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TOP NOVELS IN ENGLISH LIT. - Coggle Diagram
TOP NOVELS IN ENGLISH LIT.
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
(1719)
GENRE
: Adventure story
PROTAGONIST
: Robinson Crusoe
POV
: 1st & 3rd person
THEMES
:
THEMES
:
Christianity & divine providence
Survival and Self-Reliance
Mastery over Nature
Society vs The individual
Isolation & solitude
Repentance and Redemption
Strangers, Savages, and the Unknown
Adventure / Exploration
Cultural Superiority & Racism
MOTIFS
:
Counting and Measuring
Eating
Hardship
The Sea
Survival Tools & Practicality
Dreams and Visions
Footprints in the Sand
The Bible, Religion & Divine Providence
CHARACTERS
:
Friday
: A native man Crusoe rescues from cannibals. He becomes Crusoe’s loyal companion & represents cultural differences.
Cannibals/"Savages"
: unnamed indigenous people living near the island who occasionally visit to perform rituals. They serve as antagonists and a source of moral tension for Crusoe.
The Portuguese Captain
: A ship captain who helps Crusoe early in his adventures and later aids him in reclaiming his wealth
The English Captain
: a captain whose ship is overtaken by mutineers. Crusoe helps him regain control, leading to Crusoe's eventual rescue.
PLACES
:
The Island
: the unnamed, remote tropical island where Crusoe spends most of his time. It becomes a symbol of survival and self-sufficiency. Key landmarks on the island:
The Cave/Cellar
: Crusoe’s shelter and storage area.
The Goat Pen
: Where Crusoe raises goats for food and milk.
The Cornfield
: Crusoe cultivates crops here for sustenance.
TERMS
:
God/Faith/Providence
: a recurring term in the novel, reflecting Crusoe’s belief in divine intervention and the role of God in his survival.
The Journal:
Crusoe keeps a detailed journal of his time on the island, symbolizing order and self-reflection.
The Boat
: Crusoe constructs several boats during his time on the island, representing ingenuity and determination.
The Wrecked Ship
: The stranded ship that provides Crusoe with supplies critical to his survival on the island.
The Footprint
: a crucial moment when Crusoe discovers a human footprint in the sand, signaling the presence of others on the island and reigniting his fears.
Food/Work/Tools
: directly tied to Crusoe’s daily struggles for survival
Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift
(1726)
GENRE
: Satire/Parody of the popular travel narrative
PROTAGONIST
: Lemuel Gulliver
POV
: 1st person. He describes other characters & actions as they appear to him.
THEMES
: The individual vs. society; The limits of human understanding
CHARACTERS
:
The Lilliputians
: Tiny people Gulliver encounters on his first voyage. They symbolize pettiness and political intrigue.
The Brobdingnagians
: Giants in Gulliver's second voyage who stand around 60 feet tall. They represent moral simplicity and a critical view of European society.
The Laputians
: Absurdly impractical, scientifically obsessed people Gulliver meets during his third voyage.
The Houyhnhnms
: Rational and noble horses in Gulliver's fourth voyage. They represent an ideal society governed by reason.
The Yahoos
: Depraved, animalistic humans in the land of the Houyhnhnms. They symbolize the worst aspects of humanity.
PLACES
:
Lilliput
: A land inhabited by tiny people. The setting for satire on political pettiness and the absurdity of war.
Blefuscu
: A rival island to Lilliput, also inhabited by tiny people. It represents political and religious disputes.
Brobdingnag
: A land of giants, where Gulliver feels small and vulnerable. A critique of European moral and societal shortcomings.
Laputa
: A flying island inhabited by theoretical intellectuals. It satirizes the impracticality of academia and science.
TERMS
:
Big-Endians and Little-Endians
: Factions in Lilliput who fight over the proper way to crack an egg. A satire on religious and political conflicts.
Nardac
: A title of honor in Lilliput, awarded to Gulliver for his service to the emperor.
Houyhnhnm
: A term symbolizing reason and enlightenment.
THEMES
:
Satire of Politics & Government
A critique of Cultural Superiority
The Limits of Human Understanding
Society vs The Individual
Might vs Right (physical power vs moral righteousness)
MOTIFS
:
Size & Scale
Satirical Contrasts
Perspective & Relativity
Symbolic clothing & Appearance
Language & Communication
Human Follies & Corruption
Navigation & Maps
Tom Jones
Henry Fielding
(1749)
GENRE
: Epic comic romance/Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Tom Jones
POV
: 1st person singular
THEMES
:
CHARACTERS
:
Tom Jones
: He is good-natured but impulsive, and his romantic entanglements and moral growth drive the story.
Sophia Western
: Tom's love interest, known for her beauty, virtue, and independent spirit. She resists pressure from her family to marry a man she does not love.
Squire Allworthy
: A kind and just man who raises Tom as his own. His benevolence and sense of justice shape the moral backdrop of the story.
Blifil
: Tom’s antagonist and Allworthy’s nephew. Hypocritical and conniving, he schemes to inherit Allworthy’s fortune and marries Sophia against her will.
PLACES
:
Paradise Hall
(Squire Allworthy’s Estate): The primary setting where Tom is raised and much of the early drama unfolds.
Western Hall
: The estate of Squire Western, where Sophia grows up and conflict arises over her marriage prospects.
London
: A central location for the novel’s later adventures, symbolizing both opportunity and moral corruption.
Upton Inn
: A key location where many of the novel’s humorous and dramatic episodes occur.
TERMS
:
"
Squire
": Refers to the landed gentry, particularly Squire Allworthy and Squire Western, who represent different aspects of English rural life.
"
Parson
": Several clergymen appear in the story, often satirized for their hypocrisy or incompetence.
Virtue, Chastity, Fortune, London, Companion, Seduction, Inheritance, Picaresque Journey
Joseph Andrews
Henry Fielding
(1742)
GENRE
: Comedy/Romance/Satire
PROTAGONIST
: Parson Adams and Joseph Andrews
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
THEMES
: charity and religion; the vulnerability and power of goodness; class and birth
CHARACTERS
:
Joseph Andrews
: The protagonist, a kind-hearted, virtuous young man who serves as a footman and remains committed to chastity and morality. He is the brother of Pamela Andrews (from
Pamela
by Samuel Richardson).
Parson Adams
: A good-natured, benevolent, but somewhat naïve clergyman who accompanies Joseph on his journey and serves as a moral compass in the novel.
Fanny Goodwill
: Joseph's love interest, a sweet and virtuous young woman of humble origins.
Lady Booby
: Joseph’s employer and an aristocratic widow who tries to seduce him. Her failure to do so sparks much of the novel's conflict.
PLACES
:
Lady Booby's Estate
: Where Joseph initially works as a footman and where Lady Booby attempts to seduce him.
The Inn
: A central location on Joseph and Parson Adams’s journey where various comic and dramatic episodes occur.
The Road
: Much of the novel takes place as a picaresque journey along country roads, symbolizing the unpredictability of life.
London
: Mentioned as a place of moral corruption, in contrast to the countryside's perceived simplicity.
QUOTES
:
These celebrated quotes reflect Fielding’s satirical genius & critique of 18th-c. English society:
On Virtue and Chastity
: “I have always thought it the duty of a good man to resist temptation in whatever shape it attacks him.”
On the Role of Providence
: “Good actions are in their nature rewarded here, with the tranquillity of mind which is their natural companion, and the reflection they must occasion in our own breasts.”
On Hypocrisy
: “Nothing is so ridiculous as the true estimation of things by the world.”
On Vanity and Appearance
: “It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.”
On Human Folly
: “The follies of mankind should always excite laughter rather than tears.”
On the Comic Nature of Life
: “We laugh at the misfortunes of others because it makes us forget our own.”
Clarissa
or, The History of a Young Lady
Samuel Richardson
(1749)
GENRE
: Epistolary/Realist/Psychological
PROTAGONIST
: Clarissa Harlowe
POV
: Told in a series of letters, giving the point of view of several characters. There is no omniscient or objective narrator.
THEMES
: the danger of rakes, virtue is rewarded eventually, a single false step brings disaster.
THEMES
:
Clarissa’s Virtue vs Lovelace’s Vice
Family Oppression and Tyranny
Chastity & Sexual Morality
The Role of Women in Society
Love & Betrayal
Power & Manipulation
Repentance & Redemption
CHARACTERS
:
Clarissa Harlowe
: The virtuous protagonist. She represents moral purity and is the tragic figure whose struggles with her family and Lovelace drive the story.
Robert Lovelace
: The charming yet manipulative antagonist. He courts, abducts, and ultimately ruins Clarissa, symbolizing vice and temptation.
James Harlowe
: Clarissa’s overbearing brother, who seeks to control her life and push her into an advantageous marriage.
Arabella Harlowe
: Clarissa’s jealous sister, who resents Clarissa’s beauty and virtue.
PLACES
:
The Harlowe family estate
: representing societal pressure, familial control, and the initial site of Clarissa’s oppression.
Mrs. Sinclair’s House (The Brothel)
: The London house where Lovelace deceives Clarissa into staying. It symbolizes vice and Clarissa’s loss of agency.
London
: A key setting for much of the novel’s drama, highlighting both opportunity and danger.
TERMS
:
"
Letters
": Reflecting the novel’s epistolary structure, letters are both a narrative device and a symbol of truth and intimacy.
Obedience, Seduction, Will, Honor, Marriage, Betrayal, Death
(1720s-40s)
ROMANTICISM
Sense and sensibility
Jane Austen
(1811)
GENRE
: Romance/Satire/Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Elinor and Marianne Dashwood
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
The Dashwood family (Elinor, Marianne, Mrs., John, Fanny)
PLACES
:
Norland Park (The Dashwood family estate)
Barton Cottage
London
THEMES
:
Sense vs Sensibility
Love & Marriage
Reason vs Passion
Women in society
Wealth & Inheritance
Social Class & Status
Family & Duty
MOTIFS
:
Letters
Contrasting Characters
Illness & Recovery
Money & Security
Nature & Landscapes
QUOTES
:
"I wish to be rational." (reflecting Elinor's struggle to balance emotion and reason)
"Engagements" and "Proposals"
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
(1813)
GENRE
: Romance/Comedy of manners/Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Elizabeth Bennet
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Elizabeth Bennet
Mr. Darcy
Janne Bennet
Mr. Bingley
Mr. Bennet
Mrs. Bennet
PLACES
:
Longbourn (the Bennet family home)
Netherfield Park (the rented estate of Mr. Bingley)
THEMES
:
Overcoming Pride & Prejudice
Love & Marriage
Passion vs Financial security
Class & Social status
The importance of Family Reputation
Judgment & Misjudgment
Individual Growth
MOTIFS
:
First Impressions
Letters
Balls and Social Gatherings
Houses and Estates
Nature and Walks
Marriage Proposals
QUOTES
:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged..." (opening line)
"Most ardently, I admire and love you." (Darcy’s passionate declaration of love to Elizabeth)
"Obstinate, headstrong girl!"
"Accomplished woman."
Emma
Jane Austen
(1816)
GENRE
: Romance/Comedy of manners/Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Emma Woodhouse
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Emma Woodhouse
Mr. George Knightley
Harriet Smith
Frank Churchill
Jane Fairfax
PLACES
:
Hartfield (Emma’s family home)
Highbury (the village)
Donwell Abbey (Mr. Knightley’s estate)
THEMES
:
Marriage & Social Status
The Dangers of Misjudgment
Women's confinement & independence
Self-Discovery and Growth
MOTIFS
:
Matchmaking
Letters
Social Gatherings: Balls, dinners & picnics
Illness and Hypochondria
Gossip and Speculation
Nature and Walking
QUOTES
:
"I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other." (Emma’s confidence and privilege)
"Faultless in spite of all her faults." (Mr. Knightley’s paradoxical description of Emma)
“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
“You must be the best judge of your own happiness.”
Frankenstein
or, The Modern Prometheus
Mary Shelley
(1818)
GENRE
: Gothic novel
PROTAGONIST
: Victor Frankestein
POV
: Shifts from Robert Walton to
Victor Frankenstein to Frankenstein’s monster
CHARACTERS
:
Victor Frankenstein
The Creature
Elizabeth Lavenza
Alphonse Frankenstein
William Frankenstein
PLACES
:
Geneva (Victor’s hometown)
Ingolstadt (Victor's university)
The Arctic
Mont Blanc and the Alps
THEMES
:
Ambition to transcend human limits
The pursuit of forbidden knowledge
Nature vs. Nurture
Isolation & Loneliness leading to Tragedy
Revenge and Justice
The Sublime in Nature
MOTIFS
:
Light and Fire
Prometheus
Letters and Narration
Physical Monstrosity
Life and Death
Wretched and Wretch
QUOTES
:
"It was on a dreary night of November..." (ictor’s account of animating his creation)
"I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel." (the creature’s lament over his rejection)
"I will be with you on your wedding night." (threat to Victor)
I am alone and miserable: man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create.
"I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on."
"When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?"
Robert Louis Stevenson
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
(1897)
GENRE
: Gothic novel
PROTAGONIST
: Henry Jekyll
POV
: 3rd person
CHARACTERS
:
Dr. Henry Jekyll
Mr. Edward Hyde
Mr. Gabriel John Utterson
Dr. Hastie Lanyon
PLACES
:
Dr. Jekyll’s Laboratory and House
Mr. Hyde’s Soho Residence
London Streets
THEMES
:
Duality of Human Nature
The consequences of unchecked scientific experimentation
Victorian values of Reputation and Respectability
The dangers of suppressing one’s darker impulses
The Supernatural and the Uncanny
MOTIFS
:
Windows and Doors
Fog and Darkness
Letters and Documents (pieces of written evidence that reveal the truth)
Grotesque Physical Appearance
Potions and Transformation
QUOTES
:
"Man is not truly one, but truly two."
"All human beings, as we meet them are commingled out of good and evil."
“If he be Mr. Hyde" he had thought, "I shall be Mr. Seek.”
“Some day...after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you.”
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
(1883)
GENRE
: Adventure story/Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Jim Hawkins
POV
: Jim's 1st & 3rd person narration
CHARACTERS
:
Jim Hawkins
Long John Silver
Squire Trelawney
Captain Smollett
Billy Bones
Ben Gunn
Israel Hands
PLACES
:
Admiral Benbow Inn
Hispaniola (the treasure hunt ship)
Treasure Island
Spyglass Hill
Ben Gunn’s Cave
THEMES
:
Adventure and Heroism in the face of danger
Exposed Greed and Corruption
Loyalty and Betrayal
Good vs. Evil
Coming of Age
Freedom and the Sea
MOTIFS
:
Treasure Map
Hidden Treasure
Obsession with wealth
The Black Spot (a pirate symbol)
Parrots
Rum and Alcohol
The Sea and Ships
QUOTES
:
"Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest..." (a pirate's chant)
"Pieces of eight!" (the parrot's cry)
"X marks the spot" (the buried treasure)
"Shiver me timbers!" (a pirate exclamation)
"A gentleman of fortune" (=pirate)
Dracula
GENRE
: Gothic novel
PROTAGONIST
: Van Helsing’s gang
POV
: 1st person
CHARACTERS
:
Van Helsing’s gang:
Jonathan Harker
Mina Murray
Dr. John Seward
Lucy Westenra
Dr. Van Helsing
PLACES
:
Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania
Whitby (a coastal town in England)
Carfax Abbey (Dracula’s estate)
London
THEMES
:
Good vs. Evil
Science vs. Superstition
Repressed Sexuality and Desire
The Role of Women
Fear of foreign influences disrupting England
MOTIFS
:
Blood
Christian Symbols (crucifixes & holy water)
The Gothic
Diaries and Letters
Light and Darkness
QUOTES
:
"The children of the night. What music they make!" (about wolves)
"Blood is life."
"Undead."
"I am here to do your bidding, Master." (devotion to Dracula)
"The mark of the vampire."
Bram Stoker
(1897)
(1810s-90s)
VICTORIAN NOVEL
EARLY ~
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
(1847)
GENRE
: Gothic novel/ Romance/Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Jane Eyre
POV
: Jane's 1st person narration
CHARACTERS
:
Jane Eyre (an orphaned, strong-willed governess)
Edward Rochester
Mrs. Reed (Jane’s cruel aunt)
Helen Burns (Jane's friend)
Bertha Mason (Rochester’s mad wife)
Mr. Brocklehurst (the harsh headmaster)
PLACES
:
Gateshead (the Reed family home)
Lowood School
Thornfield Hall
Moor House (Marsh End)
THEMES
:
Tension between emotional love, passion or desire & moral duty
Critique of Victorian social hierarchies and gender roles
Quest for personal freedom and dignity
Religion and Morality
The Supernatural and Gothic elements
MOTIFS
:
Fire and Ice: Representing passion and repression
The Red Room: A symbol of imprisonment & trauma
Birds: Representing freedom
Windows: A symbol of barriers and opportunties
QUOTES
:
"Reader, I married him." (signaling her independence and happy resolution)
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me."
"Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?"
"I must keep in good health, and not die."
"Unjust!—unjust!"
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë
(1847)
GENRE
: Gothic novel/Realism
PROTAGONIST
: Heathcliff and Catherine
POV
: 1st and 3rd peroson narrators
CHARACTERS
:
Heathcliff (the dark antihero)
Catherine Earnshaw (his soulmate)
Hindley Earnshaw (Catherine’s brother who mistreats Heathcliff)
...
PLACES
:
Wuthering Heights
Thrushcross Grange
The Moors (the open wilderness surrounding the estates)
THEMES
:
The consequences of unchecked emotions
Nature vs. Civilization
How social class influences relationships
Isolation and Suffering
MOTIFS
:
Descriptions of the Weather
Ghosts and the Supernatural
Windows and Doors
Duality
Love and Hatred: intense conflicting emotions
Soulmates
The Moors
QUOTES
:
"I am Heathcliff." (Catherine’s powerful expression of her inseparable bond with Heathcliff)
"He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”
“If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave.”
“I have to remind myself to breathe - almost to remind my heart to beat!”
“You said I killed you - haunt me, then! [...] Be with me always - take any form-drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!”
Vanity Fair
William Thackeray
(1847)
GENRE
: Satire/Picaresque
PROTAGONIST
: Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley
POV
: 3rd person (Omniscient) and 1st person
CHARACTERS
:
Becky Sharp
Rawdon Crawley (Becky’s husband)
Amelia Sedley (Becky's friend)
George Osborne (Amelia's husband)
PLACES
:
Russell Square in London (Sedley family home)
Queen’s Crawley (Crawley family estate)
Brussels after the Battle of Waterloo
Paris
Bath
THEMES
:
The pursuit of Wealth & Status at the cost of Morality
Exposing Vanity and Hypocrisy
Consequences of War (the Napoleonic Wars)
Friendship and Betrayal
Fate vs. Free Will
MOTIFS
:
The Puppet Show (a metaphor for characters manipulated by societal expectations)
Money and Materialism
Fashion and Appearance
Satirical Tone
Letters
QUOTES
:
"Revenge may be wicked, but it’s natural." (symbolizing a world of ambition, materialism, and superficiality)
"The world is a looking-glass." (suggesting that people’s experiences reflect their own natures)
"O vanity! Vanity!"
Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
(1843)
GENRE
: Novella
PROTAGONIST
: Ebenezer Scrooge
POV
: 3rd person
CHARACTERS
:
Ebenezer Scrooge
Jacob Marley (Scrooge’s deceased business partner)
The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present & Yet to Come
Bob Cratchit
Tiny Tim
Fred
PLACES
:
Scrooge’s Home and his Counting House
The Cratchit Home
Various Locations in London
THEMES
:
The Possibility of Change & Redemption
The Spirit of Christmas: generosity, compassion & goodwill
Social Injustice
Time and Memory
The importance of Family and Community
MOTIFS
:
Light and Darkness
Chains
Feasting and Celebration
Children
Weather descriptions
1 more item...
David Copperfield
(1849)
GENRE
: Bildungsroman/Social criticism/Auto-biographical fiction
PROTAGONIST
: David Copperfield
POV
: 1st person
CHARACTERS
:
David Copperfield
Clara Copperfield (his kind, weak mother)
Mr. Murdstone (his cruel step-father)
Peggotty
Em’ly
...
PLACES
:
Blunderstone
Rookery
Yarmouth
Salem House (the boarding school)
London
Canterbury
THEMES
:
From hardship to self-discovery
The challenges of class mobility
The importance of Family and Friendship
Hypocrisy
MOTIFS
:
Orphans and Foundlings
Mistreatment of Children
Debt and Financial Struggles
Sea and Storms
Hands and Work
1 more item...
Bleak House
(1852)
GENRE
: Romance/Realist novel/Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Esther Summerson
POV
: 1st and 3rd person
CHARACTERS
:
Esther Summerson
Lady Dedlock
John Jarndyce
Jarndyce v. Jarndyce lawsuit
Inspector Bucket
PLACES
:
Bleak House (John Jarndyce’s home)
Chancery Court
Chesney Wold
THEMES
:
The Corruption of the Legal System
Class Inequality
Secrecy and Revelation
Disease and Decay of Victorian society
MOTIFS
:
Fog
Documents and Paper
Illness and Death
Windows and Vision
Meaningful names (e.g., Skimpole, Dedlock)
1 more item...
Great Expectations
(1860)
GENRE
: Bildungsroman/Social criticism/Autobiographical fiction
PROTAGONIST
: Pip
POV
: 1st person
CHARACTERS
:
Pip
Joe Gargery
Estella
...
PLACES
:
London (where Pip moves to pursue his "great expectations")
The Marshes (Pip’s rural childhood home)
The Forge (Joe’s blacksmith shop)
THEMES
:
Ambition & the desire for Self-improvement
Personal growth from childhood to adulthood
Class mobility
Unrequited Love & Rejection
The importance of Genuine relationships and Loyalty over Wealth or Status
Appearance vs. Reality
MOTIFS
:
Hands and Work
Prisons and Chains
Mist and the Marshes
Fire and Light
1 more item...
(1840s-60s)
LATE ~
Middlemarch
George Eliot
(1871)
GENRE
: Bildungsroman/Realist fiction
PROTAGONIST
: Dorothea Brooke
POV
: 3rd person (omniscient)
CHARACTERS
:
Dorothea Brooke
Will Ladislaw
PLACES
:
Middlemarch (the fictional provincial town where the story takes place)
THEMES
:
The imperfection/disillusionment of marriage
The harshness of social expectations
Self-determination vs. chance
The Role of Women
MOTIFS
:
Gossip and Speaking for Others
Provincial Life
Debt and Borrowing Money
The Portrait of Ladislaw’s Grandmother (symbolic of Dorothea’s future choice of giving up wealth for love)
QUOTES
:
"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow."
"It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view."
“I mean, marriage drinks up all of our power of giving or getting any blessedness in that sort of love. I know it may be very dear—but it murders our marriage—and then the marriage stays with us like a murder—and everything else is gone.” (romantic love and marriage are incompatible)
Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure
(1895)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
: Jude Fawley
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Jude Fawley – A stonemason aspiring to intellectual and social advancement.
Arabella Donn – Jude’s first wife
Sue Bridehead – Jude’s cousin
Little Father Time – Jude and Sue’s son
PLACES
:
Marygreen – Jude’s rural hometown.
Christminster – A university town
Melchester – Where Sue attends training school.
THEMES
:
Criticism of Victorian Society: Rejection of marriage and religion
The importance of education
The rigidity of social class
Love, Sexuality and Women's rights
Old vs. New
Dissapointment and Fate
MOTIFS
:
Education – Representing aspiration and societal barriers.
Gothic Imagery – Reflecting despair and tragedy.
Statues and Ruins – Symbolizing decay and unattainable ideals.
Rain – emphasizing how the world around Jude tries to cast him down
"Nobody" – to emphasize Jude's loneliness and isolation, as well as the cruelty of his surrounding society
Incest between cousins– adds another dimension of impossibility to their happiness & progress
1 more item...
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
(1891)
GENRE
: Pastoral tragedy/Realist fiction
PROTAGONIST
: Tess Durbeyfield
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Tess Durbeyfield (the tragic heroine, strong and pure-hearted)
Alec d’Urberville (the wealthy and predatory man who exploits Tess)
Angel Clare (Tess’s idealistic but flawed love interest)
PLACES
:
Marlott (Tess’s rural village)
THEMES
:
The destructive power of societal norms and expectations
The class divisions and inequalities of Victorian society
The limitations and challenges faced by women in Victorian England
The search for personal identity and the struggle to reconcile past mistakes
MOTIFS
:
Birds and Animals (symbolizing freedom and entrapment)
Seasons (reflecting Tess’s life stages)
Christian and Pagan Imagery
The Book of Genesis
Changing names
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(1870-90)
MODERNISM
PRE-MODERNISM
Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim
GENRE
: Psychological thriller/Adventure
PROTAGONIST
: Jim
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Jim ( young seaman seeking redemption)
Marlow (the narrator and observer of Jim’s story)
Jewel (im’s love interest in Patusan)
PLACES
:
Patna (the ship whose abandonment shapes Jim’s disgrace)
Patusan (a remote settlement where Jim tries to redeem himself)
THEMES
:
Fantasy vs. Reality
Justice and Duty
Racism and Colonialism
Truth and Perspective
MOTIFS
:
The Sea (symbolizing danger and freedom)
The Patna (the ship represents the failures in Jim’s life)
Patusan (becomes a new opportunity for Jim that gives him a chance to grow)
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Heart of Darkness
GENRE
: Novella/Colonial literature/Adventure
PROTAGONIST
: Marlow
POV
: two narrators in the 1st person
CHARACTERS
:
Marlow
Kurtz
The Intended
PLACES
:
The Congo River
The Inner Station
THEMES
:
Imperialism and Exploitation
Civilization vs. Savagery
The Hollowness of Civilization
The Ambiguity of Good and Evil
MOTIFS
:
The Jungle (symbolizing mystery, danger, and the untamed human psyche)
The River (a symbol of the journey into the unknown and self-discovery)
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E. M. Forster
Howards End
GENRE
: Family drama/"Condition of England" novel (what makes England English, and if it can be improved)
PROTAGONIST
: Margaret Schlegel
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Margaret Schlegel
Helen Schlegel (her impulsive sister)
Henry Wilcox (her husband)
PLACES
:
Howards End (the Wilcox family home)
London
THEMES
:
Connection and Disconnection
Inner Life vs. Outer Life
Materialism vs. Spirituality
Regional Politics
MOTIFS
:
Houses
Inner Life
Inheritance
Cars and Walks
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A Passage to India
GENRE
: Historical fiction/ Psychological novel/Realism
PROTAGONIST
: Dr. Aziz
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Dr. Aziz
Cyril Fielding
Mrs. Moore
PLACES
:
Chandrapore (a fictional Indian town)
THEMES
:
Colonialism and Cultural Divide
The “Muddle” or Mystery of India
The Difficulty of English-Indian Friendship
The Unity of All Living Things
The Negligence of British Colonial Government
MOTIFS
:
The Echo (misunderstanding and existential dread)
The Marabar Caves (the unknown and chaos)
Nature /The Green Bird (India’s complexity and vastness)
The Wasp (the oneness of all living things)
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(1900-14)
D.H. Lawrence
Sons and Lovers
GENRE
: Psychological novel /Bildungsroman
PROTAGONIST
: Paul Morel
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Paul Morel
Gertrude Morel (his controlling mother)
Walter Morel (his father)
Miriam Leivers (his intellectual love interest)
Clara Dawes (his physical love interest)
PLACES
:
Nottinghamshire Mining Town
The Leivers’ Farm
THEMES
:
The Oedipal Complex and Family Ties
Bondage or Servitude
Contradictions
Nature and flowers
MOTIFS
:
Fire (represents passion)
Flowers (symbolize femininity and female sexuality)
The Moon (associated with motherhood)
Darkness (represents hidden or unconscious desire)
QUOTES
:
"She had borne so long the cruelty of belonging to him."
"There was something in the air that made the passion of people clearer."
"She loved him passionately. "
"Sleep is still most perfect ... when it is shared with a beloved."
"Won't you really go any farther?"
"I talk to her, but I want to come home to you."
"I don't think I love you as a man ought to love his wife."
"She lay as if she had given herself up to sacrifice."
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
GENRE
: Romance
PROTAGONIST
: Lady Constance Chatterley
POV
: 3rd person omniscient
CHARACTERS
:
Lady Constance Chatterley / Connie (seeking emotional and physical fulfillment)
Oliver Mellors (the gamekeeper and Connie’s lover)
Sir Clifford Chatterley (Connie’s paralyzed and emotionally distant husband)
PLACES
:
Wragby Hall (the Chatterleys’ estate)
The Woods (a place of freedom and intimacy for Connie and Mellors)
THEMES
:
Intellect vs. Bodily Experience
Nature vs. Machinery/Industrialization
Class, Consumerism, and Money
Gender and Sexuality
MOTIFS
:
Nature (symbolizing vitality, renewal, and primal connections)
Flowers (representing fertility and love)
Machinery (symbolizing industrial sterility and dehumanization)
Clifford's wheelchair (symbolizes the destructive, emasculating dangers of mechanical technology)
QUOTES
:
Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. [...] We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen."
"The world is supposed to be full of possibilities."
"It’s no good trying to be good now. We have to be good for something."
James Joyce
Dubliners
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
: Paul Morel
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Eveline (a young woman torn between duty and freedom)
Various unnamed characters (representing different aspects of Dublin life)
PLACES
:
Dublin (symbolizing paralysis and stagnation)
The Streets, Homes, and Pubs of Dublin (vignettes of daily life)
THEMES
:
The Stages of Life
Poverty and Class Differences
Longing for Escape
Irish Religion and Politics
Paralysis and Inaction
Isolation
Mortality
MOTIFS
:
Epiphany (moments of self-realization)
Dusk and Nighttime
Food and Drink
Alcohol
QUOTES
:
"The word paralysis ... It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work."
"But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad."
"One by one they were all becoming shades."
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
: Stephen Dedalus
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Stephen Dedalus
Emma Clery
Simon Dedalus (his father)
PLACES
:
University College Dublin (a place of intellectual awakening for Stephen)
Dublin (a backdrop for Stephen’s struggles with identity and belonging)
THEMES
:
The Development of Individual Consciousness
The Pitfalls of Religious Extremism
The Role of the Artist
The Need for Irish Autonomy
MOTIFS
:
Flight and Birds (escape and freedom)
Water (rebirth and renewal)
Colors (emotions and spiritual states)
Music
Prayers, Secular Songs, and Latin Phrases
QUOTES
:
"When the soul of a man is born in this country, there are nets flung at it to hold it back."
"Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience."
"The artist, like the God of creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork."
“The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question.”
“This race and this country and this life produced me, he said. I shall express myself as I am.”
Ulysses
GENRE
: Quest novel
PROTAGONIST
: Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom
POV
: a broad variety of perspectives
CHARACTERS
:
Leopold Bloom (the central protagonist)
Molly Bloom (Leopold’s wife, whose infidelity is central to the narrative)
Stephen Dedalus (also the protagonist of
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
)
PLACES
:
Dublin (meticulously detailed over the course of one day)
...
THEMES
:
The Search for Paternity
The Remorse of Conscience
Compassion as Heroic
the Need for Multiple Perspectives
MOTIFS
:
Lightness and Darkness
the East (the promise of an exotic, paradisiacal existence)
Pints and Pubs (an image of social life in Dublin)
Usurped home and Keys (he loss of home and the quest to recover it)
QUOTES
:
"I will not sleep here tonight. Home also I cannot go."
. . . and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
: Clarissa Dalloway
POV
: 3rd person omniscient (although it changes constantly)
CHARACTERS
:
Clarissa Dalloway (a high-society woman preparing for a party)
Septimus Warren Smith (a traumatized WWI veteran)
Peter Walsh (Clarissa’s former suitor, still in love with her)
Richard Dalloway (Clarissa’s husband, a politician)
Sally Seton (Clarissa’s close friend and youthful love)
PLACES
:
The city of London (symbolizing life’s rhythm and societal structure)
Clarissa’s Home (a place for reflection)
Regent’s Park (where Septimus confronts his mental turmoil)
THEMES
:
Privacy/Loneliness, and Connection/Communication
Disillusionment with the British Empire
Passage of Time and Memory
The Fear of Death
Mental Illness and Trauma
The Threat of Oppression
MOTIFS
:
Big Ben and Clocks (the passage of time)
Flowers (beauty and fragility)
The Party (connection and socialization)
Clothing (social class, personality, and priorities)
Water (change and transformation)
Airplanes (the fears and anxieties of various characters)
Trees (an everlasting life force that gives meaning to existence)
QUOTES
:
"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."
"She felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged."
"First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable." (time moves on unstoppably)
"She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day."
"Fear no more the heat o’ the sun."
"It might be possible that the world itself is without meaning."
"She felt somehow very like him—the young man who had killed himself."
To the Lighthouse
GENRE
: Modernist
PROTAGONIST
: Mrs. Ramsay and later Lily Briscoe
POV
: 3rd person
CHARACTERS
:
Mrs. Ramsay (a nurturing and empathetic matriarch)
Lily Briscoe (an artist struggling with societal expectations)
PLACES
:
The Ramsays’ Summer Home (reflecting the passage of time)
The Lighthouse (a symbol of unattainable ideals)
THEMES
:
The Meaning of Life
The Transience of Life and Work
Art as a Means of Preservation
The Subjective Nature of Reality/ The Nature of Interior Life
The Restorative Effects of Beauty
MOTIFS
:
The Differing Behaviors of Men and Women
Nature (reminds of their smallness in the universe)
The Lighthouse (remains unattainable)
The Sea (eternity and the unconscious)
The Journey (personal and artistic growth)
QUOTES
:
"What is the meaning of life? That was all—a simple question."
"…the monotonous fall of the waves on the beach"
"The very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare."
"For now she need not think of anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of - to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone."
A Room of One’s Own
GENRE
: long Essay (not a novel)
PROTAGONIST
: -
POV
: an unnamed female narrator
CHARACTERS
:
-
Shakespeare’s Sister (a fictional example of a woman with talent suppressed by societal constraints)
PLACES
:
Oxbridge (a fictional university representing male-dominated academia)
The British Library (a symbol of historical male intellectual dominance)
THEMES
:
The Aggression of Men
Institutionalized sexism
The Importance of Money
The Subjectivity of Truth
MOTIFS
:
The Locked Door (exclusion and limitation)
The Room (a metaphor for freedom and opportunity)
Food and Meals (disparity between genders)
Interruptions (women, who so often lack a room of their own and the time to write, cannot compete against the men who are not forced to struggle for such basic necessities)
QUOTES
:
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
"It would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare."
"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
"Literature is open to everybody."
“Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”
“The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
(1914-29)
DETECTIVE & MYSTERY NOVELS
The Moonstone
William Wilkie Collins
(1868)
GENRE
: Detective novel/Sensation novel
PROTAGONIST
: Franklin Blake or Rachel Verinder
POV
: 1st person
CHARACTERS
:
Rachel Verinder (who inherits the Moonstone)
Franklin Blake (Rachel’s cousin and love interest)
Sergeant Cuff (a detective investigating the theft)
...
PLACES
:
The Verinder Estate (the site of the Moonstone’s theft)
India (the origin of the Moonstone)
THEMES
:
Subjective Experience versus Objective Knowledge
Belief Systems and Ideologies
The Nobility of Self-Sacrifice
The Unwelcome Return of the Past
Colonialism and Cultural Exploitation
Familial Relations
Gender Roles
MOTIFS
:
The Moonstone / The diamond (symbolizing greed and misfortune)
Letters and Narratives (presenting multiple perspectives)
Roses (symbolic of ladies)
Opium/Laudanum (what causes Franklin to accidentally steal the Diamond, a symbol of the side effects of modern medicine)
Epistolary Format and Editorial Footnotes
Yellow (symbol of the mysterious nature of the East)
Character Counterparts
Bad Habits and Addictions
QUOTES
:
"The human heart is like a dark forest."
"No circumstances can justify theft."
“It’s hard to get over one’s bad habits, Godfrey. But do try to get over the habit of paying compliments – do, to please me"
I am asked to tell the story of the Diamond, and, instead of that, I have been telling the story of my own self. Curious, and quite beyond me to account for. I wonder whether the gentlemen who make a business and a living out of writing books, ever find their own selves getting in the way of their subjects, like me?
The horrid mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my head like liquor, and makes me wild.
Ha, Mr. Betteredge, the day is not far off when the poor will rise against the rich. I pray Heaven they may begin with him.
Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle
(1901)
GENRE
: Mystery/Detective novel
PROTAGONIST
: Sherlock Holmes
POV
: Entirely from Watson's pov
CHARACTERS
:
Sherlock Holmes
Dr. John Watson
Sir Henry Baskerville (the new heir to Baskerville Hall)
The Hound (a legendary beast tied to the Baskerville family curse)
Jack Stapleton (the story’s antagonist)
PLACES
:
Baskerville Hall (the ancestral home on the moors)
London (Holmes and Watson’s base of operations)
THEMES
:
The Natural and the Supernatural; Truth and Fantasy
Classism and Hierarchy
Isolation
MOTIFS
:
Fog – Representing mystery and danger.
The Hound – A symbol of fear/superstition, represents tension between science and superstition
The Moor (draws on the tradition of moors in earlier gothic novels, such as Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights). It represents danger, fear, and irrationality
Superstition and Folk Tales
Disguised Identities
QUOTES
:
“presume nothing”
"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."
"There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you."
“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.”
“It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”
“The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?”
“That which is clearly known hath less terror than that which is but hinted at and guessed.”
Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie
(1933)
GENRE
: Mystery/Detective fiction
PROTAGONIST
: Hercule Poirot
POV
: 3rd person, focusing on the thoughts and actions of Poirot.
CHARACTERS
:
Hercule Poirot– The meticulous Belgian detective
Samuel Ratchett (a.k.a. Cassetti) – The victim, a criminal with a dark past
...
PLACES
:
The Orient Express – The luxury train where the murder occurs
Yugoslavia – The train’s location when it is stranded by snow.
THEMES
:
The Justice of a Jury – The novel constantly questions what a jury is and how "just," this system of justice is
The Insufficiency of Law
The Morality of Murder
MOTIFS
:
The Train – A confined space heightening tension and suspicion.
Dual Identities – Many characters hide their true selves.
Daisy Armstrong – The three-year-old child, kidnapped and brutally murdered by an evil man for money, is the picture of purity.
Food – A symbol of society, sophistication and calm
Class distinctions
QUOTES
:
"The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances."
"I have always been able to see clearly the face behind the mask."
"There are two kinds of people in this world, those who can only go so far and no further, and those who can break through barriers."
“If you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, he will usually admit it - often out of sheer surprise. It is only necessary to guess right to produce your effect.”
“I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash.”
DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
(1932)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
: Bernard Marx
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Bernard Marx – An Alpha who feels alienated due to his physical stature and individuality.
Lenina Crowne – A Beta worker conditioned to conform.
John the Savage – Born outside the World State, he represents natural humanity.
PLACES
:
The World State – A futuristic, highly controlled society focused on stability and happiness.
The Savage Reservation – A place where "uncivilized" humans live, reflecting natural human behavior.
THEMES
:
The Use of Technology to Control Society
The Incompatibility of Happiness and Truth
The Consumer Society
The Dangers of an All-Powerful State
The Cost of Utopia
An effort to eliminate the Individual from Society
MOTIFS
:
Conditioning – Representing the loss of individuality.
Soma – Symbolizing escapism and the suppression of pain.
Shakespeare – Contrasting natural humanity with the artificiality of the World State.
Ford/My Ford/Our Ford – The perfect "god" for World State for developing his Ford Motor Company
Alienation
Sex
QUOTES
:
"Community, Identity, Stability."
"Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one."
“And that...is the secret of happiness and virtue—liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.”
“The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get... And if anything should go wrong, there's soma.”
“...most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.”
“All right then," said the savage defiantly, I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
George Orwell
Animal Farm
(1945)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Napoleon – A pig who becomes the tyrannical leader, representing Stalin.
Snowball – A pig and rival of Napoleon, symbolizing Trotsky.
Boxer – A hardworking but naive horse, representing the exploited working class.
Squealer – Napoleon’s propagandist pig, symbolizing the manipulation of truth.
Old Major – An elderly pig whose vision of rebellion inspires the animals, symbolizing Marx or Lenin.
PLACES
:
Manor Farm / Animal Farm – The farm where the animals rebel and attempt to create an egalitarian society.
The Windmill – A symbol of exploitation and manipulation by those in power.
THEMES
:
The Corruption of Socialist Ideals in the Soviet Union
The Societal Tendency Toward Class Stratification
The Danger of a Naïve Working Class
Language as Instrumental to the Abuse of Power
Corruption, Propaganda and Truth Manipulation
The Exploitation of Animals by Humans (literally)
MOTIFS
:
Mannor Farm – symbolizes the Soviet Union under Communist Party rule, but more broadly, any human society, be it capitalist, socialist, fascist, or communist.
The Seven Commandments – Representing shifting moral values.
The Barn – on where the Seven Commandments are painted, represents the collective memory of a modern nation
The Windmill – symbolizes the pigs’ manipulation of the other animals for their own gain
Songs, Poems and Slogans – serving as propaganda, one of the major conduits of social control
Food and Drink – represent either the labor of the working class or the capital of the ruling class
QUOTES
:
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
"Four legs good, two legs bad."
“The only good human being is a dead one.”
“This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.”
“Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.”
1984
(1949)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Winston Smith – The protagonist who resists the Party’s totalitarian rule.
Julia – Winston’s lover and fellow rebel.
O’Brien – A high-ranking member of the Party who betrays Winston
Big Brother – The omnipresent, symbolic leader of the Party.
Emmanuel Goldstein – The supposed enemy of the Party, symbolizing dissent.
PLACES
:
Oceania – The totalitarian superstate.
The Ministry of Truth – Where Winston alters historical records
Room 101 – A torture chamber representing the worst fears of individuals
THEMES
:
The Dangers of Totalitarianism
Psychological Manipulation
Physical Control
Control of Information and History
Language and Thought Control
Technology and Surveillance
Resistance and Revolution
MOTIFS
:
Newspeak – Language designed to limit freedom of thought.
Doublethink – The ability to hold two contradictory ideas in one’s mind at the same time
The Telescreen – Symbolizing constant surveillance.
The Paperweight – Representing Winston’s fragile hope.
Big Brother – he is a protector of most people, but also an open threat (one cannot escape his gaze).
Urban Decay – an implied visual reminder of the Party’s incompetence
The Place Where There Is No Darkness – it's merely a prison cell in which the light is never turned off, symbolising the future
QUOTES
:
"Big Brother is watching you."
"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
“In the face of pain there are no heroes.”
“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.”
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
(1954)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Lord of the Flies
is an allegorical novel, and many of its characters signify important ideas:
Ralph – The elected leader who represents order and civilization.
Piggy – An intelligent boy who symbolizes reason and logic.
Jack – The antagonist, representing savagery and the desire for power.
Simon – A mystical, Christ-like figure representing human goodness.
Roger – A sadistic boy who represents brutality and the darker side of human nature.
PLACES
:
The Island – A microcosm of society, isolated from civilization.
The Mountain – Where the boys search for the "beast."
The Beach
THEMES
:
Civilization vs. Savagery
Individualism vs. Community
Man vs. Nature
Loss of Innocence
Struggle to Build Civilization
Man’s Inherent Evil /The Nature of Evil
Dangers of Mob Mentality
The Absence of Laws
War and the Future of Mankind
MOTIFS
:
The Lord of the Flies – A symbol of innate human savagery.
Fire – Representing hope, rescue, and destruction.
Biblibal parallels – A retelling of episodes from the Bible.
Bullying towards the physically weak – Reinforces the theme of the evil of humanity.
The Signal Fire – To attract the notice of passing ships that might be able to rescue the boys. It becomes a barometer of the boys’ connection to civilization.
The Conch Shell – Representing order and democracy.
The Beast – The primal instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings.
QUOTES
:
"The thing is – fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream."
"We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?"
"Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us."
“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior [to men] and always have been.”
“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”
“We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.”
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
(1962)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Alex – The protagonist and narrator, a delinquent with a love for violence and classical music.
Dim – A member of Alex’s gang, characterized by his brutish nature.
Georgie – Another gang member who challenges Alex’s leadership.
Pete – The most level-headed member of Alex’s gang.
Dr. Brodsky – A scientist behind the Ludovico Technique.
PLACES
:
Alex’s Dystopian City – A setting marked by crime and government oppression.
he Korova Milkbar – A hangout where Alex and his gang prepare for their violent escapades.
The Prison – Where Alex undergoes the Ludovico Technique.
THEMES
:
Order in Society vs. Freedom of Choice / Free Will vs. the “Clockwork Orange” / Free Will vs. Conformity
The Necessity of Evil in Human Nature
The Interdependence of Life and Art
The Power of Language
MOTIFS
:
Nadsat Language – Symbolizing youth culture and alienation.
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – Representing the paradox of beauty and brutality.
Milk-Plus – Symbolizing innocence corrupted.
Sexual Aggression – As an exhibition of power and violence
Music – A signal of Alex's free will and individuality
Slang – Highlights the emotional and ideological distance between the generations
QUOTES
:
"What’s it going to be then, eh?" to emphasize the power and versatility of language and context
"Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man."
"The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate."
"I read this with care, my brothers, slurping away at the old chai…crunching my lomticks of black toast dipped in jammiwam and eggiwegg."
“Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him?”
“We can destroy what we have written, but we cannot unwrite it.”
"I was cured all right."
COLONIAL NOVELS
Rudyard Kipling
The Man who would be King
(1888)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Daniel Dravot – An ambitious adventurer seeking power.
Peachy Carnehan – Dravot’s pragmatic and loyal companion.
The Narrator – A journalist who recounts the tale.
PLACES
:
India – The starting point of the journey.
Kafiristan – A remote and mythical region
THEMES
:
Racial/White Superiority
The Consequences of Ambition and Arrogance
Imperialism and Civilization
MOTIFS
:
Kingship and Divinity – Exploring the nature of power and its corrupting influence.
Journey – A metaphor for moral and physical challenges.
The self-made Crown – represents the pair's right to absolute rule over Kafiristan
"Hubris" (arrogance)
The "Contrack" – Used to exert moral authority to rule over others in their empire
QUOTES
:
"The two men were as mad as hatters."
“if I want a crown I must go and hunt it for myself.”
"He was a king, he was, in his own right, until the real king of the country, who is the devil, came and took him."
"Nobody cares a straw for the internal administration of Native States so long as oppression and crime are kept within decent limits."
"We are not little men ... Therefore, we are going away to be Kings."
“Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy.”
Kim
(1901)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Kim – An orphaned boy navigating two cultures.
Mahbub Ali – A horse trader and British intelligence agent.
...
PLACES
:
Lahore – Kim’s starting point.
The Grand Trunk Road – A symbol of India’s diversity.
The Himalayas – The Lama’s spiritual destination.
THEMES
:
Identity and Belonging
Friendship and Loyalty
The Anglo-Indian Identity Crisis
Playfulness and "The Game"
Spirituality and Enlightenment
MOTIFS
:
Maps and Spying – Representing knowledge and control.
The Great Game – The geopolitical rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia
The Wheel of Life – The cyclical nature of existence
The River – The flow of life and spiritual renewal
The Road – A metaphor for life’s journey.
QUOTES
:
"Those who beg in silence starve in silence."
"My experience is that one can never fathom the Oriental mind."
"He considered his own identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate."
"Men say he does magic, but that should not touch thee. Go up the hill and ask. Here begins the Great Game."
Doris Lessing
The Grass is Singing
(1950)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Mary Turner – A lonely and repressed woman living in Southern Rhodesia.
Dick Turner – Mary’s idealistic but struggling farmer husband.
Moses – A Black servant whose relationship with Mary becomes central to the story
PLACES
:
The Turner Farm
Southern Rhodesia (South Africa) – A setting marked by racial tension and colonial oppression.
THEMES
:
Conflict within Marriage
Taboos and Truth
The injustice of racial discrimination of the British colonialists
Domination and Subjection
Harshness of Agricultural Life
The Failure of Civilization
MOTIFS
:
Heat and the Landscape – Symbolizing oppression and stagnation.
Silence – Reflecting repression and unspoken tensions.
The Veranda – where Mary is murdered and where her body is left
Tobacco
The Store
QUOTES
:
"It is by the failures and misfits of a civilization that one can best judge its weaknesses."
“But then, what is madness, but a refuge, a retreating from the world?”
"The women who marry men like Dick learn sooner or later that there are two things they can do: they can drive themselves mad, tear themselves to pieces in storms of futile anger and rebellion; or they can hold themselves tight and go bitter."
"Madame, lie down." – Moses transgresses two rules of great importance to racist Southern Rhodesian society: he speaks English, the language of the whites, and he gives a command to a white person.
The Golden Notebook
(1962)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Anna Wulf – A writer grappling with personal and political turmoil.
Molly Jacobs – Anna’s friend and fellow single mother.
PLACES
:
London – Anna’s home and the site of her intellectual and emotional struggles.
Colonial Africa – Flashbacks to Anna’s younger years
THEMES
:
Fragmentation of Identity
Politics and Ideology
Feminism and Gender Roles
Authorship
Taboos
Mental Health
MOTIFS
:
The Notebooks (Black, Red, Yellow, Blue, Golden) – Representing Anna’s fragmented psyche.
Writing – As a means of understanding and control.
Dreams – The inner workings of the mind and the subconscious
Ella's Plane Ride – symbolizes her sadness, depression, and lack of hope
Editing the Notebooks – symbolize her desire to control how she conceives of her own life
QUOTES
:
"The point is to free oneself from any label, even the label of revolutionary."
"There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best."
"The truth is, we all live in fragments."
It struck me that my doing this—turning everything into fiction—must be an evasion.
"People don’t mind immoral messages. They don’t mind art which says that murder is good, cruelty is good, sex for sex’s sake is good. They like it, provided the message is wrapped up a little."
Burger’s Daughter
Nadine Gordimer
(1979)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
: Rosa Burger
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Rosa Burger – The protagonist, the daughter of anti-apartheid activists, searching for her identity.
Lionel Burger – Rosa’s father
Katya Bagnelli – Rosa’s stepmother
Conrad – Rosa’s childhood friend and love interest, critical of her family’s activism
PLACES
:
South Africa (under apartheid)
THEMES
:
Political vs. Personal Identity
Racism, Apartheid and Oppression
The personal costs of Activism
Belonging and Family Inheritance
Guilt and Redemption
MOTIFS
:
Imprisonment – Both literal and metaphorical, symbolizing oppression and duty.
Letters and Diaries – Reflecting personal and political struggles.
Family Legacy – The burden of continuing a revolutionary path.
QUOTES
:
"A child of heroes is not a hero; she is a second-generation refugee from the war her parents fought."
"The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is."
"What is freedom? To have the will to act and be free of guilt when acting."
"The will is my own. The emotion's my own. The right to be inconsolable. When I feel, there's no 'we', only 'I'."
"The blackman is not fighting for equality with whites. Blackness is the blackman refusing to believe the whiteman's way of life is best for blacks."
POSTMODERNISM
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl
(1964)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Charlie Bucket – A kind, poor boy who wins a tour of Willy Wonka's factory.
Willy Wonka – The eccentric and brilliant owner of the chocolate factory.
Augustus Gloop – A gluttonous boy obsessed with food.
...
PLACES
:
The Chocolate Factory – A fantastical world of confectionery and innovation.
Charlie’s House – A small, dilapidated home symbolizing poverty.
THEMES
:
What Goes Around Comes Around – After it has been established which characters are good and which are bad, each of the characters is punished or rewarded in accordance with his personality.
Poverty vs. Wealth
Good Things Come in Small Packages
Greed and Consequences
MOTIFS
:
Candy and Food – Representing indulgence and temptation.
Golden Ticket – Symbolizing hope and opportunity.
Oompa-Loompa Songs – Teaching moral lessons.
QUOTES
:
"So shines a good deed in a weary world."
"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."
“Many times a day, he would see other children taking creamy candy bars out of their pockets and munching them greedily; and that, of course, was pure torture.”
“I insist upon my rooms being beautiful! I can’t abide ugliness in factories! In we go, then! But do be careful, my dear children! Don’t lose your heads! Don’t get overexcited! Keep very calm!”
“Everything in this room is edible. Even I'm edible. But, that would be called canibalism. It is looked down upon in most societies.”
“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, / Go throw your TV set away, / And in its place you can install / A lovely bookshelf on the wall. / Then fill the shelves with lots of books.”
HISTORICAL, EPIC & FANTASY
The Fellowship of the Ring
J.R.R. Tolkien
(1954)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Frodo – A hobbit tasked with destroying the One Ring.
Samwise – Frodo’s loyal companion.
Gandalf the Grey – A wise wizard guiding the Fellowship.
Aragorn – A ranger and heir to the throne of Gondor.
Legolas – An elven archer.
Gimli – A dwarf warrior.
Boromir – A man tempted by the power of the Ring.
Sauron – The dark lord seeking the One Ring.
PLACES
:
The Shire – Frodo’s peaceful home.
Rivendell – The elven refuge where the Fellowship is formed.
Moria – A dark, abandoned dwarf kingdom.
Lothlórien – The mystical realm of the elves.
THEMES
:
Good vs. Evil
Friendship and Fellowship
Temptation and Power
Sacrifice and Duty
MOTIFS
:
Light and Darkness – Symbolizing hope and evil.
The One Ring – Representing power and corruption.
Songs and Poetry – Connecting to history and lore.
The Mirror of Galadriel – It can show past, present, or future visions, symbolizing the ambiguous power that knowledge can offer
The Road – It emphasizes the fact that nothing stands still
QUOTES
:
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”
“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”
The Pillars of the Earth
Ken Follet
(1989)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Tom Builder – A mason with a dream of building a cathedral.
Aliena – A strong-willed noblewoman seeking revenge and justice.
Jack Jackson – A gifted builder and Aliena’s love interest.
...
PLACES
:
Kingsbridge – A fictional town centered on the cathedral's construction.
Shiring – A key political and economic hub.
THEMES
:
Order vs. Anarchy
Power and Courription – Political and religious authority often leads to corruption.
Tension between genuine faith and institutional religion
MOTIFS
:
Architecture – Symbolizing human creativity and perseverance.
Nature vs. Civilization – Highlighting tensions between wilderness and order.
Social Hierarchy – Exploring class struggles.
"You see, the quality of any civilization is the quality of its people."
"There’s no secret to building a cathedral. You just have to work for a hundred years."
“When things are simple, fewer mistakes are made. The most expensive part of a building is the mistakes.”
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
J. K. Rowling
(1999)
GENRE
:
PROTAGONIST
:
POV
:
CHARACTERS
:
Harry Potter – A young wizard grappling with his past and the threat of Sirius Black.
Hermione – Harry’s intelligent and resourceful friend.
Ron Weasley – Harry’s loyal best friend.
...
PLACES
:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The Shrieking Shack – A haunted house tied to Lupin’s past.
Azkaban – A dark prison guarded by Dementors.
THEMES
:
The Injustice of Legal Systems
The Importance of Loyalty
The Duality of Life
MOTIFS
:
The Marauder’s Map – Representing secrets and discovery.
The Patronus Charm – Symbolizing hope and inner strength.
Time-Turner – Exploring themes of time and consequences.
QUOTES
:
"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light."
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
“You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly in times of great trouble?”
“All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost.”
“For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
