Towards the end of the weekend, Max and I have narrowed the list of books down to three, Lord of the Rings, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and The Kite Runner. Lord of the Rings is the retelling of the classic hero’s journey, were young Bilbo Baggins travels across Middle-Earth in order to destroy the One Ring, else the world would have entered an endless period of darkness. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, I am currently reading the book for a special topics class, while I am reading this book for literary analysis of the style. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee I learned, is a banned book, thus it would be an excellent choice for this class. This book focuses on the effects of the American expansion into the west, and the effect the expansion had on the Native American tribes already living there. We both thought of Kite Runner, due to it was one of our favourite readings from our Advanced Placement course in high school. Kite Runner tells the tragic story of Amir as he endures the events of the Soviet expansion of Pakistan, the exodus to the United States, and finally saving his brother’s son from the Taliban, in an attempt to redeem himself, from transgressions two decades prior. While each book has been featured on the banned list for various reasoning, mainly being violence and inappropriate for the age group. We elected to choose Lord of the Rings, not only for our own unique enthusiasm in the high fantasy genre, but also neither of us foresaw this classic novel being banned. Currently, we are developing a schedule in order to complete our research in a timely manner.
My initial goal is to uncover the more accurate reasoning of the challenge presented to Lord of the Rings, rather than the vague reasons presented online. In addition, I am planning on exploring why several Christian community and schools are banning the book, upon discovering this I was bewildered. All of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, regarding Middle-Earth, is filled with a plethora of Christian themes and allegory. In stark contrast to the Christian themes, more often than not Lord of the Rings is cited as a source of Satanism.
I am going to try to pursue contact with the Tolkien Foundation, to inquire, if they have any response to the detractions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s great work. In addition, if it is possible I would also am going to try to get into contact with one of the communities that banned Lord of the Rings, in order to get a more accurate description of their reasonings.