The Great Gatsby is a captivating novel exploring love, ambition and the American Dream. The story follows Nick Carraway, a Midwestern bond trader, as he becomes a part of the lavish world of his interesting neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, is hopelessly in love with Daisy Buchanan, a married woman who is also Nick’s cousin. He throws grand, lavish parties in hopes of winning her affection.
This classic piece of literature by Shakespeare tells the tale of forbidden lovers, Romeo Montague, and Juliet Capulet from warring families. To begin, the families are not allowed to fight by order of the Prince. Later that night, Romeo and his friends break into a Capulet party. Romeo meets Juliet and they fall in love. However, all is not well because Juliet is promised to marry Paris. After a deadly battle between the two families, Romeo is banished. Juliet and Romeo make a plan with the Friar that ultimately ends in bloodshed.
In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the main character, Winston, lives in a totalitarian society where he silently rebels against the “Party Members”(the government). The novel takes place in the future and speculates what our society could become. Citizens in Oceania are constantly under surveillance and fear a fictional creation that the government threatens. Throughout the novel, Winston struggles in difficult situations and acts in different ways to overcome them.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a powerful historical fiction novel set in the racially segregated South, following Scout Finch, a young girl whose father, Atticus, is an attorney defending a Black man falsely accused of assaulting a white woman. Through Scout’s eyes, the story explores themes of justice, prejudice and morality. This book is both thought-provoking and deeply moving. I admired the way Lee balances the innocence of Scout’s narration with the heavy societal issues the story tackles.
The Scarlet Letter is an American class that follows the journey of a women being persecuted for adultery in a very strict Puritan society. She struggles with the punishment she is made to bear paired with the guilt and shame of her crime.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the early 19th century, a story about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who achieves his goal of creating life from corpses as a scientific experiment. While Victor was solely focused on the process of creation, he unintentionally ends up creating a monster. Victor’s deep immersion in his scientific endeavors blinded him from considering the ethical implications of his actions, and he spends the rest of his few years alive trying to stop the Creature from creating havoc.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is a classical literature novel written in gothic style. The story involves a woman who marries Maxim de Winter, a wealthy man who she knows nothing about. The woman, at first is excited about her marriage, but soon experiences feelings of regret and guilt. She discovers the strong hold that Maxim’s late wife Rebecca had on the people around her. She works to uncover Maxim and Rebecca’s past to find peace in her own life.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is a classic that depicts monsters being something more than just the appearance of one person but rather the monster that is inside of you. This book is about a scientist by the name of Victor Frankenstein who creates a monster from pieces of corpses and brings it to life. The message of this story is something that defines the ages, teaching generations to put past the prejudice of everyday life to see within rather than just the appearance of one who is called a monster.
Holden Caulfield, a distraught and confused teen gets expelled from his school and must learn to navigate the world around him. Inside, Holden is alone and scared, believing that everyone is a “phony”. Holden journeys around New York to try and make meaningful connections with someone but fails over and over.
After a plane crash leaves a group of adolescent boys stranded on a deserted island, they must figure out how to survive. Their initial methods are civilized and orderly, but as the struggle for power takes over, a man’s darkest parts are revealed. With the added obstacles of a terrifying monster and lost hope, will the boys survive?
