English IV

Critical Analysis List of Possible Works

2009-10

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe) This novel chronicles the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo (Ibo) community, from the events leading up to his banishment from the community for accidentally killing a clansman, through the seven years of his exile, to his return. The novel addresses the problem of the intrusion in the 1890s of white missionaries and colonial government into tribal Igbo society.

Zoo Story (Edward Albee)  This is a one-act play about an isolated young man desperate to interact with other people. As the play opens, Peter (a publishing executive who is reading in New York City's Central Park) is approached by a stranger named Jerry. Announcing "I've been to the zoo!" Jerry proceeds to probe deep into Peter's life. He relates details from his own life--his stay in a rooming house with a bizarre landlady and her repulsive dog and his unsuccessful attempt to poison the dog. Peter grows increasingly agitated by this encounter.

Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)  In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war.

Emma (Jane Austen) is the story of a rich, clever and beautiful young woman who cannot resist orchestrating other people's love lives.

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)  Elizabeth Bennet is the perfect Austen heroine: intelligent, generous, sensible, incapable of jealousy or any other major sin. That makes her sound like an insufferable goody-goody, but the truth is she's a completely hip character, who if provoked is not above skewering her antagonist with a piece of her exceptionally sharp -- but always polite -- 18th century wit. The point is, you spend the whole book absolutely fixated on the critical question: will Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy hook up?

Sense and Sensibilit (Jane Austen) The book tells about the remarkable family of Dashwood whose family home was located in Sussex. The book is about two sisters who are as diametrically opposite as two can be. Marianne is the younger sister, and she is eager, imprudent and excitable. Elinor is much more sensible than her young sister, and her voice is always the voice of reason. But it's the world that Ms. Austen always brings to her pages that is so captivating. She more than many others can create a little piece of the world that the reader has the privilege of discovering and then learns to love, just like Ms. Austen's characters do.

Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett)  Two old tramps beneath a single tree make jokes to pass the time and reflect on the state of human existence while they wait for Godot--who never comes.

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) Charlotte Brontë characterized the eponymous heroine of her 1847 novel as being "as poor and plain as myself." Presenting a heroine with neither great beauty nor entrancing charm was an unprecendented maneuver, but Brontë's instincts proved correct, for readers of her era and ever after have taken Jane Eyre into their hearts. The author drew upon her own experience to depict Jane's struggles at Lowood, an oppressive boarding school, and her troubled career as a governess. Unlike Jane, Brontë had the advantage of a warm family circle that shared and encouraged her literary pursuits. She found immediate success with this saga of an orphan girl forced to make her way alone in the world, from Lowood School to Thornfield, the estate of the majestically moody Mr. Rochester, and beyond.

Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) Published a year before her death at the age of thirty, Emily Brontë's only novel is set in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors. Depicting the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights creates a world of its own, conceived with an instinct for poetry and for the dark depths of human psychology.  Back to list G

Clockwork Orange, A  (Anthony Burgess) Told by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism. Anthony Burgess' 1963 classic stands alongside Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World as a classic of twentieth century post-industrial alienation, often shocking us into a thoughtful exploration of the meaning of free will and the conflict between good and evil. Back to list G

Stranger, The (Albert Camus)  A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, it becomes apparent it is not so much about the murder he has committed as it is about his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd—for instance, he was unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral.  These two ostensibly damning facts play a part in the eventual sentence the jury issues that is both ridiculous and inevitable.

Don Quixote (Cervantes, Miguel)  Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain.

Awakening, The (Kate Chopin) First published in 1899, this beautiful, brief novel so disturbed critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward. Now widely read and admired, The Awakening has been hailed as an early vision of woman's emancipation. This sensuous book tells of a woman's abandonment of her family, her seduction, and her awakening to desires and passions that threaten to consume her. Originally entitled "A Solitary Soul," this portrait of twenty-eight-year-old Edna Pontellier is a landmark in American fiction, rooted firmly in the romantic tradition of Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson. Here, a woman in search of self-discovery turns away from convention and society, and toward the primal, irresistibly attracted to nature and the senses. Kate Chopin gives her female protagonist the central role, normally reserved for Man, in a meditation on identity and culture, consciousness and art." --From the introduction by Marilynne Robinson

Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) Dark allegory describes the narrator’s journey up the Congo River and his meeting with, and fascination by, Mr. Kurtz, a mysterious personage who dominates the unruly inhabitants of the region. Masterly blend of adventure, character development, psychological penetration. Considered by many Conrad’s finest, most enigmatic story.

Lord Jim (Joseph Conrad) This classic novel is about a young naval officer named Jim with high hopes of glory, but when he faces his first trial of courage, he fails miserably. When the cargo ship Jim is on starts to sink, he jumps into a lifeboat to save himself instead of waking the doomed pilgrims. This action haunts him the rest of his life, but he does get another chance to redeem himself. The narrator, Captain Marlow, is the same as in "Heart of Darkness".

Red Badge of Courage, The  (Stephen Crane)  This book is about a young Union soldier under fire for the first time in the Civil War.

Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe)  Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders details the life of the irresistible Moll and her struggles through poverty and sin in search of property and power. Born in Newgate Prison to a picaresque mother, Moll propels herself through marriages, periods of success and destitution, and a trip to the New World and back, only to return to the place of her birth as a popular prostitute and brilliant thief. The story of Moll Flanders vividly illustrates Defoe’s themes of social mobility and predestination, sin, redemption and reward.

Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe) Daniel Defoe relates the tale of an English sailor marooned on a desert island for nearly three decades. An ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances, Robinson Crusoe wrestles with fate and the nature of God.

A Christmas Carol  Charles Dickens Through a series of ghostly visions, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is allowed to review his life and to change its outcome.

Tale of Two Cities, A  (Charles Dickens) A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author's novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes--imprisonment, injustice, and social anarchy, resurrection and the renunciation that fosters renewal.

David Copperfield  (Charles Dickens) David Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations. In David Copperfield—the novel he described as his "favorite child"—Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.

Great Expectations  (Charles Dickens)  Great Expectations" tells the story of Pip, a boy who starts as an orphan who moves on to apprenticeship in the business world of nineteenth-century England. Along the way, he falls in love with a girl from a wealthy family, and gains a mysterious patron.

Oliver Twist  (Charles Dickens) Oliver Twist's famous cry of the heart--"Please, sir, I want some more"--has resounded with generations of readers of all ages. The author poured his own youthful experience of Victorian London's unspeakable squalor into this realistic depiction of a spirited young innocent's unwilling but inevitable recruitment into a scabrous gang of thieves. Masterminded by the loathsome Fagin, the underworld crew features some of Dickens' most memorable characters, including the vicious Bill Sikes, gentle Nancy, and the juvenile pickpocket known as the Artful Dodger.

Brothers Karamazov  (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) The story follows the lives of old man Karamazov, filthy, penny-pinching, and his relationship with his three sons. Each son represents a different side to the Russian character: Dimitri is spoiled, Ivan is the tortured intellect, and Alyosha is the spiritual searcher. This story presents an intricate political/religious landscape. Russia is on the brink of socialism, and the church is not spared in the skepitism of characters like Ivan, who, presents the most spine tingling critique of organized religion.

Crime and Punishment  (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)  Mired in poverty, the student Raskolnikov nevertheless thinks well of himself. Of his pawnbroker he takes a different view, and in deciding to do away with her he sets in motion his own tragic downfall. Dostoyevsky's penetrating novel of an intellectual whose moral compass goes haywire, and the detective who hunts him down for his terrible crime, is a stunning psychological portrait, a thriller and a profound meditation on guilt and retribution.

Middlemarch  (George Eliot)  Dorothea Brooke, a young woman of impeccable character, marries the embittered Mr. Casaubon, who almost immediately dies. Dorothea searches for fulfillment and happiness.

Silas Marner  (George Eliot) Silas Marner tells the vivid tale of a reclusive miser who finds redemption through the love of an abandoned child. It makes poignantly real the folkways, charms, and perils of rural English life, while exploring universal themes - wealth and poverty, greed and love, the nature of happiness - with penetrating psychological insight. 

Murder in the Cathedral  (T. S. Eliot)   Against his better judgment, Robert Amiss lets the Baroness "Jack" Troutbeck persuade him to take a job with her friend Canon Flubert. Too late, Amiss realizes he's stumbled into a maelstrom of scandal. The church is in an uproar over the appointment of the new dean, Norm Cooper, a fundamentalist American with a crazed wife. 

Medea  (Euripedes)  "Medea" tells a story involving the classical Greek hero Jason and Medea, by whom he has fathered two children. As the play opens, Jason has angered Medea by taking on another woman to be his wife. "Medea" is a gripping story about love, parenthood, politics, betrayal, anger, and revenge. There is a subtle but fascinating theme of ethnic tension as Medea and Jason clash.

 Absalom! Absalom!    (William Faulkner)  This story is about the flourishing and decay of the plantation and of the family that was brought into the world a generation before the Civil War. This is about  the lament of the South and its own vanished splendor. From its magnificent and bold inception, the founder of the great plantation appeared out of nowhere to seize his hundred square miles of land and build his mansion, through the destruction of the Civil War and its aftermath, and the drab beginnings of the new South.

The Sound and the Fury  (William Faulkner) Faulkner's fourth novel (1929), is his first true masterpiece. Depicting the decline of the once aristocratic Compson family, the novel is composed of four stream-of-consciousness narratives, each told by a different character with his or her own way of relating events.

Tom Jones  The classic story of a young man living by his wits and relying upon his fortunes in 18th-century England, by one of the greatest novelists in the language. Tom Jones, a foundling who is taken in and raised by the kindly Squire Allworthy, is a guileless boy whose inherent decency is sometimes obscured by his high-spirited bawdiness.

Tender is the Night  To the just-fashionable French Riviera come Dick and Nicole Diver-handsome, rich, glamorous and enormous fun. Their dinners are legend, their atmosphere magnetic, their intelligence fine. But something is wrong. Nicole has a secret and Dick a weakness. Together they head towards the rocks on to which their lives crash-and only one of them really survives.

The Great Gatsby  In portraying the shallowness of the characters, the fast-paced 1920's eastern life of the rich and notorious, and the struggles of one man-Gatsby-to rise above his past and ancestry and misplacing his meaning in life to one, undeserved woman-a well-hidden depth of meaning and understanding of what mankind should strive for and unfortunately what most miss was clearly pointed out in the novel.

The Last Tycoon   Fitzgerald's last novel was left unfinished at his death, but the ending has been pieced together from his extensive notes. THE LAST TYCOON is an indictment of Hollywood, the film industry, and the American obsession with success at any cost--a savage expose of the studio system in its heyday. Fitzgerald wrote the novel from his own experience working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, a career at which he was spectacularly unsuccessful.

Madame Bovary
For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and arousing novel.

A Passage to India Set in the fictional northern India city of Chandrapore, tells the tale of the troubled interactions between British India and the country's Indian inhabitants. Forster's message seems to be that the white British and the native Indians should not have tried to interact socially outside of the accepted forms because it always ended badly for all concerned.

Lord of the Flies   A group of English schoolboys  are plane-wrecked on a deserted island.  At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island's wild pig population. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted.

The Maltese Falcon   In The Maltese Falcon, the best known of Hammett's Sam Spade novels, Spade is tough enough to bluff the toughest thugs and hold off the police, risking his reputation when a beautiful woman begs for his help, while knowing that betrayal may deal him a new hand in the next moment.

Spade's partner is murdered on a stakeout; the cops blame him for the killing; a beautiful redhead with a heartbreaking story appears and disappears; grotesque villains demand a payoff he can't provide; and everyone wants a fabulously valuable gold statuette of a falcon, created as tribute for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Who has it? And what will it take to get it back? Spade's solution is as complicated as the motives of the seekers assembled in his hotel room, but the truth can be a cold comfort indeed.

Raisin in the Sun "Raisin in the Sun" gives readers a dramatic and unflinching look into American life. While some readers may find reality hard to swallow, most readers we see a reality that is too true.

The Younger family is a typical post World War II black family in America. They are grateful for the end of slavery, yet the younger generation is thirsty for more freedom. As Walter sees it, this freedom comes with wealth. When Walter's father passes, the family has a chance at financial wealth through the late father's insurance policy. But a foolish investment leaves the family right where it started, in poor financial shape. Walter does have an opportunity to amend for his foolishness with the price of submitting to a white man. Walter's ulimate choice is between pride and wealth.

The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with a shocking and haunting scene: In a drunken rage, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a visiting sailor at a local fair. When they return to Casterbridge some nineteen years later, Henchard has gained power and success as the mayor. Henchard finds he cannot erase the past or the guilt that consumes him. The Mayor of Casterbridge is a rich, psychological novel about a man whose own flaws combine with fate to cause his ruin.

The Return of the Native   Clym Yeobright, abandons the ambitious goals set for him by his strong-minded mother, after becoming infatuated with a free-spirited, sensuous woman, Eustacia Vye, in a wild and lonely place. The plot unfolds on Hardy's "partly real and partly dream country," Egdon Heath, a dark Wessex moor associated with tragic possibilities. When Clym Yeobright (the "native") returns to Egdon Heath from his studies in Paris, he decides to reject his chosen profession and marry Eustacia Vye instead. Eustacia is a darkly complicated young woman, who hopes to escape her dreary existence on the Heath for a more cosmopolitan life in Paris.

Tess of the D’Ubervilles Tess speaks to feminist issues that reverberate from Victorian times to today. The heroine, pretty with spirit and intelligence, falls under the influence of a randy kinsman from whom only murder can extricate her. The gloom of the English Midlands mirrors the sad history of an essentially good woman struggling against the mores of her time.  

The House of the Seven Gables 
Hawthorne's tale turning its way back through many generations of a venerable New England family, one of whose members was accused of witchcraft in 17th century Salem. More than 200 years later, we meet the family in its decaying, gabled mansion, still haunted by the presence of dead ancestors: Hepzibah, an elderly gentlewoman fallen on had times; her ineffectual brother, Clifford; and young Phoebe, a country maiden who cheerfully takes it upon herself to care for her two  relations.

The Scarlet Letter  The story is about a woman name Hester Prynne who is living in a Puritan community in Boston during the seventeenth century. She has been forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her chest as a punishment for committing adultery and having an illegitimate child with an unknown man. Her and her daughter Pearl are forced to live as outsiders as Hester's husband, who is carrying a secret identity, is trying to unravel the truth of Pearl's father.

 Catch 22  "Catch 22" is a savagely funny, bitter, and terrifying novel.  This anti-war satire is set in WWII and the story gravitates around Yossarian, a bombardier stationed in Europe and subjected to an ever-extended number of bombing missions. The more missions he flies, the more missions he is ordered to fly. Yossarian realizes that he will never go home, and thanks to the "spinning reasonableness" of Catch 22, he can't escape.

The Little Foxes shows the evils and innocence of the south that plagued it at the turn of the century. The characters of the book are divided into evil and innocent. The innocent cannot stop the evil and can only stand by and watch it happen. The Little Foxes shows that people brought up in bad times, surroundings and society can overcome these ills or fall prey to them. The Little Foxes is an excellent and captivating novel with the good, the bad and the ugly of society.

A Farewell to ArmsA Farewell to Arms is the story of Lieutenant Henry, an American, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. The two meet in Italy. During their first encounter, Catherine tells Henry about her fiancé of eight years who had been killed the year before in the Somme. Explaining why she hadn't married him, she says she was afraid marriage would be bad for him.

For Whom the Bell Tolls This masterpiece of time and place tells a profound and timeless story of courage and commitment, love and loss, that takes place over a fleeting 72 hours. Drawing on Hemingway's own involvement in the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls reflects his passionate feelings about the nature of war and the meaning of loyalty.

The Old Man and the Sea An old Cuban fisherman triumphs over a giant marlin--only to have his prized catch literally eaten away by circling sharks.The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.

The Sun Also Rises Hemingway's first bestselling novel, it is the story of a group of 'Lost Generation' Americans and Brits in the 1920s on a sojourn from Paris to Pamploma, Spain. The novel poignantly details their life as expatriates on Paris' Left Bank, and conveys the brutality of bullfighting in Spain. The novel established Hemingway as one of the great prose stylists of all time.

The Iliad This timeless poem-more than 2,700 years old-still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amid devastation and destruction as it moves inexorably to its wrenching, tragic conclusion.  Back to list G

The Odyssey is an epic poem that tells the story of the return of Odysseus from the Trojan War. and the vengeance he took on the suitors of his wife, Penelope.  Odysseus, is the ideal Greek hero, eloquent at the council board, courageous in battle, resourceful in danger, crafty in wisdom.  He is the darling of the goddess Athena, who aids him whenever it is in her power to do so. Back to list G

Les Miserables Les Misérables tells the story of the peasant Jean Valjean—unjustly imprisoned, baffled by destiny, and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realized, ambiguously malevolent police detective Javert. As Valjean struggles to redeem his past, we are thrust into the teeming underworld of Paris with all its poverty, ignorance, and suffering. Just as cruel tyranny threatens to extinguish the last vestiges of hope, rebellion sweeps over the land like wildfire, igniting a vast struggle for the democratic ideal in France.

A monumental classic dedicated to the oppressed, the underdog, the laborer, the rebel, the orphan, and the misunderstood, Les Misérables is a rich, emotional novel that captures nothing less than the entirety of life in nineteenth-century France.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame One of the first great novels of the Romantic era, Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame has thrilled generations of readers with its powerfully melodramatic story of Quasimodo, the deformed hunchback who lives in the bell tower of medieval Paris’s most famous cathedral.

Feared and hated by all, Quasimodo is looked after by Dom Claude Frollo, a stern, cold priest who ignores the poor hunchback in the face of his frequent public torture. But someone steps forward to help—the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda, whose single act of kindness fills Quasimodo with love. Can the hunchback save the lovely gypsy from Frollo’s evil plan, or will they all perish in the shadows of Notre Dame?

Brave New World, presents a vision of the future -- of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class.  Back to list G

Their Eyes Were Watching God  Their Eyes Were Watching God  follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life.  One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices.

A Doll’s House The twisting and advancing plot revolves around several themes, illusion in marriage, conflict with society, feminism, wealth, betrayal, family, and intrigue. A Doll House exemplifies the nature of the relationship that Nora and her husband Torvald have long since demonstrated; she is his little doll. Torvald portrays the "man" in control of finances and the home; he conducts his life the way society dictates. Nora is the sweet submissive wife who plays along with her husband’s dominant role, just as the relationship she had with her father. Torvald 's endearments of Nora are belittling, "little squirrel", little spendthrift, little lark." But their illusional marriage takes a turn. Back to list G

Hedda Gabler The novel reveals Hedda Gabler as a selfish, cynical woman bored by her marriage to the scholar, Jorgen Tesman. Her father's pair of pistols provide intermittent diversion, as do the attentions of the ne'er-do-well Judge Brack. The work is remarkable for its nonjudgmental depiction of an immoral, destructive character, one of the most vividly realized women in dramatic literature.  Back to list G

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man The reader follows Daedelus through his formative years, first as the young son of a wealthy family sent off to boarding school, then as the adolescent whose family has fallen from political grace and is now struggling to make ends meet as young Stephen changes to another school, that while different, is still as much about religious instruction (Catholicism). Then, he is in his mid-teens approaching mortal perfection in his religious devotion and briefly even considers entering the priesthood. Next Daedelus is in college demonstrating his clearly formidable intellect as he ponders and debates subjects with his professors and peers such as the meaning of beauty and the responsibility of the artist. 

The Metamorphosis Gregor Samsa wakes up and discovers he has been changed into a giant cockroach. Thus begins "The Metamorphosis."  The roach has an insect body but human facial expressions. Once he is pelted with the apple, readers can watch his rapid decline, as his body becomes more wizened and his face more gaunt.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest  R.P. McMurphy is a sane man that, due to a brush with the law, opts for being committed in a mental asylum rather than be incarcerated with hard labor. Upon his entry in the secluded world of the asylum, he strips all the barriers formed and starts laying his own rules, in his own way. This leads to problems with the head honcho of the place. A big, gruesome, and menacingly evil Nurse Ratched, dubbed Big Nurse for her huge frame and even huger bosom. The rollercoaster, that patient McMurphy takes the inmates through, finally leads them to realize the ultimate goal. That man, no matter the situation, can always hold his destiny in his hands.

Woman Warrior  The story is a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American in California. Maxine Hong Kingston distills the dire lessons of her mother's mesmerizing "talk-story" tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted, and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward.  Back to list G

A Separate Peace  The volatile world of male adolescence provides the backdrop for John Knowles' engrossing tale of love, hate, war, and peace. Sharing a room at Devon, an exclusive New England prep school, in the summer prior to World War II, Gene and Phineas form a complex bond of friendship that draws out both the best and worst characteristics of each boy and leads ultimately to violence, a confession, and the betrayal of trust.

To Kill a Mockingbird  Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.

Call of the Wild  "Call of the Wild" is about a big, strong, suburban dog, who is dognapped by men who are procuring dogs for dogsleds during the Yukon Gold Rush of Alaska. From pampered city-dog, to mistreated domestic-going-feral mixed breed, to well-treated frontier dog, Buck learns survival, adaptation, and much about humanity's range of traits.

Le Morte D’Arthur  A major part of the story is how Arthur conquers Rome. (The Death of Arthur) was written by Sir Thomas Malory while he was imprisoned for some number of years. It was one of the very first times that the Arthurian legend was penned in English.  This is a must-read for all persons who have even a remote interest in the Arthurian fantasy.  This book is highly recommended to all fans of medieval times, medieval literature, the history of Great Britain and the idea of Chivalry. The codes of honor, the rules of fair play and the heroic ideals conceived by the knights of the middle-ages have followed down thru the centuries and are still relevant today.

Dr. Faustus  Marlowe tells the story of the title character, a scholar who is "swollen with cunning." Faust dabbles in the dark arts of "magicians / And necromantic books," and literally makes a deal with the devil. These actions drive the tragedy forward. This play is a curious mixture of Christian theology, tragedy, slapstick comedy, and colorful pageantry. It moves along fast, and contains some really beautiful and stately language.   Back to list G

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter  At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer's mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the book's heroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Wonderfully attuned to the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition, and with a deft sense for racial tensions in the South, McCullers spins a haunting, unforgettable story that gives voice to the rejected, the forgotten, and the mistreated.

The Member of the Wedding  Twelve-year-old Frankie Adams, longing at once for escape and belonging, takes her role as "member of the wedding" to mean that when her older brother marries she will join the happy couple in their new life together. But Frankie is unlucky in love; her mother is dead, and Frankie narrowly escapes being raped by a drunken soldier during a farewell tour of the town. Worst of all, "member of the wedding" doesn't mean what she thinks.

Billy Budd  Aboard the warship Bellipotent, the young orphan Billy Budd was called the handsome sailor. Billy was tall, athletic, noble looking; he was friendly, innocent, helpful and ever-cheerful. He was a fierce fighter and a loyal friend. All the men and officers liked him...

All but one: Master-at-Arms Claggart. Envious, petty Claggart plotted to make Billy's life miserable. But when a fear of mutinies swept through the fleet, Claggart realized he could do more than just torment the Handsome Sailor...He could frame Billy Budd for treason.

Moby Dick  One of the most widely-read and respected books in all American literature, Moby Dick is the saga of Captain Ahab and his unrelenting pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale who maimed him during their last encounter. A novel blending high-seas romantic adventure, symbolic allegory, and the conflicting ideals of heroic determination and undying hatred, Moby Dick is also revered for its historical accounts of the whaling industry of the 1800's.

Crucible  Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.

Death of a Salesman  Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once promised so much.

Misanthrope, The  In 'The Misanthrope' Alceste believes he must tell the truth to everyone he sees. This is despite the advice of his best friend Philinte. Alceste alienates everyone. At the same time he is madly in love with Celimene. He wants her to go away with him to retreat from hypocritical society. She, however, flirtatious and light - minded prefers society to him. The play closes with Philinte trying to persuade Alceste not to leave society completely.   Back to list G

Tartuffe  The central character in "Tartuffe" is not the title character, but Orgon, a reasonably well to do man of Paris who is married to his second wife, Elmire, and has a son, Damis, and a daughter, Mariane, from his first marriage. He also has the misfortune of living with his mother, Madame Pernelle. Tartuffe is a religious hypocrite who worms his way into Orgon's confidence in order to take him for everything he is worth. Orgon is completely duped, and disinherits his son when Damis tries to prove Tartuffe is fraud. The other key character is Dorine, who is Mariane's maid and the smartest person in the house, which allows her to both manipulate the action and comment on the story.

Mutiny on the Bounty The story of the Bounty will be told as long as men sail the sea. The storytelling genius of the authors finds here a canvas filled with color, action and adventure. Readers will realize, as did the authors, that so large a drama could not be confined to the compass of an ordinary book. Nordoff and Hall chose to tell the story of the Bounty in three acts:

Nineteen Eighty-Four  Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party's seemingly omniscient leader, a figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the people's history and language. Currently, the Party is forcing the implementation of an invented language called Newspeak, which attempts to prevent political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. 

Winston meets and falls in love with Julia.  Giving up Julia is what O'Brien wanted from Winston all along. His spirit broken, Winston is released to the outside world. He meets Julia, but no longer feels anything for her. He has accepted the Party entirely and has learned to love Big Brother.

Catcher in the Rye The main character, Holden Caulfield, is unable to deal with the problems that he is facing with himself. As a result of his inability to handle his feelings he separates himself from his peers and society in general eventually driving him crazy. Holden teaches teenagers that they must deal with the way that they see themselves or suffer the rath of their own hormones. Though the results of Holden’s actions might seem a tad harsh, the way it is presented is as real and intense as the emotions that everyone feels at puberty. 'Catcher in the Rye' not only gives the reader a good laugh but a sense of belonging. Reading 'Catcher in the Rye' will leave a smile on your face and something to talk about.

King Lear tells the story of King Lear's decision to abdicate the throne and divide his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. In a moment of vanity, Lear decides to divide his lands according to how much each daughter demonstrates her love for him. Because Cordelia refuses to engage such a contest of flattery with her elder sisters, Lear divides his kingdom between Goneril and Regan, banishing Cordelia. Despite her disinheritance, the King of France marries her. Soonafter abdicating his throne, Lear discovers that Goneril and Regan's feelings for him have grown cold.  Back to List G

A Midsummer Night’s Dream  Hermia, a fair maid of Athens, is in love with Lysander. However, her father wants her to marry Demetrius, a youth who, until looking upon Hermia, loved Helena, even wooed her. Now he swears to love only Hermia, though Helena passionately begs him to come back to her. Egeus (Hermia's father) goes to Theseus, Duke of Athens, asking permission to dispose of Hermia unless she consents to marry Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plot to fly from Athens, meeting in a grove that very night, and tell Helena of their plan. Helena, however, seeking to win Demetrius' love again, tells him of the plan. This beautiful tale of four lovers is interwoven with the story of commoner actors and magical fairies and their meeting in the same grove that night.

Othello  Othello is a Moorish general who has saved Venice and who is now based on the exotic Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Here is a man who, despite his 'alien' origins, is hailed as the saviour of his community, a man who is universally loved and admired, except by his lieutenant, Iago.

The cornerstone of Othello's triumph is his great love for his lady, Desdemona. Winning her hand, securing her devotion is his greatest achievement and elevates him to unimagined happiness. Yet it this very foundation which Iago undermines with the seed of jealousy. As suspicion takes root, the whole edifice of Othello's power and completeness collapses about him. He murders his wife, faces the realization of what he has done, and recognizes that eternal damnation is less of a punishment than enduring life aware of his own guilt.

A Comedy of Errors  When two sets of twins, separated and apparently lost to each other, all end up in the rowdy, rollicking city of Ephesus, the stage is set for mix-ups, mayhem, and mistaken identity--plus the timeless puns, jokes, gags, and suspense that makes this play a wonderful theatrical frolic and a brilliant tour de force of language and laughter.

Taming of the Shrew A robust and bawdy battle of the sexes, this ever popular comedy captivates audiences with outrageous humor as Katharina, the shrew, engages in a contest of wills–and love–with her bridegroom, Petruchio. Their boisterous conflict is set off against a more conventional romantic plot involving the wooing of Katharina’s lovely and compliant sister, Bianca.  Back to list G

The Tempest  The most poetic and magical of Shakespeare's comedies, this play contrasts lyrical fantasy surrounding the spirit Ariel and the savage Calaban, with a tale of political intrigue focused around Prospero, the banished Duke of Milan, now a wizard living on a remote island.

Twelfth Night begins with a shipwreck and a twin brother and sister, Sebastian and Viola, each of whom believes that the other has died at sea. Viola disguises herself as a boy and, assuming the name of Cesario, gets a job as a page for Orsino, the duke of Illyria, with whom she is in love. Orsino, however, is in love with a lofty young countess named Olivia, who has no interest in him and furthermore is mourning her own brother's recent death.  Back to List G

Pygmalion  Pygmalion is a perceptive comedy of wit and wisdom about the unique relationship between a spunky cockney flower-girl and her irascible speech professor. The flower girl Eliza Doolittle teaches the egotistical phonetics professor Henry Higgins that to be a lady means more than just learning to speak like one.

Frankenstein  A timeless, terrifying tale of one man's obsession to create life -- and the monster that became his legacy.  Back to List G

Antigone  Filled with passionate speeches and sensitive probing of moral and philosophical issues, this powerful drama reveals the grim fate that befalls the children of Oedipus. When Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, chooses to obey the law of the gods rather than an unconscionable command from Creon, ruler of Thebes, she is condemned to death. How the gods take their revenge on Creon provides the gripping denouement to this compelling tragedy, still one of the most frequently performed of classical Greek dramas.

Oedipus Rex  One of the greatest of the classic Greek tragedies and a masterpiece of dramatic construction. Catastrophe ensues when King Oedipus discovers he has inadvertently killed his father and married his mother. Masterly use of dramatic irony greatly intensifies impact of agonizing events. Sophocles’ finest play, Oedipus Rex ranks as a towering landmark of Western drama.

East of Eden  The story is set in Salinas, California and follows two generations of the Trask family, the main one with Adam and his sons, Aron and Cal. The characters of Aron and Cal are purposeful allusions to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck integrates the story of Cain and Abel, a son crying out for a father's love, and the sibling rivalry that reins over it. This book has, wit, humor, perspective, and insight, all brilliantly tied together by the classic tale of two brothers.  Back to List G

Of Mice and Men  The tragic story is about the complex bond between two migrant laborers. The plot centers on George Milton and Lennie Small, itinerant ranch hands who dream of one day owning a small farm. George acts as a father figure to Lennie, who is large and simpleminded, calming him and helping to rein in his immense physical strength.

The Grapes of Wrath Journey with the Joads for 21 hours in this first unabridged version of Steinbeck's classic. Controversial, even shocking, when it was written, the work continues to be so even today. The book poses fundamental questions about justice, the ownership and stewardship of the land, the role of government, power, and the very foundations of capitalist society. As history, this brings the Dust Bowl years to life in a most memorable way. Steinbeck is a master storyteller and manages to engage the listener's sympathy with this epic story.

Treasure Island  Robert Louis Stevenson's cherished, unforgettable adventure magically captures the thrill of a sea voyage and a treasure hunt through the eyes of its teenage protagonist, Jim Hawkins. Crossing the Atlantic in search of the buried cache, Jim and the ship's crew must brave the elements and a mutinous charge led by the quintessentially ruthless pirate Long John Silver.   The best and most influential of all the stories about pirates, it is a novel that has seized the imagination of generations of adults and children alike.

Dracula  Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of the greatest horror novels ever written. The novel is about vampires.  It is also an enduring classic of literature. Back to List G

The Joy Luck Club Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable."
With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.

Vanity Fair  Becky is just one of the many fascinating figures that populate William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair, a wonderfully satirical panorama of upper-middle-class life and manners in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Scorned for her lack of money and breeding, Becky must use all her wit, charm and considerable sex appeal to escape her drab destiny as a governess. From London’s ballrooms to the battlefields of Waterloo, the bewitching Becky works her wiles on a gallery of memorable characters, including her lecherous employer, Sir Pitt, his rich sister, Miss Crawley, and Pitt’s dashing son, Rawdon, the first of Becky’s misguided sexual entanglements.

Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. It is set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia.  Back to List G

The Death of Ivan Ilyich  This is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

This short novel was the artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction. A thoroughly absorbing and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.

War and Peace This panoramic study of early 19th-century Russian society, noted for its mastery of realistic detail and variety of psychological analysis, is generally regarded as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace is primarily concerned with the histories of five aristocratic families--particularly the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Rostovs--the members of which are portrayed against a vivid background of Russian social life during the war against Napoleon (1805-14). The theme of war, however, is subordinate to the story of family existence, which involves Tolstoy's optimistic belief in the life-asserting pattern of human existence. The heroine, Natasha Rostova, for example, reaches her greatest fulfillment through her marriage to Pierre Bezukhov and her motherhood. The novel also sets forth a theory of history, concluding that there is a minimum of free choice; all is ruled by an inexorable historical determinism.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  Professor Pierre Aronnax, the narrator of the story, boards an American frigate commissioned to investigate a rash of attacks on international shipping by what is thought to be an amphibious monster. The supposed sea creature, which is actually the submarine Nautilus, sinks Aronnax's vessel and imprisons him along with his devoted servant Conseil and Ned Land, a temperamental harpooner. The survivors meet Captain Nemo, an enigmatic misanthrope who leads them on a worldwide, yearlong underwater adventure. The novel is noted for its exotic situations, the technological innovations it describes, and the tense interplay of the three captives and Nemo (who reappears in The Mysterious Island).

Candide  Witty and caustic, Candide has ranked as one of the world’s great satires since its first publication in 1759. In the story of the trials and travails of the youthful Candide, his mentor Dr. Pangloss, and a host of other characters, Voltaire mercilessly satirizes and exposes romance, science, philosophy, religion and government—the ideas and institutions men live by.

Slaughterhouse Five  Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.

Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. It is set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia.  Back to List  G

The Color Purple  Novel published in 1982. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment. Back to List G

All the King’s Men  This landmark book is a loosely fictionalized account of Governor Huey Long of Louisiana, one of the nation's most astounding politicians. All the King's Men tells the story of Willie Stark, a southern-fried politician who builds support by appealing to the common man and playing dirty politics with the best of the back-room deal-makers. Though Stark quickly sheds his idealism, his right-hand man, Jack Burden -- who narrates the story -- retains it and proves to be a thorn in the new governor's side. Stark becomes a successful leader, but at a very high price, one that eventually costs him his life. The award-winning book is a play of politics, society and personal affairs, all wrapped in the cloak of history.

The Invisible Man  A brilliant and obsessed scientist named Griffin makes an amazing discovery that -he thinks- will change the world completely: the method to achieve invisibility. Eager to show his environment the power of his invention and to obtain the necessary funds for his research, he applies the formula to himself. But soon he realizes that a man with such capabilities is automatically cast out of society and will be hunted down like a rabies dog. Taking whatever action is necessary to keep his discovery safe, he terrorizes the local village where he has sought refuge

Delta Wedding  A vivid and charming portrait of a large southern family, the Fairchilds, who live on a plantation in the Mississippi delta. The story, set in 1923, is exquisitely woven from the ordinary events of family life, centered around the visit of a young relative, Laura McRaven, and the family’s preparations for her cousin Dabney’s wedding.

Ethan Frome  Tragic novel by Edith Wharton, published in 1911. Wharton's original style and her use of hard-edged irony and the flashback technique set Ethan Frome apart from the work of her contemporaries. The main characters are Ethan Frome, his wife Zenobia, called Zeena, and her young cousin Mattie Silver. Frome and Zeena marry after she nurses his mother in her last illness. Although Frome seems ambitious and intelligent, Zeena holds him back. When her young cousin Mattie comes to stay on their New England farm, Frome falls in love with her. But the social conventions of the day doom their love and their hopes. The story forcefully conveys Wharton's abhorrence of society's unbending standards of loyalty. Written while Wharton lived in France but before her divorce (1913), Ethan Frome became one of the best known and most popular of her works.

The Importance of Being Earnest   Jack Worthing is a fashionable young man who lives in the country with his ward Cecily Cardew. He has invented a rakish brother named Ernest whose supposed exploits give Jack an excuse to travel to London periodically. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his friend Algernon Moncrieff. Gwendolen, who thinks Jack's name is Ernest, returns his love, but her mother, Lady Bracknell, objects to their marriage because Jack is an orphan who was found in a handbag at Victoria Station. A satire of Victorian social hypocrisy, the witty play is considered Wilde's greatest dramatic achievement.

The Picture of Dorian Gray  A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent.

Our Town  Set in Grover's Corners, N.H., the play features a narrator, the Stage Manager, who sits at the side of the unadorned stage and explains the action. Through flashbacks, dialogue, and direct monologues the other characters reveal themselves to the audience. The main characters are George Gibbs, a doctor's son, and Emily Webb, daughter of a newspaper editor. The play concerns their courtship and marriage and Emily's death in childbirth, after which she and other inhabitants of the graveyard describe their peace. Considered enormously innovative for its lack of props and scenery and revered for its sentimental but at bottom realistic depictions of middle-class America, Our Town soon became a staple of American theater.

A Streetcar Named Desire  Play in three acts by Tennessee Williams, first produced and published in 1947 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama for that year. One of the most admired plays of its time, it concerns the mental and moral disintegration and ultimate ruin of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle. Her neurotic, genteel pretensions are no match for the harsh realities symbolized by her brutish brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  This play exposes the emotional lies governing relationships in the family of a wealthy Southern planter of humble origins. The patriarch, Big Daddy, is about to celebrate his 65th birthday. His two married sons, Gooper (Brother Man) and Brick, have returned for the occasion, the former with his pregnant wife and five children, the latter with his wife Margaret (Maggie). The interactions between Big Daddy, Brick, and Maggie form the substance of the play.

Glass Menagerie, The   Amanda Wingfield lives in a St. Louis tenement, clinging to the myth of her early years as a Southern belle. Her daughter Laura, who wears a leg brace, is painfully shy and often seeks solace in her collection of small glass animals. Amanda's son Tom is desperate to escape his stifling home life and his warehouse job. Amanda encourages him to bring "gentleman callers" home to his sister. When Tom brings Jim O'Connor for dinner, Amanda believes that her prayers have been answered. Back to List G

Fences This is a play about a family’s life filled with happiness, sad, and selfish moments. Troy Maxson is the household head of the family. He wants his son to play basketball in college, but one day he changes his mind and thinks his son will not be able to go to college. He does something that makes his family hate him so much it destroys the family. Then their relationship changes. People can relate to the trials and tribulations that one may encounter with their parents. Many people may relate to the fact that sometimes parents and children don't get along.  Many may relate to the hardships of trying to be what one's parents never were, or trying to prevent themselves from ever being like their parents.  Back to List G

Piano Lesson, The  The play, which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1990, is about African-American life in the 20th century. It takes place in Pittsburgh in 1936 at the house of a family of African-Americans who have migrated from Mississippi. The conflict centers around a piano that was once traded by the family's white master for two of the family's ancestors. Boy Willie and Berniece. The siblings who inherit the piano, argue about whether or not to sell it. Berniece's climactic refusal to allow Boy Willie to move the piano exorcises both the literal and figurative ghost of the white slave owner who has been haunting the family.  Back to List G

Mrs. Dalloway follows Clarissa and those whose lives brush hers--from Peter Walsh, whom she spurned years ago, to her daughter Elizabeth and the girl's angry teacher, Doris Kilman, and war-shocked Septimus Warren Smith, who is sinking into madness. The novel explores the relationships between women and men, and between women.  The author gives the reader exquisite, painful images of the past bleeding into the present, of desire overwhelmed by society's demands.   Back to List G

Native Son  Bigger Thomas is doomed, trapped in a downward spiral that will lead to arrest, prison, or death, driven by despair, frustration, poverty, and incomprehension. As a young black man in the Chicago of the '30s, he has no way out of the walls of poverty and racism that surround him, and after he murders a young white woman in a moment of panic, these walls begin to close in. There is no help for him--not from his hapless family; not from liberal do-gooders or from his well-meaning yet naive friend Jan; certainly not from the police, prosecutors, or judges. Bigger is debased, aggressive, dangerous, and a violent criminal. As such, he has no claim upon our compassion or sympathy. And yet... Richard Wright's powerful and bestselling masterpiece reflects the poverty and hopelessness of life in the inner city and what it means to be black in America.