explosion of book banning hurts teenagers more than any other age group.
Teenagers, who typically have less life experience than adults, benefit more than any other demographic from the experiences they glean from narratives directed toward the issues and questions they encounter. Author and psychologist Steven Pinker said that “when a story meet’s our brain’s criteria, we relax and slip into the protagonist’s skin, eager to experience what his or her struggle feels like, without having to leave the comfort of home.” That means that teens see themselves as the hero or protagonist in the story they’re reading, so as the hero gains moral fortitude, the reader builds empathy.
In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell claimed that there are four functions of mythology: metaphysical (or mystical), cosmological, sociological, and, most importantly, pedagogical, which articulate how a person can live a fulfilled human life in their culture and social group. Such myths, or stories, provide the thought patterns that will guide individuals throughout their lives, from birth to death. Today, cultures and social groups engage with each other in ways they didn’t in the past, especially in schools. Students grow up engaging with each other, but oftentimes without a true understanding of each other’s cultures. I live in America’s most diverse city and see examples of this every day in my own classrooms. Reading stories with protagonists who look and think differently than they do can help create much needed empathy for each other. More importantly, students who don’t often see heroes and main characters who represent them benefit the most from reading books that reflect who they are or who they’d like to become.
Author and story analyst Lisa Cron said that story “is the language of experience, whether it’s ours, someone else’s, or that of fictional characters. Other people’s stories are as important as the stories we tell ourselves.” Pedagogical myths teach us how to find our inner truths while listening to the guidance of those who have come before us, whether those stories come from a religious tradition, like the many parables of Christ or Muhammad, or from secular stories, like the growing number of diverse YA books on shelves today.
Every story we read finds a place within our psyches and helps us become the person we are. Stories not only provide a pathway for instruction on how to survive; they appeal to our desire to be entertained. Or perhaps it is an evolutionary trick that fools us into being entertained while learning how to navigate the human experience.
The American Library Association found that books that are commonly banned are deemed “obscene” or “inappropriate,” but these are the books teens find represent their experience the most. By acknowledging today’s issues of gender, race, and other differences in books, we also acknowledge the teens who wrestle with the issues surrounding them. Removing a book that mirrors a child’s lived experience is exactly the opposite of protecting them. It erases them from existence.
