Sample Journal for Banned Book Assignment

Chapter/Paragraph(s)/ Page(s)	Text	Reason for Banning due to Text
Chapter 2, Paragraph 9, Page 18	“…Doreen’s breasts had popped out of her dress and were swinging out slightly like full brown melons…”	The character, Esther, is describing her roommate as she is having sex with a boy.
Chapter 6, Paragraphs 2-9, Page 76	“‘Esther have you ever seen a man?’…he unzipped his chino pants…the only thing I could think of was turkey neck and turkey gizzards and I felt very depressed.”	An experience Esther had with a man though she was not married with him.
Chapter 7, Paragraph 3, Page 87	“I felt so fine by the time we came to the yogurt and strawberry jam I decided I would let Constantin seduce me.”	Esther is planning on having another sexual interaction with a boy she barely knows
Chapter 9, Paragraph 6-7, Page 121	“Marco set his teeth to the strap at my shoulder…Slut!”	Foul language is used and Esther is about to almost be raped.
Chapter 10, Paragraphs 5-7, Page 130	“…but nobody but Dodo was on the verge of a seventh. Even six was considered excessive… Dodo was a Catholic. I watched Dodo wheel the youngest Conway up and down. She seemed to be doing it for my benefit. Children made me sick.”	Esther states that she doesn’t like Dodo because she is a Catholic, a religious remark and an anti-feminist one because she stated she didn’t like children.
Chapter 13, Paragraphs 4 & 5, Page 189	“…I unscrewed the bottle of pills and started taking them swiftly, between gulps of water; one by one by one. At first nothing happened, but as I approached the bottom of the bottle, red and blue lights began to flash before my eyes. The bottle slid from my fingers and I lay down.”	Esther begins to have fulfilled her suicidal thoughts after being very depressed.
Chapter 14, Paragraph 5-7, Page 195	“I smiled. The mouth in the mirror cracked into a grin. A minute after the crash another nurse ran in. She took one look at the broken mirror, and at me, standing over the blind, white pieces…”	Esther acted violently once more by breaking a mirror after seeing her reflection, she is suicidal.
Chapter 18, Paragraphs 5-7, Page 245	“Whenever I thought about…and women and women, I could never imagine what they would actually be doing….I wondered if all women with other women was lie and hug….Why did I attract these weird old women?”	The main character, Esther, seems to be questioning her sexuality.
Chapter 19, Paragraphs 3-5, Page 255	“…my virginity weighed like a milestone around my neck…’You know Irwin I think I ought to tell you, I’m a virgin.’ Irwin laughed and flung me down on the bed.”	Esther looses her virginity after all her sexual experiences in the book, but she is not married.
Chapter 19, Paragraphs 3-7, Page 263	“’I thought you should know…Joan has been found’…’Dead’…’I’m afraid she’s hanged herself.’”	Doctor Quinn is describing how Esther’s friend has killed herself, suicide persists in the novel.
Chapter 20, Paragraph 9 & 10, Pages 9 & 10	“Something old, something new…But I wasn’t getting married.”	Anti-feminism is restated, Esther again is out of her bell jar.