Modernism & Post Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and also that of the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator.
Modernism:
+ The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Following the chaos of WW1, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the 18th Amendment, made millionares out of bootlegers and led to an increase in organized crime.
+ The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
The four parts of the novel relate many of the same episodes, each from a different point of view and therefore with emphasis on different themes and events. This interweaving and nonlinear structure makes any true synopsis of the novel difficult, especially since the narrators are all unreliable in their own way, making their accounts not necessarily trustworthy at all times.
+ Black Boy, Richard Wright
Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi, with poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot. This is Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment—a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering.
+ The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemmingway
Jake is in love with Lady Brett Ashley, but they cannot maintain a relationship because he was rendered impotent by a war wound. Jake loses numerous friendships and has his life repeatedly disrupted because of his loyalty to Brett, who has a destructive series of love affairs with other men.

Postmodernism focuses on social and political outworkings and innovations globally, especially since the 1960s in the West.
Post Modernism:
+ The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
The Chinese mothers strive to instill their American-born daughters with an understanding of their heritage, yet also attempt to save them the pain they felt as girls growing up in China. The daughters, on the other hand, often see their mothers’ attempts at guidance as a form of hypercritical meddling, or as a failure to understand American culture. The daughters thus respond by attempting to further their mothers’ assimilation. Both the mothers and the daughters struggle with issues of identity: the mothers try to reconcile their Chinese pasts with their American presents; the daughters attempt to find a balance between independence and loyalty to their heritage.

Sports

Sports literature comes in the form of biographies and autobiographies from athletes and coaches, but also in the form of fictional works supported by a sport setting or goal.

General
-Slot Machine, Chris Lynch
Elvin Bishop goes to camp for his new private school in order to find the perfect "slot" (sport). In the course of a couple of weeks, poor Elvin is bounced around from football to baseball to track, until he finds his perfect place

Baseball/softball
+The Natural, Bernard Malamud
follows the career of baseball player Roy Hobbs from his first false start to his Final failure. The story is divided into two parts, the first recounting an event during Roy's nineteenth year, and the second picking up the story some fifteen years later.

-Far from Xanadu, Julie Anne Peters
Mary Elizabeth (or Mike) is the star of her school's softball team, but because of problems stemming from her father's suicide, she has convinced herself she can't go far. She also falls in love with the new girl, the manipulative and straight Xanadu.

-Extra Innings, Robert Newton Peck
After a tragic accident kills his parents and seriously injures him, Tate goes to live with his great grandfather and Vidalia. Vidalia's stories about traveling with a Negro League baseball team insipre Tate to once again take the pitcher's mound, despite his grief and injury.

Basketball
-SLAM, Walter Dean Myers
Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the basketball court. He knows he could be one of the lucky ones, making it all the way to the top. But what if his luck runs out? His grades aren't so hot. His teachers are starting to catch on and his temper is always on the verge of exploding. Slam's going one-on-one with his future, and it's a showdown he can't afford to lose.

-Maravich, Wayne Federman, Marshall Terrill, Jackie Maravich
Gaining access to personal letters, albums and scrapbooks, plus spending hours with family members among some 300 interviews, has allowed the authors to craft the definitive biography of one of the most remarkable basketball stories in history. They reveal new facts and provide startling insight into Pistol Pete Maravich, who lived a life of triumph and tragedy before finding happiness in religion in the years before his death at age 40.

-Rebound, Bob Krech
Raymond Wisniewski loves playing basketball. But in his town, the Polish kids all wrestle, and the black kids play basketball. Rayis cut the first two years he tries out, but continues to better his game. The third year Ray is one of two white kids who make the team. This isn’t just about the underdog making the team. Ray learns about how prejudice isn’t predictable, good friends can become mean people, the loveliest girl can be nasty ugly inside, and your worst enemy can be an unlikely savior.

Boxing
-The Contender, Robert Lipstyle
Alfred doesn't want to live his life on the streets and end up like his best friend who has been caught up with drugs and violence. He begins to go to Donatelli's Gym to learn boxing.

Cheerleading
-Dreamland, Sarah Dessen
Caitlin's perfect sister, Cass, has run away. Caitlin, trying to get away from her sister's shadow, joins the cheerleading squad, and later becomes involved in an abusive relationship.

Football
-Roughnecks, Thomas Cochran
In a small Louisiana town, senior Travis Cody prepares for his state championship football game.
Skiing
-Slalom, R.L. Rottman
Sandro is an avid skier and works with his single mother at a Colorado ski resort. His life takes an interesting turn when a man, claiming to be his father, arrives.

Swimming/Diving
-Heat, Michael Cadnum
Bonnie is terrified to return to diving after hitting her head on the diving board. On top of that, her lawyer father has just been accused of stealing money from his clients.

-Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Chris Crutcher
High school swimmer, Eric ("Moby") discusses his friendship with Sarah Byrnes, who was severely burned as a child and who now lives in a psychriatic hospital.

Tennis
-Fifteen Love, Robert Corbet
Do tennis players Will and Mia like each other? Will they ever get together? In the meantime, Mia must deal with her father's infidelity and Will bonds with his newly disabled brother.

-Mixed up Doubles, Elana Yates Eulo
Hank, Jerome, and Sarah move with their father after their mother decides to focus more on her tennis career.

Cylving
-It's Not About the Bike, Lance Armstrong & Sally Jenkins
An autobiography exlaining the life of Lance Armstrong from his youth, through 3 forms of cancer, to his legendary status as a Tour de France champion.

Science Fiction

Fantastic works about imaginary possibilities of science fall under the category of Science Fiction.
+ Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
The book opens with one of several letters from from a sea captain encouraging his sister to share his enthusiasm about his journey to the North Pole. His last letter tells the startling story of his having seen a being of gigantic stature shaped like a man, fleeing across the ice which is threatening to enclose the ship. The next day another sled appears, carrying the wasted and maddened Victor Frankenstein, who is pursuing the giant and gets taken aboard. Frankenstein tells his story of how once he began in earnest to know all that could be known.

+ Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
The book opens in the year 2495 at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, a research facility and factory that mass-produces and then socially-conditions test-tube babies. Such a factory is a fitting place to begin the story of mass-produced characters in a techno-futurist dystopia, a world society gone mad for pleasure, order, and conformity. The date is A.F. 632, A.F.—After Ford—being a notation based on the birth year (1863) of Henry Ford, the famous automobile manufacturer and assembly line innovator who is worshipped as a god in Huxley’s fictional society.

+ Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
As Mike learns about human society, he comes to see that much of his Martian wisdom could be used to help alleviate the sufferings of mankind, but society's institutions are not designed to resist new and radical teachings like Mike's.

+ On the Beach, Nevil Shute
The characters cope with the reality that they're among the few people in the world left alive after a catastrophic nuclear war, and that within several months they too will inevitably die from radiation sickness.

Gothic

Gothic literature combines elements of both horror and romance.

+ The Picture of Dorian Gray*, Oscar Wilde
This book tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is impressed by Dorian's beauty and becomes infatuated with him, believing his beauty is responsible for a new mode in his art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view.

+ Frankenstein*, Mary Shelley
The book opens with one of several letters from from a sea captain encouraging his sister to share his enthusiasm about his journey to the North Pole. His last letter tells the startling story of his having seen a being of gigantic stature shaped like a man, fleeing across the ice which is threatening to enclose the ship. The next day another sled appears, carrying the wasted and maddened Victor Frankenstein, who is pursuing the giant and gets taken aboard. Frankenstein tells his story of how once he began in earnest to know all that could be known.

+ Jane Eyre*, Charlotte Brontë
When Jane returns to Thornfield, the houseguests have left. Rochester tells Jane he will soon marry Blanche, so she and Adèle will need to leave Thornfield. In the middle of this charade, Jane reveals her love for him, and the two end up engaged. Jane is happy to be marrying the man she loves, but during the month before the wedding she is plagued by strange dreams of a destroyed Thornfield and a wailing infant. Two nights before the wedding, a frightening, dark-haired woman enters her room and rips her wedding veil in two.

+ The Turn of the Screw*, Henry James
A narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the latter claims to have known and who is now dead. It tells how the young governess is hired by a man who has found himself responsible for his niece & nephew after the death of their parents. He has no interest in raising the children. The boy, is attending a boarding school whilst his sister is living at the country home. She is currently being cared for by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. The governess's new employer gives her full charge of the children and explicitly states that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to her new employer's country house and begins her duties.

+ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*, Robert Louis Stevenson
Jekyll attempts to keep his dark half, Edward Hyde, under control and then to prevent himself from becoming Hyde permanently.

+ Wuthering Heights*, Emily Brontë
Heathcliff’s great natural abilities, strength of character, and love for Catherine Earnshaw all enable him to raise himself from humble beginnings to the status of a wealthy gentleman, but his need to revenge himself for Hindley’s abuse and Catherine’s betrayal leads him into a twisted life of cruelty and hatred; Catherine is torn between her love for Heathcliff and her desire to be a gentlewoman, and her decision to marry the genteel Edgar Linton drags almost all of the novel’s characters into conflict with Heathcliff.

Autobiographies, Semibiographies and Autobiographical Ficiton

Autobiographies, Semi-Autobiographis and Autobiographical Fiction stories all relay their message from the first person perspective.

+ Black Boy, Richard Wright
Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi, with poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot. This is Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment—a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice

-It's Not About the Bike, Lance Armstrong & Sally Jenkins

An autobiography exlaining the life of Lance Armstrong from his youth, through 3 forms of cancer, to his legendary status as a Tour de France champion.

+ Walden, Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau lived mostly in solitude for over 2 years and 2 months in a cab in at Walden Pond. In his disconnection with general society he learned new motivations and methods for living deliberately.

- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Alexie, Sherman

Sherman Alexie tells the heartbreaking, hilarious, and beautifully written story of a young Native American teen as he attempts to break free from the life he was destined to live.

+ Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Billy struggles to make sense out of a life forever marked by the firsthand experience of war’s tragedy.

+ The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Esther struggles against her oppressive environment and encroaching madness.

+ The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston

Kingston reconciles her Chinese cultural heritage with her emerging sense of herself as an American. The autobiography relays stories of her mother Brave Orchid, aunts Moon Orchid and "No Name Woman," and of her childhood heroine Fa Mu Lan — a legendary woman warrior. Each recollection explores the many forms of adversity that women face in the physical and emotional struggle in the search for one's own, personal voice.

+ Black Boy, Richard Wright

Wright's early life in the South from 1912 to 1927. This autobiography begins when 4-year-old Richard sets ablaze his grandmother's house and is nearly beaten to death by his mother. The punishment teaches Richard to survive any circumstance. Richard grows and observes his family members humiliating themselves in front of whites, while seeing opportunities for breaking out of stereotypes to become what he wants to be, a writer.

+ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou

The book follows Marguerite's (later called Maya) young life in the segregated South. Abandoned by their parents at an early age, she and her older brother Bailey move in with their grandmother and crippled uncle in Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou's autobiography explores how her blossoming character helped her cope with rape, sexism, society's prejudices, and the isolation and loneliness she faced growing up.

Drama

Most drama stories are intended for performance and envolve strong emotional elements.

+ Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Raskolnikov, a drop-out student, lives in a tiny, rented room and refuses all help. He plans to murder and rob an unpleasant elderly money-lender, Alëna—his motivation, whether personal or ideological, remains unclear. When Raskolnikov kills Alëna, however, he is also forced to kill her half-sister, Lizaveta, as well. After the murders, he becomes feverish and behaves as though he wishes to betray himself. The detective Porfiry begins to suspect him on psychological grounds. At the same time, a chaste relationship develops between Raskolnikov and a prostitute full of Christian virtue, driven into the profession by the habits of her father.

+ A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen
Nora’s struggle with Krogstad, who threatens to tell her husband about her past crime, incites Nora’s journey of self-discovery and provides much of the play’s dramatic suspense. Nora’s primary struggle, however, is against the selfish, stifling, and oppressive attitudes of her husband, Torvald, and of the society that he represents.

+ The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
Tom’s fear of working in a dead-end job for decades drives him to work hard creating poetry, which he finds more fulfilling. Amanda’s disappointment at the fading of her glory motivates her attempts to make her daughter, Laura, more popular and social. Laura’s extreme fear of seeing Jim O’Connor reveals her underlying concern about her physical appearance and about her inability to integrate herself successfully into society.

+ The Stranger, Albert Camus
After committing murder, Meursault struggles against society’s attempts to manufacture and impose rational explanations for his attitudes and actions. This struggle is embodied by his battle with the legal system that prosecutes him.

+ Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Stephen Kumalo struggles against the forces (white oppression, the corrupting influences of city life) that destroy his family and his country

+ To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The childhood innocence with which Scout and Jem begin the novel is threatened by numerous incidents that expose the evil sode of human nature. Most notably Tom Robinson's guiltand Bob Ewell's vengefulness. As the novel progresses, Scout and Jem struggle to maintain faith in the human capacity for good in light of these recurring instances of human evil.

+ Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Miller seems to say with this play that any man can have as great a fall and be as great a tragedy as a king or some other famous person. Just because people are common does not mean that their falls are to them less steep. Also one must find oneself to be successful in life.

+ A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
The Youngers, a working-class black family, struggle against economic hardship and racial prejudice.

+ Snow Falling on Cedars, David Peterson

Kabuo Miyamoto stands trial for the murder of Carl Heine, while Ishmael Chambers struggles to overcome his emotionally and physically shattered past.

Satire

Satires make social commentary and cristicism with a large degree of sarcastic humor and/or colorful mataphors to drive at their points with more humor and subtley than their stricker counterparts, the social commentaries/criticisms etc.

+ Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
On the surface, Gulliver strives to understand the various societies with which he comes into contact and to have these societies understand his native England. Below the surface, Swift is engaged in a conflict with the English society he is satirizing.

+ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern attempt to discover the cause of Hamlet’s apparent madness and their own purpose in the world.

+ The Turn of the Screw, Henry James
A narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the latter claims to have known and who is now dead. It tells how the young governess is hired by a man who has found himself responsible for his niece & nephew after the death of their parents. He has no interest in raising the children. The boy, is attending a boarding school whilst his sister is living at the country home. She is currently being cared for by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. The governess's new employer gives her full charge of the children and explicitly states that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to her new employer's country house and begins her duties.

+ Animal Farm, George Orwell
There are a number of conflicts in this book: The animals versus Mr. Jones, Snowball versus Napoleon, the common animals versus the pigs, Animal Farm versus the neighboring humans—but all of them are expressions of the underlying tension between the exploited and exploiting classes and between the lofty ideals and harsh realities of socialism.

+ As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
When transporting the recently deceased Addie to her burial site, the Bundren family struggles against the forces of nature and injury in its river-crossing and the aftermath. The Bundrens struggle internally as Darl begins to question the logic of carrying Addie’s body all the way to Jefferson.

+ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Huck first struggles against society and its attempts to civilize him, represented by the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and other adults. Later, this conflict gains greater focus in Huck’s dealings with Jim, as Huck must decide whether to turn Jim in, as society demands, or to protect and help his friend instead.

+ Catch 22, by Joseph Heller
Yossarian struggles to survive against the many parties who seem to want him dead.

+ The House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorn
Judge Pyncheon tries to coerce Clifford into giving him information regarding their uncle’s missing inheritance. Since Judge Pyncheon embodies the dogged ambition and greed that has characterized the Pyncheon family, his persecution of Clifford and Hepzibah plays out in microcosm their battle against the entire Pyncheon legacy.

+ Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
As Mike learns about human society, he comes to see that much of his Martian wisdom could be used to help alleviate the sufferings of mankind, but society's institutions are not designed to resist new and radical teachings like Mike's.

Epic and/or Alternative Verse

Epics are typically long, exalted narrative poem, usually on a serious subject, centered on a heroic figure.

+ Beowulf*
The poem essentially consists of three parts. There are three central conflicts: Grendel’s domination of Heorot Hall; the vengeance of Grendel’s mother after Grendel is slain; and the rage of the dragon after a thief steals a treasure that it has been guarding. The poem’s overarching conflict is between close-knit warrior societies and the various menaces that threaten their boundaries.

+ The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
An Oklahoma farm family struggling from the drought during the depression journies across trhe country towards brighter hopes promised in California.

+ The Iliad, Homer
As Robert Jordan and a small band of guerrilla fighters prepare to blow up a bridge with their limited resources and manpower, Robert Jordan and Pablo struggle for authority over the small band of guerrillas. Meanwhile, Robert Jordan and Maria cope with the pitfalls of falling in love during wartime.

+ Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
The English battle the French and their Indian allies; Uncas helps his English friends resist Magua and the Hurons.

+ Inferno, Dante
Dante attempts to find God in his life, while those sentenced to punishment in Hell hinder him from the true path.

+ Moby Dick, Herman Melville
A story of an obsessed captain and his crew as they chase an ellusive force of nature at all costs to a seemlyinge cursed fate. It is told through the perspective of a first time deckhand, focusing on the captain, his mates and harpooners. Incredibly detailed insight on the dated buisness of whaling.

+ The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
The role of women in traditional Chinese society; silence and voice; growing up Chinese-American; the individual vs. the community; writing and speaking as triumph

+ The Odyssey, Homer
Odysseus must return home and vanquish the suitors who threaten his estate; Telemachus must mature and secure his own reputation in Greek society.

+ Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Valjean struggles to transform himself from a thief into an honest man; over the years he struggles to stay a step ahead of the zealous police officer Javert and tries to raise his adopted daughter, Cosette.

Adventure

Adventure stories involve fantastic journeys through exciting places concerning a wide variety of motivations.

+Call of the Wild, Jack London
Buck’s struggle against his masters and his development from a tame dog into a wild beast

+ The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
The English battle the French and their Indian allies; Uncas helps his English friends resist Magua and the Hurons.

+Candide, Voltaire
Candide and Pangloss’s optimistic world view is challenged by numerous disasters; Candide’s love for Cunégonde is repeatedly thwarted.

+Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Both Marlow and Kurtz confront a conflict between their images of themselves as “civilized” Europeans and the temptation to abandon morality completely once they leave the context of European society.

+ Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Free from the rules that adult society formerly imposed on them, the boys marooned on the island struggle with the conflicting human instincts that exist within each of them—the instinct to work toward civilization and order and the instinct to descend into savagery, violence, and chaos.

+ Moby Dick, Herman Melville
A story of an obsessed captain and his crew as they chase an ellusive force of nature at all costs to a seemlyinge cursed fate. It is told through the perspective of a first time deckhand, focusing on the captain, his mates and harpooners. Incredibly detailed insight on the dated buisness of whaling.


+ Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
The story of a man's solitude and survival when he is cast away on a deserted island for years.

+ Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
Jim, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, Captain Smollett, and his crew search for a treasure that Captain Flint, an old pirate, has left buried after his death. They are challenged by Flint’s former crewmembers, who have tricked Trelawney into hiring them to help sail to Treasure Island.

+ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
At the beginning of the novel, Huck struggles against society and its attempts to civilize him, represented by the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and other adults. Later, this conflict gains greater focus in Huck’s dealings with Jim, as Huck must decide whether to turn Jim in, as society demands, or to protect and help his friend instead.

Social Protest/Criticism/Commentary

Literature has been used to express the concerns and questions that human kind has had regarding the society around it. These peices are social protests, criticisms, and commentaries.

+ Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Whether practiced by kind or cruel masters, slavery injects misery into the lives of Southern blacks, testing their courage and their faith.

+The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
An Oklahoma farm family struggling from the drought during the depression journies across trhe country towards brighter hopes promised in California.

+Walden, Henry David Thoreau
Thoreau spends over 2 years and two months mostly ibn isolation from society at his cabin near Walden Pond. He writes of what his partial solidtude has taught him of living deliberately.

+The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Among the first "muckraking" peices of American literature, Sinclaire gives his insight to the dark underworld of the unregulated meat industry of 1906 before the FDA.

+ Roots, Alex Haley
A monumental two-century drama of Kunta Kinte and the six generations who came after him. By tracing back his own roots, Haley tells the story of 39 million Americans of African descent. He has rediscovered for an entire people a rich cultural heritage that ultimately speaks to all races everywhere, for the story it tells is one of the most eloquent testimonials ever written to the indomitability of the human spirit.

+ Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Miller seems to say with this play that any man can have as great a fall and be as great a tragedy as a king or some other famous person. Just because people are common does not mean that their falls are to them less steep. Also one must find oneself to be successful in life.

+ On the Beach, Nevil Shute
The characters cope with the reality that they're among the few people in the world left alive after a catastrophic nuclear war, and that within several months they too will inevitably die from radiation sickness.

+ Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Stephen Kumalo struggles against the forces (white oppression, the corrupting influences of city life) that destroy his family and his country.

+ Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
Shortly after the suicide of Quoyle’s parents, his unfaithful/abusive wife, Petal and her lover leave town. Days later, she sells their daughters to a 'black market adoption’. Petal and her lover are killed in a car accident; the young girls are located by police and returned to Quoyle. Despite their safe return, Quoyle's life is collapsing. He moves to Newfoundland and learns about his own troubled family background. Quoyle begins a relationship with a local woman. His growth in confidence and emotional strength, as well as his ability to be comfortable in a loving relationship, become the main focus for the book. A series of deep and disturbing secrets about his ancestors emerge in strange ways.

Bildungsroman

A bildungsroman is a novel of intellectual, spiritual or moral evolution.

+ Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Bonnie dies while horseback riding, breaking the tie that binds the two main characters.

+ The Awakening, Kate Chopin
Once Edna embarks upon her quest for independence and self-fulfillment, she finds herself at odds with the expectations and conventions of society, which requires a married woman to subvert her own needs to those of her husband and children.

+ Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya
As Antonio moves from childhood to adolescence, he tries to reconcile his parents’ and his community’s conflicting cultural traditions; Antonio’s goal is independent thought and action; he strives to make his own moral decisions and to accept responsibility for their consequences.

+ The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
The major conflict is within Holden’s psyche. Part of him wants to connect with other people on an adult level (and, more specifically, to have a sexual encounter), while part of him wants to reject the adult world as “phony,” and to retreat into his own memories of childhood.

+ Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
The narrator seeks to act according to the values and expectations of his immediate social group, but he finds himself continuously unable to reconcile his socially imposed role as a black man with his inner concept of identity, or even to understand his inner identity.

+ Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
Tom Jones and Sophia Western cannot marry, since Tom is believed to be a foundling bastard and Sophia's father wishes her to marry someone of her own gentile class.

+ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass
A narrative insight of the trials and accoplishments of Fredrick Douglass.

+ Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Jane meets with a series of forces that threaten her liberty, integrity, and happiness. Characters embodying these forces are: Aunt Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester (in that he urges Jane to ignore her conscience and surrender to passion), and St. John Rivers (in his urging of the opposite extreme). The three men also represent the notion of an oppressive patriarchy. Blanche Ingram, who initially stands in the way of Jane’s relations with Rochester, also embodies the notion of a rigid class system—another force keeping Jane from fulfilling her hopes.

+ My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
Asher Lev has an intense desire to paint. This often comes into conflict with the Ladover Hasidic community in which he has been raised.

+ The Chosen, Chaim Potok
Danny’s struggle between his family and religious obligations, and his desire to become a psychologist is the novel’s central conflict. Reuven experiences this conflict indirectly—as he helps Danny struggle through it, he struggles to understand it himself.

+ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
At the beginning of the novel, Huck struggles against society and its attempts to civilize him, represented by the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and other adults. Later, this conflict gains greater focus in Huck’s dealings with Jim, as Huck must decide whether to turn Jim in, as society demands, or to protect and help his friend instead.

+ A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce
Stephen struggles to decide whether he should be loyal to his family, his church, his nation, or his vocation as an artist.

+ Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
During her quest for spiritual fulfillment, Janie clashes with the values that others impose upon her.

+ Black Boy, by Richard Wright
Richard demonstrates inborn individualism and intelligence, traits that can only cause problems for a black man in the Jim Crow South; he struggles with blacks and whites alike for acceptance and humane treatment; he struggles with his own stubborn nature.

+ David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
David struggles to become a man in a cruel world, with little money and few people to guide him.

Romance

Romance deals with love, lose devotion, not to be confused with romanticism.

+ Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
The First Part: Don Quixote sets out with Sancho Panza on a life of chivalric adventures in a world no longer governed by chivalric values; the priest attempts to bring Don Quixote home and cure his madness. The Second Part: Don Quixote continues his adventures with Sancho, and Sampson Carrasco and the priest conspire to bring Don Quixote home by vanquishing him.

+ A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
While there is no single, clear-cut conflict, friction does arise when Henry’s love for Catherine cannot quell his innate restlessness.

+ Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
Tells the story of Russian people forced to live through the many tragedies of the first half of the twentieth century, and it tells of the emotional trials of love in its most complicated forms. Yury Zhivago is a classic tragic hero, flawed in his inability to control his life and his loyalties but defined by a strong moral character and the desire to do right.

+ Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
When Jane returns to Thornfield, the houseguests have left. Rochester tells Jane he will soon marry Blanche, so she and Adèle will need to leave Thornfield. In the middle of this charade, Jane reveals her love for him, and the two end up engaged. Jane is happy to be marrying the man she loves, but during the month before the wedding she is plagued by strange dreams of a destroyed Thornfield and a wailing infant. Two nights before the wedding, a frightening, dark-haired woman enters her room and rips her wedding veil in two.

+ The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper
The English battle the French and their Indian allies; Uncas helps his English friends resist Magua and the Hurons

+ Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
A story about the fates of two forbidden young lovers from the opposite ends of an ancient family fued.

+ The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
A story about sexual tensions, pride, sin and shame about a fateful act and a woman's cross to bear.

+ Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding
The English battle the French and their Indian allies; Uncas helps his English friends resist Magua and the Hurons.

+ For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway
As Robert Jordan and a small band of guerrilla fighters prepare to blow up a bridge with their limited resources and manpower, Robert Jordan and Pablo struggle for authority over the small band of guerrillas. Meanwhile, Robert Jordan and Maria cope with the pitfalls of falling in love during wartime.

+ Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Bonnie dies while horseback riding, breaking the tie that binds the two main characters.

Comedy

Comedies aren't always books that make the audience laugh all the way through, often times comedies are just as dramatic as tragedies with a happier ending.

+ The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov
A book involving modernity vs. the old russia; breaking with the past; nature.

+ Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
The First Part: Don Quixote sets out with Sancho Panza on a life of chivalric adventures in a world no longer governed by chivalric values; the priest attempts to bring Don Quixote home and cure his madness. The Second Part: Don Quixote continues his adventures with Sancho, and Sampson Carrasco and the priest conspire to bring Don Quixote home by vanquishing him.

+ A Midsummer Night’s Dream*, William Shakespeare
A group of friends and lovers wander into the woods and are confronted by the mischief of several faries.

+ The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Dorian Gray, having promised his soul in order to live a life of perpetual youth, must try to reconcile himself to the bodily decay and dissipation that are recorded in his portrait.

+ Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
The book follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with matters of upbringing, marriage, moral rightness and education in her aristocratic society. Though the book's setting is uniquely turn of the 19th century, it remains a fascination of modern readership, continuing to remain at the top of lists titled "most loved books of all time", and receiving considerable attention from literary critics. This modern interest has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and a plethora of books developing Austen's memorable characters further.

+ Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
The English battle the French and their Indian allies; Uncas helps his English friends resist Magua and the Hurons.

+ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern attempt to discover the cause of Hamlet’s apparent madness and their own purpose in the world.

Tragedy

Tradgedies are broadly described dramatic writings that lead to dark ending. There are many varieties of tradgedy in literature, and below is a variety of reccomended readings.

+ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
Big Daddy has come home from the clinic on his 65th birthday, and his children plan to tell him he is dying of cancer. Mae and Gooper have brought their entire brood in an attempt to jostle Brick and Maggie out of their share of the estate. Their marriage is childless and on-the-rocks; Brick has quit his job and taken to drinking upon the death of Skipper, a friend for whom he harbored sexual desire.

+ An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
Miller seems to say with this play that any man can have as great a fall and be as great a tragedy as a king or some other famous person. Just because people are common does not mean that their falls are to them less steep. Also one must find oneself to be successful in life.

+ The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov
Lopahkin, a former serf, has become a wealthy landowner. Out of his admiration for Madame Ranevsky and a genuine affection that remains from childhood days, he suggests that if they will tear down the house and raze the cherry orchard, they can cut the property up into the popular new villa sites. The entire property, he assures them, will promptly be leased and the substantial income it will afford, will enable them to live where and as they please.Family pride combined with a spirit of procrastination prevents their accepting this suggestion even if their fondness for their cherry orchard would permit their considering its destruction.

+ The Crucible, Arthur Miller
A play writtern about the tragic witch hunts conducted by puritan zealots.

+ The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
Tom’s fear of working in a dead-end job for decades drives him to work hard creating poetry, which he finds more fulfilling. Amanda’s disappointment at the fading of her glory motivates her attempts to make her daughter, Laura, more popular and social. Laura’s extreme fear of seeing Jim O’Connor reveals her underlying concern about her physical appearance and about her inability to integrate herself successfully into society.

+ Hamlet*, William Shakespeare
Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his father’s murder by his uncle Claudius, but Claudius is now the king and thus well protected. Moreover, Hamlet struggles with his doubts about whether he can trust the ghost and whether killing Claudius is the appropriate thing to do.

+ Macbeth*, William Shakespeare
The struggle within Macbeth between his ambition and his sense of right and wrong; the struggle between the murderous evil represented by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and the best interests of the nation, represented by Malcolm and Macduff

+ The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
Maggie must choose between her inner desire toward passion and sensuous life and her impulse towards moral responsibility and the need for her brother's approval and love.

+ Moby Dick, Herman Melville
A story of an obsessed captain and his crew as they chase an ellusive force of nature at all costs to a seemlyinge cursed fate. It is told through the perspective of a first time deckhand, focusing on the captain, his mates and harpooners. Incredibly detailed insight on the dated buisness of whaling.

+ Romeo and Juliet*, William Shakespeare
A story about the fates of two forbidden young lovers from the opposite ends of an ancient family fued.

+ Things Fall Apart*, Chinua Achebe
On one level, the conflict is between the traditional society of Umuofia and the new customs brought by the whites, which are in turn adopted by many of the villagers. Okonkwo also struggles to be as different from his deceased father as possible. He believes his father to have been weak, effeminate, lazy, ignominious, and poor. Consequently, Okonkwo strives to be strong, masculine, industrious, respected, and wealthy.

+ Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
The predatory nature of human existence, the importance of fraternity and idealized relationships between men, the impossibility of the American Dream the destructive imbalance of social power structures in American society are all covered by this classic narrative of a mentally handicapped man and his compainion.

+ Ethan Frome, Edith Warthon
Ethan’s main fight is with his own conscience, as he decides whether or not to reveal to Mattie his true feelings. His struggles are exacerbated by his surroundings—Zeena, the bleak Starkfield landscape, his home—which often take on an oppressive quality.

+ For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway
As Robert Jordan and a small band of guerrilla fighters prepare to blow up a bridge with their limited resources and manpower, Robert Jordan and Pablo struggle for authority over the small band of guerrillas. Meanwhile, Robert Jordan and Maria cope with the pitfalls of falling in love during wartime.

+ A Separate Peace, John Knowles
Gene feels both love and hate for his best friend, Finny, worshipping and resenting Finny’s athletic and moral superiorities.

+ The Natural, Bernard Malamud
follows the career of baseball player Roy Hobbs from his first false start to his Final failure. The story is divided into two parts, the first recounting an event during Roy's nineteenth year, and the second picking up the story some fifteen years later.

+Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Miller seems to say with this play that any man can have as great a fall and be as great a tragedy as a king or some other famous person. Just because people are common does not mean that their falls are to them less steep. Also one must find oneself to be successful in life.

+ King Lear*, William Shakespeare
Lear, who is old, wants to retire from power. He decides to divide his realm among his three daughters, and offers the largest share to the one who loves him best. This results in madness, death and betrayl among the devided family, including the bastard son, Gloucester.

+ On the Beach, Nevil, Shute
The characters cope with the reality that they're among the few people in the world left alive after a catastrophic nuclear war, and that within several months they too will inevitably die from radiation sickness.

War and/or Historical Fiction

These stories all deal with themes of war, and/or other Historical significance.

+ All Quiet on the Western Front*, Erich Maria Remarque
Paul and his friends have unwittingly entered a hellish war in which hope for survival is sullied by the knowledge that they have already been mentally scarred beyond recovery.

+ Beloved, Toni Morrison
Having survived a traumatic escape from slavery, Sethe has killed her older daughter in a mad attempt to keep her from being taken back to the South by her old master. A mysterious figure now appears at Sethe’s home, calling herself by the name on the dead daughter’s tombstone.

+ Catch 22, Joseph Heller
Yossarian struggles to stay alive, despite the many parties who seem to want him dead.

+ Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
Tells the story of Russian people forced to live through the many tragedies of the first half of the twentieth century, and it tells of the emotional trials of love in its most complicated forms. Yury Zhivago is a classic tragic hero, flawed in his inability to control his life and his loyalties but defined by a strong moral character and the desire to do right.

+ A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
While there is no single, clear-cut conflict, friction does arise when Henry’s love for Catherine cannot quell his innate restlessness.

+ The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford
The Good Soldier is narrated by the character John Dowell, half of one of the couples whose dissolving relationships form the subject of the novel. Dowell tells the stories of those dissolutions as well as the deaths of three characters and the madness of a fourth, in a rambling, non-chronological fashion that leaves gaps for the reader to fill.

+ The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
The story of a boy gone to war and his struggle to grasp honor through his humanly instincts of cowardice.

+ The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
A story about sexual tensions, pride, sin and shame about a fateful act and a woman's cross to bear.

+ Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Billy struggles to make sense out of a life forever marked by the firsthand experience of war’s tragedy.

+ A Tale of Two Cities*, Charles Dickens
Madame Defarge seeks revenge against Darnay for his relation to the odious Marquis Evrémonde; Carton, Manette, Lucie, and Jarvis Lorry strive to protect Darnay from the bloodthirsty revolutionaries’ guillotine.

+ For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway
As Robert Jordan and a small band of guerrilla fighters prepare to blow up a bridge with their limited resources and manpower, Robert Jordan and Pablo struggle for authority over the small band of guerrillas. Meanwhile, Robert Jordan and Maria cope with the pitfalls of falling in love during wartime.

+ The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers is not merely a Romance; it is also a great historical novel, and Dumas's interesting approach to history also contributes to the success of his book. While he keeps his characters away from being major players in national events, he is not afraid of brazenly attributing human motives to history. In Dumas's version, France and England very nearly fight a war simply because the Duke of Buckingham loves Anne of Austria: John Fenton assassinates Buckingham because of personal reasons provided by Milady, and so on. Part of the entertainment of The Three Musketeers is that, in seeming to avoid the great events and focus on petty affairs, Dumas explains the great events more satisfyingly and entertainingly than any direct explanation of affairs of state could hope to do. History does not have a face.

+ Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Valjean struggles to transform himself from a thief into an honest man; over the years he struggles to stay a step ahead of the zealous police officer Javert and tries to raise his adopted daughter, Cosette.

+ Gone With the Wind*, Margaret Mitchell
Bonnie dies while horseback riding, breaking the tie that binds the two main characters.

- The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
A powerful and enduring fiction about men and war, focusing on a platoon in vietnam.

+ Snow Falling on Cedars, David Peterson
Kabuo Miyamoto stands trial for the murder of Carl Heine, while Ishmael Chambers struggles to overcome his emotionally and physically shattered past.

Fiction and Non-Fiction

Not all books fit neatly into predetermined catagories. Those books are listed here as either ficiton or Non-fiction.

Non Fiction
+Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, Sarah & Elizabeth Delany

+ A Death in the Family, James Agee
The novel is based on the events that occurred to Agee in 1915 when his father went out of town to see his own father, who had a heart attack, and was killed in a car accident during the return trip. The novel provides a portrait of life in Knoxville, Tennessee, showing how such a loss affects the young widow, her two children, her atheistic father and the dead man’s alcoholic brother.

Fictional Story/Play
- The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
The video below serves as a synopsis for a book about rape and murder from the unique perspective of the victim, watching from "heaven."


+ Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Emma wishes for romantic love, wealth, and social status that she can't have because she's married to a middle-class doctor.

+ Our Town, Thorton Wilder


- The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
The simplistic conflict of Jerry's refusal to sell chocolates at the school chocolate sale covers a range of themes including disturbing the universe; psychological warfare; the power of fear; manipulation; nonconformity; perversion; corruptness.

+ Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
Sister Carrie tells the story of two characters: Carrie Meeber, an ordinary girl who rises from a low-paid wage earner to a high-paid actress, and George Hurstwood, a member of the upper middle class who falls from his comfortable lifestyle to a life on the streets. Neither Carrie nor Hurstwood earn their fates through virtue or vice, but rather through random circumstance. Their successes and failures have no moral value; this stance marks Sister Carrie as a departure from the conventional literature of the period.

+ Silas Marner, George Eliot

+ Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers
+ The Red Pony, John Steinbeck
+ Billy Budd, Herman Melville