Books and Moral Dilemmas

Alina returned Little Women at an English Club meeting. She said she liked it. It started a nice discussion. Maria, just graduated from university, had read the story in high school and remembered the sisters, and how in the end they came to recognize the strength of family ties. Iryna, who is a whiz at English and just passed the tough national exam for high school seniors, said she remembered how different the sisters were from one another.

Alina had translated the authors and

titles of dozens of the books we got from Toledo, more than anyone else. She received a certificate for “The Most Translations!” Of all the books she translated, she asked me about only one. It was "The Hanged Man's Song."

I explained the words to her, in a rather clumsy way, straining to say it was not a pleasant image. When her eyes widened, I saw she got it. It became a subject for group discussion, too, one I was not totally comfortable

with, but which members enjoyed, talking mostly in Russian. A highly animated, and graphic, discussion.

Alina checked the dictionary again and then settled on a translation. Can I borrow this? she asked. Hmm. I glanced through it and caught some unsavory language, and shook my head: "I think this may not be the best book for you, Alina. How about another one?"

She was disappointed, and I was flummoxed. Alosha, browsing through another Toledo book, found this amusing and asked, with a sly smile I thought, "Why?" Thankfully, Alina settled for a Harry Potter story, while I began debating with myself. Was Alosha right? Was I censoring? Being over-protective of a young teenaged girl?

I find myself caught in these moral dilemmas from time to time and I'm usually surprised by them, and by my reactions. In this case I believed the book, a detective story with a lot of macho cop dialogue, was more for adults than children, even 14-year-old children.

I'm okay with having suggested something else, although now I feel obliged to read "The Hanged Man's Song" and really check it out. But the day is coming when Alina will visit the library and pick out whatever books she wants. And that will be good, too.