OPINION |
by Kathleen Murnan, Springfield
After news circulated about Willard banning the Jesse Andrews book, “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” about two teenage boys dealing with the impending death of a classmate from leukemia, I decided to read it.
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As I read the book, it was obvious that there was an abundance of inappropriate language focusing mainly on sexual terms. Throughout the book, the dialogue, including the language, was not for shock value but to indicate how adolescent boys deal with uncomfortable situations.
Explicit sexual acts were not included in the book. It was sexual words used as adjectives when the teen’s immaturity lacked the ability to find words that really described their thoughts about this traumatic loss of a fellow student.
The expletives were NOT mature content; they were showing the feelings that they could not face. Andrews found a way to create a word picture of boys a-sea in lifetime loss and how it fits in their lives.
The main characters, Greg and Earl, were not outstanding students; they were outside of the mainstream of the high school. Students would probably not be scandalized by the overuse of expletives — they would recognize it as common when others lack the willingness or ability to come up with “the right words.”
The book should not be banned. It is a good book for teens dealing with seriously complicated issues.