Brief Summary of Term Paper Novel Options
1. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women
In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo,
beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age
while their father is off to war.
2. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak
Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the
cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she
doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to
be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe.
Because there's something she's trying not to think about,
something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would
blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then
she would have to speak the truth.
3. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird
Sings
A phenomenal #1 bestseller that has appeared on the New York
Times bestseller list for nearly three years, this memoir traces
Maya Angelou's childhood in a small, rural community during
the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the
dignity and courage of black men and women, Angelou paints a
sometimes disquieting, but always affecting picture of the
people—and the times—that touched her life.
4. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are
forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even
so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are
books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire
Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by
helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy
society to preserve and read books.
5. Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's
next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train
them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender"
Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic
brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his
sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the
soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender
is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous
military training.
6. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland
Conceived by a shy British don on a golden afternoon to
entertain ten-year-old Alice Liddell and her sisters, Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass have
delighted generations of readers in more than eighty languages.
“The clue to the enduring fascination and greatness of the Alice
books,” writes A. S. Byatt in her Introduction, “lies in language.
. . . It is play, and word-play, and its endless intriguing puzzles
continue to reveal themselves long after we have ceased to be
children.”
7. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
This story of a woman's struggle with oppressive social
structures received much public contempt at its first release; put
aside because of initial controversy, the novel gained popularity
in the 1960s, some six decades after its first publication, and has
since remained a favorite of many readers. Chopin's depiction of
a married woman, bound to her family and with no way to assert
a fulfilling life of her own, has become a foundation for
feminism and a classic account of gender crises in the late
Victorian era
8. Agatha Christie And Then There Were None
First, there were ten - a curious assortment of strangers
summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of
Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of
them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in
common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal - and a
secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for
murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out,
there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion
9. Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient
Express
Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its
tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel
Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen
times, his door locked from the inside. One of his fellow
passengers must be the murderer. Isolated by the storm,
detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of
the dead man's enemies, before the murderer decides to strike
again.
10. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street
Told in a series of vignettes stunning for their eloquence, this
vignette is Sandra Cisneros's greatly admired story of a young
girl's growing up in the Latino section of Chicago.
11. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Dark allegory describes the narrator’s journey up the Congo
River and his meeting with, and fascination by, Mr. Kurtz, a
mysterious personage who dominates the unruly inhabitants of
the region.
12. Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War
Jerry Renault ponders the question on the poster in his locker:
Do I dare disturb the universe? Refusing to sell chocolates in
the annual Trinity school fund-raiser may not seem like a radical
thing to do. But when Jerry challenges a secret school society
called The Vigils, his defiant act turns into an all-out war. Now
the only question is: Who will survive?
13. Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur
DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam
Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until
something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy.
14. Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage
Bored with farm life, and anxious for some excitement, Henry
Fleming sets off to join the Union troops fighting the Civil War.
An inexperienced fighter, he is anxious to get into battle to
prove his patriotism and courage. He swaggers to keep up his
spirits waiting for battle, but when suddenly thrust into the
slaughter he is overcome with blind fear and runs from the field
of battle.
Brief Summary of Term Paper Novel Options
15. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
Who has not dreamed of life on an exotic isle, far away from
civilization? Here is the novel which has inspired countless
imitations by lesser writers, none of which equal the power and
originality of Defoe's famous book. Robinson Crusoe, set ashore
on an island after a terrible storm at sea, is forced to make do
with only a knife, some tobacco, and a pipe. He learns how to
build a canoe, make bread, and endure endless solitude. That is,
until, twenty-four years later, when he confronts another human
being.
16. Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate
A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the
all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of
the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican
tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in
love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she
cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that
he can stay close to her.
17. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some
of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions:
money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings.
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year
by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And
one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from
grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American
Dream.
18. John Fowles’ The Collector
Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects
butterflies and takes photographs. Then he captures the art
student Miranda and keeps her in the cellar of the large house
where he patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste to
break down in the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator,
desperate for her freedom, tries to understand but cannot banish
her contempt for everything anti-life that the collector stands for.
19. William Golding’s The Lord of The Flies
William Golding's compelling story about a group of very
ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a
modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be
great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on
the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death.
20. Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea
The story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his
supreme ordeal—a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant
marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
21. Jack Kerouac’s On The Road
On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac's years traveling the North
American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned
hero of the snowy West." As "Sal Paradise" and "Dean
Moriarty," the two roam the country in a quest for selfknowledge and experience.
22. Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon
In this classic story that inspired the hit movie by the same
name. Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled adult who cleans
floors and toilets, becomes a genius through an experimental
operation.
23. Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees
Set in South Carolina in 1964, tells the story of Lily Owens,
whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the
afternoon her mother was killed.When Lily's fierce-hearted
black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's
most vicious racists, Lily decides they should both escape to
Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her
mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of
black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing
world of bees and honey.
24. John Knowles’ A Separate Peace
Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the
early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a
harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of
adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual.
Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What
happens between the two friends one summer, like the
war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their
world.
25. Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension
of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time
has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to
rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will
encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?
26. C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe
When Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy took their first steps into
the world behind the magic wardrobe, little do they realise what
adventures are about to unfold. And as the story of Narnia
begins to unfold, so to does a classic tale that has enchanted
readers of all ages for over half a century.
27. Jack London’s Call of the Wild
Half St. Bernard, half sheepdog, Buck is stolen away from his
comfortable life as a pet in California and sold to dog traders.
He soon finds himself aboard a ship, on its way to Northern
Canada. Surrounded by cruelty, Buck's natural instincts and
behaviour begin to emerge as he works as a mail carrying sled
dog, scavenging for food, protecting himself against other dogs
and sleeping out in the cold snow.
28. Lois Lowry’s The Giver
Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no
war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is
assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he
is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The
Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of
life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth.
Brief Summary of Term Paper Novel Options
29. Bernard Malamud’s The Natural
Considered by many to be the greatest baseball novel ever
written, this classic morality tale features one of the most
memorable characters in all of literature, Roy Hobbs -- a
talented athlete whose promising career is derailed by a youthful
indiscretion.
30. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
A father and his son walk alone through burned America.
Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the
wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls
it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast,
although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there.
They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the
lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a
cart of scavenged food—and each other.
31. Walter Dean Myers’ Fallen Angels
A coming-of-age tale for young adults set in the trenches
of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, this is the story of
Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for the service
when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to
the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face
with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But
violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry
struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he
questions why black troops are given the most dangerous
assignments, and why the U.S. is there at all.
32. George Orwell’s Animal Farm
Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt
and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse
servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: "All
animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others."
33. Alan Paton’s Cry The Beloved Country
"Cry, the Beloved Country" is the deeply moving story of the
Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against
the background of a land and a people driven by racial injustice.
34. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental
breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior
editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The
real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this
scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which
remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into
insanity.
35. Chaim Potok’s The Chosen
In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven
Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences
(Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist
father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic
rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship.
Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis
of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in
the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The
intellectual and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each
son and his own father, and between the two young men,
provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons,
faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.
36. Any Rand’s Anthem
In Anthem, Rand examines a frightening future in which
individuals have no name, no independence, and no values.
Equality 7-2521 lives in the dark ages of the future where all
decisions are made by committee, all people live in collectives,
and all traces of individualism have been wiped out. Despite
such a restrictive environment, the spark of individual thought
and freedom still burns in him--a passion which he has been
taught to call sinful. In a purely egalitarian world, Equality 72521 dares to stand apart from the herd--to think and choose for
himself, to discover electricity, and to love the woman of his
choice. Now he has been marked for death for committing the
ultimate sin.
37. Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western
Front
Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of
World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But
despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the
first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on
year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against
the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the
same generation but different uniforms against each other--if
only he can come out of the war alive.
38. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy - until he is rescued by
an owl, taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel.
39. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and
bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein
assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon
bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's
hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the onceinnocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of
murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.
40. John Steinbeck’s The Pearl
A retelling of an old Mexican folk tale involving the discovery
of a great pearl and the ensuing misfortune of the fisherman who
found it.
41. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde
In this harrowing tale of good and evil, the mild-mannered Dr.
Jekyll develops a potion that unleashes his secret, inner
persona—the loathsome, twisted Mr. Hyde.
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42. Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club
Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift
with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In
1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco,
begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in
shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy
Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather
to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back
for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already
unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.
43. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the
hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the
spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of
a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel
dragon Smaug the Magnificent.
44. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn
A feisty young boy fakes his own death to escape his abusive
father and heads off down the Mississippi River with his
newfound friend Jim, a runaway slave.
45. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five
Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is
abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plotscrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim
simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on
his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American
prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
46. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple
Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20
years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused
and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from
the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to
“Mister,” a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually
learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister’s
letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an
example of love and independence provided by her close friend
Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative
and loving self.
47. H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine
So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of
his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story
that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him the
reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative
leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave
explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and
our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels
him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two
bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean
Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human
nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as
well.
48. H.G. Wells’ Island of Dr. Moreau
A shipwreck in the South Seas, a palm-tree paradise where a
mad doctor conducts vile experiments, animals that become
human and then "beastly" in ways they never were before--it's
the stuff of high adventure.