INRW 0420
Suggested Reading List Essay Questions
1) Baldwin, James
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Semi-autobiographical novel about a 14-year-old black youth's religious conversion.
a) Being that Gabriel is John’s step father, there is a strange dynamic that is present between
the two. Much of their relationship is predicated on lies and misunderstanding. Examine
John's relationship with Gabriel.
b) The title of the work can be interpreted as an allusion to religious connotations for the
novel. In fact, many of the characters share the same name as central figures within the
Bible. Analyze the significance of the title and its relationship to a religious context.
2) Ellison, Ralph
Invisible Man
A black man's search for himself as an individual and as a member of his race and his society.
a) Are there similarities in the way that the narrator is treated at the battle royal and in the
way that Mr.Norton is treated in the Golden Day> What are the differences between the
situation?
b) Is the narrator consistent in his actions? Is he a fully developed character? Why do you
think Ralph Ellison left the narrator unknown, absent and nameless (invisible)?
3) Faulkner, William
As I Lay Dying
The Bundren family takes the ripening corpse of Addie, wife and mother, on a gruesomely comic
journey.
a) Which characters do you think are the most heroic? Which are the most unheroic? What
does the story say about the ideal of heroism?
b) At the end of the novel, Darl is committed to an insane asylum for setting a barn on fire.
What other factors may be involved in his family’s decision to commit him? What
justification, if any, is there for his act of arson?
4) Fitzgerald, F. Scott
The Great Gatsby
A young man corrupts himself and the American Dream to regain a lost love.
a) Nick says: “I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known” (p.
59). When you consider his role as narrator, do you believe that he is honest?
Are his depictions of others honest? If he is not honest, why does he believe
he is so honest?
b) Examine the last page of the novel. Fitzgerald writes, "Gatsby believed in the
green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded
us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our
arms farther.…And one fine morning—” (p.180). Why does Fitzgerald leave
this sentence unfinished? What does Nick think will happen one fine
morning? Are hopes and dreams always centered on a future belief? Is this
more important than the actual satisfaction of one’s desires? Why or why
not?
5) Lee, Harper
To Kill a Mockingbird
At great peril to himself and his children, lawyer Atticus Finch defends an African-American man
accused of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town.
a) Analyze the relationship between the children and Boo Radley. How does it change
throughout the story, and what are the causes of these changes? What does Scout learn as
Boo develops from monster to savior from her perspective?
b) When Scout and Jem visit the Negro church, what do they learn about black people in
Maycomb? Discuss the differences between the Negro culture and the white culture Jem
and Scout have grown up with. Tell how the two cultures are connected.
6) O'Connor, Flannery
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Social awareness, the grotesque, and the need for faith characterize these stories of the
contemporary South.
a) Serial killers are often represented in popular culture. Using two examples from the book
argue your case for or against the Misfit being a typical representation of a serial killer?
b) There is a huge generation gap between the family members in the story. What are the
differences between the generations? How does O'Connor show the difference between the
generations? Can the family relate to each other?
7) Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The classic tale that awakened a nation about the slave system.
a) Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the most enduring American novels of social protest.
Evaluate the novel's strength as a tract for social protest by discussing the
characterization of Uncle Tom, Eliza and her family of George and Harry, and the slave
owners, Mr. Shelby and Simon Legree.
b) In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe pits slavery against Christianity. Explore how
she comes to depict the incompatibility of the two institutions, slavery and Christianity by
referring to and exploring specific situations throughout the novel.
8) Twain, Mark
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck and Jim, a runaway slave, travel down the Mississippi in search of freedom.
a) The horror of slavery is a major theme in the novel. At different points in the novel, Huck
struggles with his genuine affection for Jim and his guilt for helping a runaway slave. Using
the theme of slavery in the novel, analyze those moments and trace the progression of Huck's
moral and intellectual growth. How does Huck's immediate environment affect his thought
process?
b) Huck complains about the Widow Douglas's attempt to "sivilize" him. He prefers a life
without without shoes and soap where he can be free and satisfied. Compare relationships and
actions in the civilized world with those of the natural world, the river and the raft. Which
setting allows the characters to develop morally and intellectually? Why does Twain have
Huck decide to go west at the end of the novel?
9) Golding, William
Lord of the Flies
English schoolboys marooned on an uninhabited island test the values of civilization when
they attempt to set up a society of their own.
a) Perhaps to create a perfect society was beyond the boy’s capability in William Golding’s
Lord of the Flies, but could it have realistically gotten better? How did it fall apart, and
could the society have been fixed? Write an essay that discusses what crucial errors the
boys made that they actually could have made different and, thus, made a better island
society.
b) William Golding has said that his novel Lord of the Flies was symbolic from the
beginning until the end when the boys are rescued. During the course of the novel these
symbols are constantly changing, giving us a new interpretation of the island society.
Write an essay that discusses three different significant symbols from the book. Explain
the significance of the symbol, why it is symbolic and how over the course of the novel
that symbol changes. Make sure to explain why the changes to the symbol are significant
to the interpretation of the novel. (remember symbols can be both objects and
characters)
10) Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver encounters dwarfs and giants and has other strange adventures when his ship is
wrecked in distant lands.
a) Choose any one of the times that Gulliver finds himself lost at sea and describe it in
detail. How is he separated from his ship? How does he find land, finally? What sort of
place does he find when he gets there, what people does he meet and what happens to
him?
b) Does Gulliver change as the story progresses? Does he learn from his adventures?