Considering Book Bans and American Nationalism

For my final project in my Intro to Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies class, my group and I wrote an assortment of essays arguing that the reason many books are being banned in schools is because they pose a threat to American Nationalism. I wrote about one of my favorite books, The Handmaid's Tale, which was one of the most banned books of this past year. I ended up being pretty satisfied with this essay, so I wanted to share it here. I'm pretty familiar with The Handmaid's Tale, but I'd never written about it from this perspective, so it was a cool and challenging exercise! It was also very interesting to see as I wrote this essay just how closely tied these growing book bans are to deeper issues in our society right now (like fascism), and a little frightening. I hope that in the future we can move away from book bans and censorship, lest we approach the reality of Margaret Atwood's fictional world of Gilead.

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