AP Review Flash Cards (AP Lit 2015 - 2016)

Title: The Outsiders Author: S.E. Hinton Point of View: Ponyboy gives a first-person, subjective account of events, explaining how we should interpret events and people in the story. Setting: Mid-1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma Main Characters: Ponyboy Curtis Johnny Cade Cherry Valance Themes: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor Honor Among the Lawless The Treacherousness of Male-Female Interactions

Short Summary: Ponyboy is pretty smart and has a lot of opportunity in front of him, but he comes from the "wrong side of town" and hangs out with a bunch of similarly weirdly-named friends who drop out, smoke cigarettes, and get busted for robbing stores and stealing cars. We first meet our narrator, fourteen-year-old Ponyboy, as he's walking home from the movies—alone, which is something we know he's not supposed to be doing. His East Side neighborhood is patrolled by bullying Socials, rich kids from the West Side of town. Ponyboy is attacked by a carload of Socials when he's in a vacant lot, just minutes from his home. Luckily his older brothers—Darry and Sodapop—and the rest of his gang—Steve, Two-Bit, Johnny, and Dallas—come to his rescue and chase away the Socials. Pony and Johnny go to the drive-in with Dallas. Two Socials girls are there watching the movie too. Dallas begins harassing them, but Johnny tells him to stop. Dallas does, but leaves in a huff. So the girls, Cherry Valance and Marcia, ask Pony and Johnny to sit with them and watch the movie. After the movies, Pony, Johnny, and Two-Bit begin walking with the girls to Two-Bit's house. He plans to drive the girls home but their boyfriends, Bob and Randy, intervene and the girls leave with them instead. Later, Ponyboy and Johnny fall asleep in the vacant lot. When they wake up, it's two in the morning. Uh-oh. Darry is furious when Pony gets home, and they argue. Darry slaps Pony, who then runs back to Johnny. They walk to the park and a gang of Socials, including Randy and Bob, attack them. One of the Socials, a guy named David, tries to drown Pony in the fountain, and Pony passes out. When he wakes up, he learns that Johnny stabbed Bob, and Bob is dead. Pony and Johnny go see Dallas, who tells them to jump a train out of town and hide out in an abandoned church. He gives them some money. The two boys follow his instructions and spend five days in the church. Dallas shows up on the fifth day, and takes them out to eat. When they get back to the church, it's on fire, and a bunch of school children are trapped inside. Pony and Johnny rush in and save all the little kids. But a piece of burning timber falls on Johnny, and Pony is knocked unconscious by Dallas. When Pony wakes up, he's on the way to the hospital. At the hospital, he's reunited with his brothers. He also gets the scoop on his friends: Dallas is okay, but Johnny is in critical condition and might die. The next day is a big Greasers vs. Socials rumble. The Greasers win, and Pony and Dallas rush to the hospital to tell Johnny. While they're with Johnny, though, their feelings of triumph quickly fade—Johnny dies. Dallas runs off, and the rest of the gang learns that Dallas has robbed a grocery store, that the cops are chasing him, and that he wants the gang to meet him at the vacant lot. The cops come to the lot and Dallas shows them his gun. They shoot and kill Dallas. Soon after, a hearing is held on whether Pony will face charges for running away, and whether he and Soda will be able to stay with their big brother Darry. The judge acts in the Curtis boys' favor, and life goes back to usual. Except that it doesn't. When his English teacher tells him to write an essay—one from the heart, about something meaningful to him— he realizes that he can share the story of the three dead boys with the world, and maybe make a difference in the lives of others. So, turns out, the story we've been reading is really Ponyboy's English homework. Personal response: This book was intended for a younger audience, but its description and perspective of the 1960's society will forever offer a broad analysis. Individuals make up society and within that organization one has community. Of course, community contains ideals, perspectives, and beliefs that separate individuals. Furthermore, these perspectives create groups which divide communities which sometimes lead to conflict. These conflicts weaken society and community, thus how can the individual work with another and prevent persecution? Rather, how can these persecution manipulate society in the future? So, perhaps "The Outsiders" teaches one a lesson to never persecute and hate society for that one is theoretically denouncing himself. The "perfect quote": "Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it's the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs."

Title: The Crucible Author: Arthur Miller Point of View: The Crucible is a play, so the audience and reader are entirely outside the action. Setting: Salem 1692, a small town in colonial Massachusetts. Main Characters: John Proctor Abigail Williams Reverend Hail Themes: Intolerance Hysteria Reputation

Short Summary: In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumors of witchcraft fill the town. While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor's home the previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon ensues. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs. A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harboring feelings for her. While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the girls are lying. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious, Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor's claim, Danforth summons Elizabeth and asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural honesty, she lies to protect Proctor's honor, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar. Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings. The summer passes and autumn arrives. Danforth, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and the officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists that the confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt. Despite Hale's desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and the witch trials reach their awful conclusion. Personal response: Nothing is more brutal then being falsely accused of witchcraft. Of course, that isn't a everyday thing unless you live in the 1600's. Thus, the "Crucible" is the prime example of societal fear, but notes individual traits like intolerance, hysteria, and reputation. Therefore, the primary course of action to accuse individuals of witchcraft was out of intolerance because of the puritan belief system. Rather, society wasn't able to tolerate anything else but Christianity which showed what the persecuted individual would receive if they didn't go the holy way. Furthermore, fear related to hysteria which made individuals accuse others or perhaps become the accused. Even though there was no evidence to prove the innocence or guilt of the individual the court acted upon the hysteria. Thus, was the court which rules on behalf of society hysterical and afraid? Also reputation makes up the individuals name, therefore to declare one a witch would destroy one's reputation. Although one must think of the persecutor and how would they be viewed in the near future, and what defines their actions? The "perfect quote": "A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is. . . . She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat..."

Title:The Great Gatsby Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Point of View: Nick Carraway narrates in both first and third person, presenting only what he himself observes. Nick alternates sections where he presents events objectively, as they appeared to him at the time, with sections where he gives his own interpretations of the story's meaning and of the motivations of the other characters. Setting: Summer 1922 Long Island and New York City. Main Characters: Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Daisy Buchanan Themes: The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s The Hollowness of the Upper Class

Short Summary: Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island home to the established upper class. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually garners an invitation to one of Gatsby's legendary parties. He encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, a surprisingly young man who affects an English accent, has a remarkable smile, and calls everyone "old sport." Gatsby asks to speak to Jordan alone, and, through Jordan, Nick later learns more about his mysterious neighbor. Gatsby tells Jordan that he knew Daisy in Louisville in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. After a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Gatsby stares at Daisy with such undisguised passion that Tom realizes Gatsby is in love with her. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is deeply outraged by the thought that his wife could be unfaithful to him. Tom asserts that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand, and he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal—his fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes, however, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Myrtle, Tom's lover. They rush back to Long Island, where Nick learns from Gatsby that Daisy was driving the car when it struck Myrtle, but that Gatsby intends to take the blame. George, who has leapt to the conclusion that the driver of the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover, finds Gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him dead. He then fatally shoots himself. Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby's life and for the emptiness and moral decay of life among the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick reflects that just as Gatsby's dream of Daisy was corrupted by money and dishonesty, the American dream of happiness and individualism has disintegrated into the mere pursuit of wealth. Though Gatsby's power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him "great," Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby's dream and the American dream—is over. Personal response: The Great Gatsby showed the corruption of the upper class through the language of a love story. Also, it noted human jealousy towards particular social classes, and discussed the inability to find the American Dream. Therefore, the 1920's represents the decline in social classes, and the decline of the individual pursuit of happiness and individualism.Thus, Jay Gatsby represents a rare breed of the upper class whose personality made him special. Gatsby wasn't truly happy even with his wealth, and that is why he sought the companionship of Daisy. So, all in all he didn't represent the true reality of the corrupted upper class which perhaps presented him as Godlike but a target of society. The "perfect quote": "The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end."

Title: The Grapes of Wrath Author: John Steinbeck Point of View: The narrative shifts dramatically between different points of view. In some chapters, the narrator describes events broadly, summarizing the experiences of a large number of people and providing historical analysis. Frequently, in the same chapters, the narrator assumes the voice of a typical individual, such as a displaced farmer or a crooked used-car salesman. expressing that person's individual concerns. The chapters focusing on the Joad family are narrated primarily from an objective point of view, representing conversations and interactions without focusing on any particular character. Here, the characters' actions are presented as an observer might witness them, without directly representing the characters' thoughts and motivations. At certain points, however, the narrator shifts and presents the Joads from an omniscient point of view, explaining their psychologies, characters, and motivations in intimate detail. Setting: Late 1930s Oklahoma, California, and points along the way. Main Characters: Tom Joad Ma Joad Pa Joad Jim Casy Rose of Sharon Themes: Man's Inhumanity to Man The Saving Power of Family and Fellowship The Dignity of Wrath The Multiplying Effects of Selfishness and Altruism

Short Summary: Oklahoma, Tom Joad hitchhikes home after being paroled from the state penitentiary. Along the road, he encounters Jim Casy, a preacher Tom remembers from childhood. Casy explains that he is no longer a preacher, having lost his calling. He still believes in the Holy Spirit, but not necessarily the spirituality mandated by organized religion. For Casy, the Holy Spirit is love. Not just the love of God or Jesus, but the love of all humans. He maintains that all people are holy, everyone being part of the whole soul of humankind. Tom invites Casy to join him on his walk home. When they arrive at what was once the Joad farm, Tom and Casy find it abandoned. Muley Graves, a Joad neighbor, approaches and tells Tom that his family has been tractored off their land by the bank. They have moved in with his Uncle John and are preparing to leave for California to find work. Tom and Casy spend the night near the deserted farm and head to Uncle John's early the next morning. The family is preparing for their journey to California when Tom and Casy arrive. Casy asks whether he can journey west with the Joads. The Joads agree to take him along. Once their belongings have been sold, everyone except Granpa is anxious to get started. The family stops that first evening next to a migrant couple whose car has broken down. The Wilsons are gracious, offering their tent to Granpa who has a stroke and dies. Tom and Al fix the Wilson's car, and the two families decide to travel together. In New Mexico, the Wilson's touring car breaks down again, and the families are forced to stop. Granma has become increasingly ill since Granpa's death, and Tom suggests the others take the truck and continue on. Ma refuses to go, insisting that the family stay together. She picks up the jack handle to support her point, and the rest of the family gives in. As they reach the desert bordering California, Sairy Wilson becomes so ill that she is unable to continue. Granma's health continues to deteriorate, and as the truck starts its nighttime trek across the desert, Ma knows that Granma will not survive. Knowing that they cannot afford to stop, Ma lies in the back of the truck with Granma. Midway across the desert, Granma dies. By dawn, the Joads have climbed out of the desert and stop the truck to gaze down upon the beautiful Bakersfield valley. Ma tells them that Granma has passed. The Joads stop at the first camp they come to, a dirty Hooverville of tents and makeshift shelters. The men are talking to Floyd Knowles, a young man in the camp, when a businessman accompanied by a cop offers them work. When Floyd asks for a wage offer in writing, he is accused of being a "red," and the cop attempts to arrest him. Tom trips the cop, and Casy kicks him. When the cop regains consciousness, Casy gives himself up to the law in order to divert attention away from Tom. The Joads travel south to a government-run camp in Weedpatch. Here, the community governs itself, electing committees to deal with clean-up, discipline, and entertainment. The Joads are comfortable but, after a month, are still unable to find any work and realize they must move on. They are offered work picking peaches in Tulare. The camp gate is surrounded by a large group of men shouting and waving. The Joads, escorted through the gate by state police, begin work immediately. They are paid five cents a box, not sufficient to feed the family a day's meal. After the first day of picking, Tom wanders outside the ranch. He meets up with Jim Casy, who is leading a strike against the peach orchard owners who want to pay two-and-a-half cents a box. Tom learns his family is being paid five cents because they are working as strikebreakers. As the men talk, authorities sneak up, looking for Casy, the presumed leader of the strike. Unprovoked, one of the men strikes Casy on the head, killing him. Without thinking, Tom begins beating Casy's killer. The other men intervene, and Tom's nose is broken. He escapes, hiding in the peach orchard until he can reach his house. Marked by his scarred face and broken nose, Tom becomes a fugitive, hidden by his family. The Joads flee the peach ranch at the first daylight. They find work picking cotton and share an empty boxcar with another family, the Wainwrights. Tom hides in a nearby cave where his mother leaves him food. The family is comfortable for a time, earning enough to eat meat daily. One day, however, young Ruthie gets in a fight with another child. She threatens to call her big brother who is hiding because he has killed two men. Ma rushes to tell Tom he must leave for his own safety. Tom agrees and leaves with plans to carry on the social work that Jim Casy has begun. Al gets engaged to sixteen-year-old Agnes Wainwright. As the cotton picking slows, the rains come. It rains steadily, and the water levels begin to rise. The night that Rose of Sharon goes into labor, the river threatens to flood the boxcar. Pa, Uncle John, Al and the rest of the men try to build an embankment to contain the river, but are unsuccessful. Rose of Sharon's baby is stillborn. After a few days, the rain subsides. Leaving Al and the Wainwrights, the remaining Joads abandon the boxcar for higher ground. They find shelter in an old barn already occupied by a boy and his starving father. The child tells the Joads that his father has not eaten in six days and is unable to keep down solid food. Rose of Sharon offers him the breast milk no longer needed for her own child. The others leave the barn as she cradles the dying man to her breast. Personal response: Human emotion in times of great despair shows the individual personality and the will to keep one and loved ones together. Although in times of depression one can see both the good and the bad of the individual. This is similar to Elie Wiesel's "Night" where compassion was forgotten and morals destroyed turning the Jewish prisoners into creatures. Although even if people are driven to be out for themselves, there are many others who will lend a hand to a reasonable extent of course. Thus, one has to remember that not everyone has a fortune to spend, therefore most individuals are in the same situation as the other. Although if these individuals begin to rely on one another this shows human resilience, and defines the human individuals willingness to not perish among so many others. The "perfect quote": "The last clear definite function of man—muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need—this is man. To build a wall, to build a house, a dam, and in the wall and house and dam to put something of Manself, and to Manself take back something of the wall, the house the dam; to take hard muscles from the lifting, to take the clear lines and form from conceiving. For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments."

Title: Gone With the Wind Author: Margaret Mitchell Point of View: The narrator follows Scarlett almost exclusively, occasionally pulling back to give broad historical descriptions and analysis. Setting: 1861-early 1870S Atlanta; Tara, the O'Hara plantation in northern Georgia. Main Characters: Scarlett O' Hara Rhett Butler Ashley Wilkes Themes: The Transformation of Southern Culture Overcoming Adversity with Willpower The Importance of Land

Short Summary: Scarlett O'Hara, a spoiled and beautiful Southern belle, lives on Tara, a large plantation in Georgia. Before the Civil War, Scarlett O'Hara is a selfish, sixteen-year-old in Georgia who cares mostly about parties and flirting. Scarlett discovers Ashley is going to marry his cousin, Melanie, and she's very upset about it. So she tells him that she loves him, which seems kind of mean to Melanie, but that's sort of person Scarlett is. Rhett Butler, a disreputable scoundrel and the novel's hero, listens in the room unobserved while Scarlett makes her declaration of love to Ashley. Scarlett is angry and upset after she's rejected, and goes off and gets engaged to Melanie's brother, the shy clueless Charles Hamilton. Civil War begins. Charles dies from a disease. Eventually she consorts and banters with Rhett, who is hanging around and being irritating and sometimes friendly, because he loves her though he won't admit it. Anyway, Ashley comes back on leave briefly, he and Scarlett share a significant moment where he sort of declares his love again and asks her to take care of Melanie. With perfect timing, Melly has her baby just as Union forces are invading Atlanta; in the chaos Scarlett has to deliver the baby herself. Back at Tara, Scarlett's mother, Ellen, has died of typhus, her two sisters are sick, and her father has gone quietly mad from grief. But Scarlett is tough as nails and twice as mean, and she manages to scrape together food for herself and her family and Melly, who is staying on. She decides to go back to Atlanta to find Rhett, who is rich, and who she hopes will either marry her or pay her to be his mistress. Rhett gets out of prison and Scarlett borrows money from him to buy mills and set herself up in the lumber business. Scarlett agrees to marry wealthy Rhett when he proposes. It's not exactly wedded bliss, but they have a daughter, Bonnie, whom Rhett dotes on. For Bonnie's sake, Rhett tries to moderate his conduct and get in good with Atlanta society. Scarlett discovers she's pregnant; Rhett finally comes back and immediately taunts her and suggests she's be better off if she miscarried, she moves to slap him, misses, falls down the stairs, and has a miscarriage. Not long after, Bonnie gets a horse, falls off it, and then dies attempting a jump. Scarlett and Rhett are horribly grieved, and the death pushes them further apart. Reconstruction has basically ended now; Southern Democrats are back in control of Atlanta and the South, and black people are being disenfranchised. Melly dies from a miscarriage, and Scarlett realizes that she doesn't hate her at all, but loves and relies on her. Scarlett goes to tell Rhett that she loves him, but he says he used to love her but doesn't anymore, and is going off to travel. She is undeterred, though, and determines to go back to Tara for a break and then to try to figure out how to get Rhett back. Personal response: A love story set within the period of the civil war shows both the cost of war and the impact of human compassion and resilience. Thus, one gets a view into southern society before war, and afterwards showed the new perspective of southern society. Although within these changes shows the human individual struggles to survive and love. Furthermore, war brings the individuals together no matter their social standings or opinions of others. Thus, the individual learns to rely on one another and care for another. Rather, this shows human compassion and love among others in time of need. The "perfect quote": "I'll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day."

Title: The Glass Menagerie Author: Tennessee Williams Point of View: Tom both narrates and participates in the play. The older Tom remembers his youth and then becomes a younger Tom who participates in the action as scenes from his youth play out. The point of view of the older Tom is reflective, and he warns us that his memory distorts the past. The younger Tom is impulsive and angry. The action sometimes consists of events that Tom does not witness; at these points, the play goes beyond simply describing events from Tom's own memory. Setting: Tom, from an indefinite point in the future, remembers the winter and spring of 1937 which starts out in an apartment in St. Louis. Main Characters: Tom Wingfield Amanda Wingfield Laura Wingfield Themes: The Difficulty of Accepting Reality The Impossibility of True Escape The Unrelenting Power of Memory

Short Summary: The play begins with a current-day Tom explaining to us that the play is his memory being re-told. We are also introduced to a projector that William uses to project images on screen perhaps relating to Tom's memories. The action of the play centers on Tom, his mother Amanda, and his sister Laura. In 1937 they live together in a small apartment in St. Louis. Their father abandoned them years earlier, and Tom is now the family's breadwinner. Laura is a frightened and terribly shy girl, with unbelievably weak nerves. She is also slightly lame in one leg, and she seldom leaves the apartment of her own volition. She busies herself caring for her "glass menagerie," a collection of delicate little glass animals. Amanda dreams constantly of the long-ago days when she was a young Southern belle and the darling of her small town's social scene. She enrolled Laura in classes at Rubicam's Business College, hoping that a career in business would make Laura self-sufficient. This attempt to make Laura self-sufficient ended in failure as the speed test on the typewriter terrified her. Thus, this leads to Amanda's madness to find a husband for Laura. By doing so, Tom finds a gentlemen by the name Jim O' Connor, a fellow employee at the warehouse. He is an outgoing and enthusiastic man on whom Laura had a terrible crush in high school. Although after immense flirtations and a kiss from Tim O' Brien he admits that he has a fiancé and cannot call again. Amanda and Tom have one final fight, and not long afterward Tom leaves for good. In Tom's closing monologue, he admits that he cannot escape the memory of his sister. Personal response: Tennessee Williams, related his personal life to "The Glass Menagerie" which overall showed his willingness to seek independence, but addressed his inability to forget. Thus, memory is complex in nature which makes one regret or rejoice. This which appeals to the sense of reality that the Wingfield family was going through, and their situation and hardships they experienced. Thus, it is obvious why Tom wanted to leave the Wingfield family because he felt oppressed and held down to the burden of family. So, when Tom left his family what consequences would have presented itself? Furthermore, what is the effect on Tom and the family? Thus, by Tom's independence he is ironically still not free for that he still contains the memories that remind him of family. So, truly Tom will never be free. The "perfect quote": "I descended the steps of this fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father's footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space. . . . I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. . . . I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes. Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be!"

Title: Frankenstein Author: Mary Shelley Point of View: The point of view shifts with the narration, from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to Frankenstein's monster, then back to Walton, with a few digressions in the form of letters from Elizabeth Lavenza and Alphonse Frankenstein. Setting: Eighteenth century Geneva; the Swiss Alps; Ingolstadt; England and Scotland; the northern ice. Main Characters: Victor Frankenstein The Monster Robert Walton Themes: Dangerous Knowledge Sublime Nature Monstrosity Secrecy Texts

Short Summary: The story begins with Captain Robert Walton hanging out in St. Petersburg, Russia, probably near the end of the 18th century. After weeks as sea, the crew of Walton's ship finds an emaciated man, Victor Frankenstein, floating on an ice and close to death. Growing up in Geneva, Switzerland, Victor is a precocious child, quick to learn all new subjects. Victor delights in the sciences and vows to someday study science. At the university, Victor meets his professors M. Krempe and M. Waldman. For two years, Victor becomes very involved with his studies, even impressing his teachers and fellow students. He devises a plan to re-create and reanimate a dead body. After bringing the creature to life, Victor feels guilty that he has brought a new life into the world with no provisions for taking care of the "monster." Thus, Victor flees and the "monster" roams the countryside without a father. Alphonse writes to Victor telling him to come home immediately since an unknown assailant murdered his youngest brother, William, by strangulation. Justine Moritz, their housekeeper, is falsely accused of the murder of William, and she goes to the gallows willingly. Victor knows who the killer is but cannot tell his family or the police. Victor soon ventures out of Geneva and to Mount Montanvert when he sees the monster approach him with a proposition- "make me a mate of my own." Victor attempts to create the female "monster," but it all ends in vain by Victor's hands in preventing creation. The monster vows revenge on Victor not upholding his end of their bargain.While at sea, Victor's boat is blown off course by a sudden storm, and he ends up in Ireland. Henry Clerval's body has washed up on the shores of Ireland, and Victor is set to stand trial for murder. Fortunately, Mr. Kirwin, a local magistrate, intercedes on Victor's behalf and pleads his case before a court, which then finds Victor innocent of the crime. Next, at his wedding Victor was so reluctant to protect Elizabeth he carried and abundance of weapons. Although this wouldn't stop the creature for he sneaked into Elizabeth's chambers and strangled her. Victor eventually vowed vengeance and chased the monster leading back to the time Robert Walton encountered Victor. There Victor fell gravely ill and the monster somewhat remorseful paid Victor and Robert Frost a visit. Thus, the monster tells Walton his side of the story, and after Victor's death swore suicide among his own funeral pyre. Personal response: Victor Frankenstein's creation was a spectacular achievement in science although consequences can occur by human error or abuse. This unfortunately was Victor's downfall for that within his creation of life he neglected to show care to the Creature. Furthermore, this is what built upon the emotions of both Victor and the Creature because of neglect. Also, society had a purpose in building upon the Creature's emotions because all he wanted to experience was love. This which the Creature was highly deprived, and in return cause the murders of Victor Frankenstein's loved ones. This in which played at the emotions of Victor for he felt responsible for the murders that took place because after all he was the creator. The "perfect quote": "Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man, did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?"

Title: Things Fall Apart Author: Chinua Achebe Point of View: The narration is in the third person, by an omniscient figure who focuses on Okonkwo but switches from character to character to detail the thoughts and motives of various individuals. Setting: 1890s Lower Nigerian villages, Iguedo and Mbanta in particular. Main Characters: Okonkwo Nwoye Ezinma Mr. Brown Themes: The Struggle Between Change and Tradition Varying Interpretations of Masculinity Language as a Sign of Cultural Difference

Short Summary: Though Okonkwo is a respected leader in the Umuofia tribe of the Igbo people, he lives in fear of becoming his father - a man known for his laziness and cowardice. Throughout his life, Okonkwo attempts to be his father's polar opposite. From an early age, he builds his home and reputation as a precocious wrestler and hard-working farmer. Okonkwo's efforts pay off big time and he becomes wealthy through his crops and scores three wives. Okonkwo's life is shaken up when an accidental murder takes place and Okonkwo ends up adopting a boy from another village. The boy is named Ikemefuna and Okonkwo comes to love him like a son. In fact, he loves him more than his natural son, Nwoye. After three years, though, the tribe decides that Ikemefuna must die. When the men of Umuofia take Ikemefuna into the forest to slaughter him, Okonkwo actually participates in the murder. Although he's just killed his adoptive son, Okonkwo shows no emotion because he wants to be seen as Mr. Macho and not be weak like his own father was. Later on, during a funeral, Okonkwo accidentally shoots and kills a boy. For his crime, the town exiles him for seven years to his mother's homeland, Mbanta. There, he learns about the coming of the white missionaries whose arrival signals the beginning of the end for the Igbo people. They bring Christianity and win over Igbo outcasts as their first converts. As the Christian religion gains legitimacy, more and more Igbo people are converted. Just when Okonkwo has finished his seven-year sentence and is allowed to return home, his son Nwoye converts to Christianity. Eventually, the Igbo attempts to talk to the missionaries, but the Christians capture the Igbo leaders and jail them for several days until the villagers cough up some ransom money. Contemplating revenge, the Igbo people hold a war council and Okonkwo is one of the biggest advocates for aggressive action. However, during the council, a court messenger from the missionaries arrives and tells the men to stop the meeting. Enraged, Okonkwo kills him. Realizing that his clan will not go to war against the white men, the proud, devastated Okonkwo hangs himself. Personal response: Religion moves society in multiple ways, but what does it destruct in the process? Thus, religion tends to consume traditional methods that contain ideals, beliefs, and compassion. Therefore, religion such as Christianity has the potential to spread further taking up more followers. Although there are some that denounce these religious for that they can't accept societies ability to change. Okonkwo is a good example because he believed strongly in traditional ideals, and perhaps perceived Christianity as a threat. Thus, to give in to such a religion would also deem him like his father who was a coward and weak. So, by Okonkwo's resentment of his father he couldn't accept Christianity for it would make him look weak among the tribe. Although his tribe was reluctant to follow in his foot step leading to his demise. Thus, it was Okonkwo's inability to change which ultimately killed him because society had truly accepted Christainity that Okonkwo so desperately denounced. The "perfect quote": "Does the white man understand our custom about land?" "How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

Title: Of Mice and Men Author: John Steinbeck Point of View: The story is told from the point of view of a third-person omniscient narrator, who can access the point of view of any character as required by the narrative. Setting: 1930's South of Soledad, California. Main Characters: Lennie George Candy Curley's wife Crooks Themes: The Predatory Nature of Human Existence Fraternity and the Idealized Male Friendship The Impossibility of the American Dream

Short Summary: Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, have been let off a bus miles away from the California farm where they are due to start work. George is a small, dark man with "sharp, strong features." Lennie, his companion, is his opposite, a giant of a man with a "shapeless" face. Overcome with thirst, the two stop in a clearing by a pool and decide to camp for the night. As the two converse, it becomes clear that Lennie has a mild mental disability, and is deeply devoted to George and dependent upon him for protection and guidance. George finds that Lennie, who loves petting soft things but often accidentally kills them, has been carrying and stroking a dead mouse. George angrily throws it away, fearing that Lennie might catch a disease from the dead animal. George complains loudly that his life would be easier without having to care for Lennie, but the reader senses that their friendship and devotion is mutual. He and Lennie share a dream of buying their own piece of land, farming it, and, much to Lennie's delight, keeping rabbits. George ends the night by treating Lennie to the story he often tells him about what life will be like in such an idyllic place. The next day, the men report to the nearby ranch. George, fearing how the boss will react to Lennie, insists that he'll do all the talking. He lies, explaining that they travel together because they are cousins and that a horse kicked Lennie in the head when he was a child. They are hired. They meet Candy, an old "swamper," or handyman, with a missing hand and an ancient dog, and Curley, the boss's mean-spirited son. Curley is newly married, possessive of his flirtatious wife, and full of jealous suspicion. Once George and Lennie are alone in the bunkhouse, Curley's wife appears and flirts with them. Lennie thinks she is "purty," but George, sensing the trouble that could come from tangling with this woman and her husband, warns Lennie to stay away from her. The next day, George confides in Slim that he and Lennie are not cousins, but have been friends since childhood. He tells how Lennie has often gotten them into trouble. For instance, they were forced to flee their last job because Lennie tried to touch a woman's dress and was accused of rape. Slim agrees to give Lennie one of his puppies, and Carlson continues to badger Candy to kill his old dog. When Slim agrees with Carlson, saying that death would be a welcome relief to the suffering animal, Candy gives in. Carlson, before leading the dog outside, promises to do the job painlessly. Slim goes to the barn to do some work, and Curley, who is maniacally searching for his wife, heads to the barn to accost Slim. Candy overhears George and Lennie discussing their plans to buy land, and offers his life's savings if they will let him live there too. The three make a pact to let no one else know of their plan. Slim returns to the bunkhouse, berating Curley for his suspicions. Curley, searching for an easy target for his anger, finds Lennie and picks a fight with him. Lennie crushes Curley's hand in the altercation. Slim warns Curley that if he tries to get George and Lennie fired, he will be the laughingstock of the farm. The next night, most of the men go to the local brothel. Lennie is left with Crooks, the lonely, black stable-hand, and Candy. Curley's wife flirts with them, refusing to leave until the other men come home. She notices the cuts on Lennie's face and suspects that he, and not a piece of machinery as Curley claimed, is responsible for hurting her husband. This thought amuses her. The next day, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy in the barn. Curley's wife enters and consoles him. She admits that life with Curley is a disappointment, and wishes that she had followed her dream of becoming a movie star. Lennie tells her that he loves petting soft things, and she offers to let him feel her hair. When he grabs too tightly, she cries out. In his attempt to silence her, he accidentally breaks her neck. Lennie flees back to a pool of the Salinas River that George had designated as a meeting place should either of them get into trouble. As the men back at the ranch discover what has happened and gather together a lynch party, George joins Lennie. Much to Lennie's surprise, George is not mad at him for doing "a bad thing." George begins to tell Lennie the story of the farm they will have together. As he describes the rabbits that Lennie will tend, the sound of the approaching lynch party grows louder. George shoots his friend in the back of the head. When the other men arrive, George lets them believe that Lennie had the gun, and George wrestled it away from him and shot him. Only Slim understands what has really happened, that George has killed his friend out of mercy. Slim consolingly leads him away, and the other men, completely puzzled, watch them leave. Personal response: John Steinbeck related to the Great Depression to emphasize the struggle these migrant farmers went through. Although Steinbeck also noted the personality and condition of each character to further extend the emotion that these two characters had. Thus, I feel that the character interaction between George and Lennie is great nevertheless. Thus, when George shot Lennie in the back of the head was he doing Lennie a favor? That is why the dog's death symbolizes Lennie's death for that the burden became to great and the consequences unimaginable. So, perhaps George felt sympathy and morally thought that Lennie would be better dead by his hands then the lynching party. Rather, Lennie wasn't trying to hurt anyone, but by his interaction with other characters it caused his demise. So, ironically it wasn't Lennie's fault for that it is the individuals fault for provoking the unimaginable. The "perfect quote": "A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically."

Title:The Awakening Author: Kate Chopin Point of View: The novel is narrated in the third person, but the narrator clearly shows sympathy and support to Edna. Setting: The novel opens on Grand Isle, a popular summer vacation spot for wealthy Creoles from New Orleans. The second half of the novel is set in New Orleans, mainly in the French Quarter. Main Characters: Edna Pontellier Mademoiselle Reisz Adèle Ratignolle Robert Lebrun Themes: Solitude as the Consequence of Independence The Implications of Self-Expression

Short Summary: When the book opens, Edna Pontellier is an obedient wife and mother vacationing at Grand Isle with her family. During the summer, Edna Pontellier meets a young gallant named Robert Lebrun, whose mother rents out the cottages on the island. Before they act on their mutual romantic interest in each other, Robert leaves for Mexico. Edna is lonely without his companionship, but shortly after her return to New Orleans, she picks up the male equivalent of a mistress. Although she does not love Alcee Arobin, he awakens various sexual passions within her. Rather, this awakens her value of independence spending her days concerned with household matters, Edna pursues her interest in painting, and instead of depending financially on her husband, Edna moves into a house of her own. By the time Robert returns, professing his love for Edna and his desire to someday marry her, Edna can no longer handle societal structures - particularly marriage. Edna heartbroken, returns the Grand Isle. Once there, she swims far out to the sea and presumably drowns. Personal response: Kate Chopin's work, perhaps showed her personal view of the female character during the Industrial Revolution. This in revolution of machines, but one can also view the revolution for women. Thus, women started to leave the presence of man and strive for their own goals, but with freedom comes persecution and solitude. Rather, how would society feel about the destruction of tradition? Also society can change, but how will the rebels alter the changes? Thus, through Edna's awakening one can view her change in perspective, and notes her ability to she the world in her own view. The "perfect quote": "The pigeon-house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to "feed upon opinion" when her own soul had invited her."