“Destroying things is much easier than making them.”- Hunger games. The novel “Then again, Maybe I won’t” is a work of young adult fiction about teens experiencing puberty and understanding the different parts of sexuality. This novel was written in 1971 by Judy Blume and was published by the Macmillans. The book is about a boy’s transition from puberty to manhood and dealt with many various aspects of growing up. Then again, maybe I won’t should not be banned because the book consists of ideas and concepts important for the growing teens to understand, in a place where it’s a shame to talk about intimacy.
Judy Blume is a novel American writer and a author who was born in february 12, 1938 in New Jersey. She was born in a time period full occurence of upturns and downturns globally. As she was growing up, she witnessed the US going through the Cold War, which played a big role in her upbringing. She grew up in a Jewish family, a big aspect that is portrayed in her writings. Her father was a dentist, Ralph Sussman and her mother was a homemaker, Esther. Raised in a suburban life impacted her writing also. Her interests became really specific in her early life.
During high school, she co edited a newspaper and made her first debut to the writing world. Blume was not someone who spent their time doing nothing instead she looked for adventures and made up her own stories as her most favorite interest. In an interview, she stated “I spent most of my childhood making up stories inside of my head.’ She started her education in Boston University, the time when she was diagnosed with mononucleosis. She finished her education in New York University, earned a youth teaching degree, where it all started. While studying in NYU, she met John Blume, an attorney and married him in 1959.
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After marriage, she was also playing a role of a homemaker, until she decided to enter the writer’s world. Although, her husband was not convinced with her decision and was discouraging, it didn’t stop Blume to continue writing children’s novels. She took writing classes at NYU, where she advanced her skills and got her first children’s book, The one in the middle is the green Kangaroo (1969) published. Overall, she wrote 13 other books, including the most popular ones, Are you there god, it’s me Margaret (1970), It’s not the end of the world (1972), Forever (1975), Tiger Eyes (1981) and many other books.
She achieved many things and also faced challenges because of the ideas conveyed in her books. She was awarded over ninety literary awards. “She was included among the Living Legends in the Writer category by the Library of Congress in 2000 for her distinguished work for cultural heritage. He has received three lifetime achievement awards.” (Famous Authors) With recognitions, she also had books that were criticized and are present in the banned books’ list.
Her novel “Then again, Maybe I won’t” was published in 1971 by Macmillans. The book focused on sensitive topics of sexuality and transformation from puberty to manhood. The story takes place in Long Island, New York and about a boy named Tony Miglione who undergoes a major change, after his family moved to a wealthy neighborhood. He experiences many differences and took him some time to fit in. At first, he made a friend named Joel, who was a bad influence and had a habit of shoplifting. Joel had a sixteen year old sister who got undressed every night without pulling down her window blinds.
Tony discovers the opposite sex and had questions that no one wanted to answer. He realizes how much his family changed because of money. His parents don’t allow his grandmother to cook which she loves to do. Tony’s mother always tries to fit in with rest of the neighborhood and follows everything that rich people do. Failing to obtain his answers, Tony searches everything on the internet and feels traumatized by them. Tony realizes all the changes that he is experiencing and made himself sick at the point that he was hospitalized. From that point on, his life changed in a way that no one ever told him about.
Books give the readers useful information about the world and is capable to provide knowledge and understandings of topics that barely get talked about. Judy Blume is one of the authors that felt like her book would give the society a reason to change and increase their awareness to such topics. Blume’s books talked about topics that a mother would never talk about to their children. The topics included menstruation, masturbation, and wet dreams, among others. Blume wanted the readers to understand every little thing a person goes through after entering the real world.
Many readers have enjoyed her written words however, some have showed opposition to that. Some critics think her book is inappropriate for young audience and should not be read by them, the main reason blume wrote the book. She has received many praises from young audiences who thought they were not normal after going through some of the changes reflected in the book. Fortunately, they had someone who talked about these changes as they were important for these youngins to learn about. ‘Shame, shame, shame,’ declared author Junot Diaz, reading from one such letter.
But while such accusatory responses have come from adults, the letters Blume has received from young readers paint a different picture. ‘Thank you for letting me know I’m normal,’ read one of the letters presented.” (Sara Antil) At first the book didn’t receive any applauds however, as time passed people started realizing the importance of gaining more knowledge about something rarely talked about. Blume was fearless about her work and said “It’s best not to dwell on what you’ve written, wishing it could be different.” (Judy Blume) The book eventually became successful and left a strong message to its readers.
Then again, Maybe I won’t was banned mainly because the information included came to known as age restricted. Most of Judy Blume’s books are at the top of the challenged/banned list because topics of her books mainly focuses on adultery issues. The book dealt with controversial topics such as sexuality, masturbation etc. These are the topics that a parent wouldn’t want their childrens to be reading about. But why? These same children are eventually going to be exposed to bad words, real truths, and changes in their life so, why not now? “These critics among them, parents, librarians, book reviewers, liberal and conservative groups, and other authors call her books shallow, simplistic, unchallenging, poorly written even pandering, salacious, and trashy.” (unknown)
In favor of the book, many people want it to be read by the public because not many authors have written about these controversial issue and most people are unaware of them and how it affects the youth. Schools are trying to get access to her award-winning books where they once wanted these books to be banned. “Public school trustees voted 5 to 2 Monday night to return to library shelves three books by an award-winning children’s writer that had been banned on the ground of sexual references and strong language.” (NY times) The main reason an author writes something is because people don’t realize it’s important enough for the society to know or mainly because the topic is challenged.
Books and novels are written in a way to utilize it’s value. Some readers are able to understand the value easily, others are not. However, some people understand it but are pushed to ignore it because of society’s rules and guidelines. Reading “Then again, Maybe I won’t”, a controversial piece of literature gives knowledge about teenagers who go through similar stages of life that parents and guardians are certainly not aware of. Critics have undermined the value of the book by labeling it as age restricted. there shouldn’t be an age limit because the teenagers should learn about this normal stage of life because lack of knowledge about sensitive topics like this, can hinder one’s early experience of life.
In other words, the books explains about a literal part of everyone’s life. Banning a book will limit the amount of information available to the readers. One of Blume’s similar book about fulfilling a girl’s sexual desires and want to be a normal person, was able to make the readers understand it’s value. A father was able to understand what his daughter was going through in her teenage life. “ It’s obvious I was never a teenage girl, but my daughter was,’ he said, referring to his very pregnant daughter, Amy, who was in the audience.
Reading from Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, he led the crowd in a rousing call of the classic line, ‘We must, we must, we must increase our bust!’ (Sara Antil) Judy Blume’s books are a way to let the readers know about unknown teenage issues that a person hardly thinks of. Her book faced challenges also because of the time period it was published in. The 70s era was not open to these ideas because the country was underdeveloped and had strict traditions and cultures which didn’t allow such things.
There are many reasons behind a book getting banned or censored. Some of the reasons include racial issues, sexual situations, violence, age inappropriate, political bias, religious affiliations etc. Most of the time books get banned because of the misunderstandings of the content and message of the book. Moreover, books also get challenged because of traditions and following the norm of a society. Books are banned in order to limit information from society and especially children’s because schools and libraries tend to follow traditional thoughts that certain books consist “emotionally inappropriate” content which can lead to unstable mental health.
“When librarians and teachers reject works that may be “emotionally inappropriate” for children (a common reason), they’re adhering to the traditional and mostly prevailing view that children’s literature should avoid controversial topics.” (Paul Ringel) Banned books are mostly dependent on the readers and how they view it after getting exposed to the content. Every person has different ways to live their life and specifically, holds unique perspective and mind. Banning books would undermine one’s unique way of thinking and having different thoughts than most people.
Banning “Then again, maybe I won’t” would stop the society to acknowledge certain issues concerning teenagers, a time in a person’s life where most horrifying things are ought to occur. It would create suspicions about the hidden things and can create an upheaval in society. Banning books is like a dead end road. It prevents society from understanding a controversial topic full of valuable ideas and information.
