Attack Of The Black Rectangles

Attack of the Black Rectangles promotes a practice of questioning authority through Mac’s experience of combating the censorship he experiences in his sixth-grade classroom. Mac confronts his teacher, the principal, and the school board to tell them that he is concerned about censorship after discovering words marked out of his text for a literature group. His boldness inspires other people in the town to do the same with rules they don’t agree with, addressing desires to paint their houses a color other than white and extending curfews.

Mac’s grandad and mom encourage him to speak his mind. His grandad’s experiences of participating in the countercultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s inform his encouragement of Mac. His advocacy included protesting, marching, and rejecting old rules, customs, and expectations that did not serve them. He teaches Mac a lot about this ethos and provides an example that Mac applies to his speaking the truth to his teacher and protesting censorship. Mac’s mom encourages him to speak his mind and does so herself to Mike when he smashes her beloved mug. Mac’s mom demonstrates how to communicate respectfully and effectively when she has something to say. This is also underscored through her T-shirt’s message of “Don’t be scared. I’m just a feminist” (117), couched in language to make others comfortable. Through Mac’s grandad and mom, he’s able to demonstrate respect and successfully protest the censorship and regulations he believes to be restricting.

Mac speaks truth to power through his insistence of acknowledging truths of the past. When he begins reading Jane Yolen’s novel about the Holocaust, he is provided with another example of acknowledging harm done to others by authority figures. The Holocaust was made possible because the Nazi Party spent years forming a populace that did not question authority. While the Holocaust is an example of the extreme consequences of censorship, Mac notes that if people do not discuss the truth of the past, they will allow it to happen again out of ignorance.

Mac stand against censorship inspires his fellow townspeople to follow in his and his classmates’ footsteps, and they begin to resist other restrictions placed on them. His activism at the school board meetings motivates others to be more engaged, speaking up for their concerns regarding town policies. This community engagement serves to encourage Mac even further as his town transitions over the course of the narrative from negative to positive. Through Mac’s promotion of the censorship issue, the town is reminded to hold authority figures accountable to serving the people they represent.

At its heart, Attack of the Black Rectangles is a book about censorship and the importance of the intellectual freedoms all humans are born with. The black rectangles that Mac and his friends find in their books are an infringement of their right to intellectual freedom and of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The First Amendment “protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (“The Constitution.” The White House), providing freedoms for the choice to read The Devil’s Arithmetic in its entirety, not just with words blacked out. Ms. Sett’s marking out of words such as “breasts” upholds the systems of oppression that Marci names, including misogyny and patriarchy. By censoring the word “breasts” in a scene depicting young girls being forced to shower in a Holocaust concentration camp, Ms. Sett also exercises her own religious beliefs and standards over her students. Her promotion of church attendance in the local newspaper and censorship of her classroom texts illustrates her participation in threatening fellow townspeople and her students’ intellectual freedoms. By deeming what others can and cannot enjoy, she removes their right to choose, use their intellect, and decide for themselves.

The result of censorship is a complacency that allows behaviors to be restricted and closed-minded attitudes to fester, like Aaron exhibits at the beginning of the novel. The inability to live freely and make one’s own decisions results in an intolerant perception of anything not considered to be the norm by society. Aaron illustrates this phenomenon when he consistently harasses Mac for his close friendship with Denis. Aaron’s barbs target LGBTQ+ individuals and show his lack of critical thought. It is only when Mac, Marci, and Hoa frame Ms. Sett’s censorship in the light of Aaron’s lack of freedoms that he alters his behavior. Aaron’s shift toward fighting against censorship and for intellectual freedom results in a kinder consideration of those around him. Instead of insisting that the earth is flat, and that “breasts” is a bad word, Aaron affects change for the better at the school board meeting, demonstrating the power of fighting for intellectual freedom.

The novel’s use of The Devil's Arithmetic, a book about the Holocaust, illustrates how one of the biggest differences between a fascist government and a democratic one is that people should have free access to accurate information. Other people should not have the power to decide what is and is not okay for others to consume, as it removes their ability to choose for themselves. Mac does not read the censored scene of young girls hiding their breasts in a concentration camp shower with the immaturity that boys his age were assumed to have by the censor. Instead, he finds the addition of an already inhumane situation even more harrowing, and this viewpoint is reflected when Aaron mentions it in the classroom. Exercising his intellectual freedom to do so, Aaron shares his opinion about the novel’s language and is removed from the classroom. His removal illustrates the very reason his intellectual freedom is vital; if it weren’t, removal wouldn’t be necessary. The Devil’s Arithmetic serves as a backdrop and reminder for Mac and his classmates’ protests, bolstering their resistance and emphasizing the importance of their advocacy.