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Each quarter, you will be reading an independent novel from the list provided.
Some of the novels are lengthy in text, some are short. Do not be discouraged to read the longer texts.
Assignments for some of the longer texts are easier to answer than those for shorter texts. The same goes for assignments. Some may look overwhelming in length, but in reality consist of easier to answer questions than the shorter assignments. Some of the very short looking assignments at first glance in reality are lengthy essays. I have attempted to make each assignment an equal challenge so try to choose books that interest you and do not worry so much about the length of the book or length of assignments.
Choose a novel that you have access to. Some novels are available in full text online, some in the school library (or public library) or there’s always the option to purchase the book through hardcover/paper copy or Nook. It is not my responsibility to provide you with the text you choose. There are plenty of options for you to choose a novel that is accessible regardless of your financial situation or driving capabilities.
For those of you that choose to read the text online, a website that you might find useful is: www.classic-literature/co.uk/british-authors/
You will need to type the questions in bold text and answer each underneath in Times New Roman 12 point font, single-spaced ( answers are not in bold)
The summer before the start of your senior year, you were required to read Lord of the Flies by William
Golding. The test grade will count for quarter one. This will be a formal multiple choice test, unlike the marking periods to follow.
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Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.
1.
Compare and contrast the Bilbo in chapter one to the Bilbo at the end of the novel.
2.
Analyze and comment on the way in which Tolkien presents the dwarves, with particular regard to the transformation they undergo after they possess their treasure.
3.
What is the most important climax of The Hobbit? Be sure to support your answer by considering all the action and the various themes which are interwoven throughout the plot.
4.
Compare and contrast Thorin and the Elvenking, discussing especially how they are portrayed as leaders and how they respond to the lust for gold.
5.
Discuss the significance of the Gollum-Bilbo episode and analyze how it has a bearing on subsequent events.
6.
Gandalf, though not the central character, plays an important role in THE Hobbit. Fully explain his importance, giving details.
7.
Explain how The Hobbit can be read both as a children’s book and as an adult novel.
8.
How is The Hobbit an example of romance writing?
9.
Analyze the three themes treated by Tolkien in The Hobbit and how they are developed ( good vs. evil, corruption by greed, quests).

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10.
How is the novel, based upon a series of episodes, unified into a whole?
11.
Give a brief description of the Battle of Five Armies and how it brings the novel to a satisfactory close.
12.
Evaluate the two moods of the novel and how they are created by the author.
13.
Compare and contrast the setting in the novel to Europe in the middle-ages.
Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.
1.
Describe the nature of the bond between Cathy and Heathcliff. Does their love resemble that
2.
How has Emily Bronte dealt with the theme of revenge in Wuthering Heights? ordinarily found between a man and a woman? Fully explain your answer.
3.
What is the significance of the supernatural in Wuthering Heights?
4.
Describe the part played by Nelly Dean in the story.
5.
What are the ways in which Emily Bronte manages to elicit the reader’s sympathy for
Heathcliff, despite his wickedness?
6.
The character of Heathcliff is, according to Charlotte Bronte, “ man’s shape animated by a demon life.” Explain this statement.
7.
What is the effect of Heathcliff’s brutality on the personalities of his various victims?
8.
What are the two levels of conflict in the plot and how are each resolved?
9.
Would you call the ending of the ending of the novel a comedy or a tragedy? Explain your response.

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10.
Although the story is told as a flashback, not in chronological order, the plot is still unified.
How is this accomplished?
11.
Compare and contrast Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
12.
Many of the names in Wuthering Heights are strikingly similar. For example, besides the two
Catherines, there are a number of Lintons, Earnshaws, and Heathcliffs whose names vary only slightly. What role do specific names play in Wuthering Heights?
13.
In many ways, Wuthering Heights structures itself around matched, contrasting pairs of themes and of characters. What are some of these pairs, and what role do they play in the book?
14.
Analyze the character of Edgar Linton. Is he a sympathetic figure? How does he compare to
Heathcliff? Is Catherine really in love with him?
15.
Discuss the novel’s narrative structure. Are the novel’s narrators trustworthy? Why or why not? With particular reference to Nelly’s story, consider what might be gained from reading between the lines of the narration. What roles do the personalities of the narrators play in the way that the story is told?
16.
What role does social class and class ambiguity play in Wuthering Heights? To what extent is
Heathcliff’s social position responsible for the misery and conflict so persistent in the book?
17.
Discuss revenge in Wuthering Heights. In what ways is it connected to love? What is the nature of love in the novel, that it can be so closely connected to vengeance?
18.
Think about the influence of the physical landscape in the novel. What role do the moors play in the development of the story, and in the presentation of the characters? How does
Catherine’s abiding love of the moors help us to understand her character? What do the moors come to symbolize in the novel?

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Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.
1.
How is the concept of marriage treated in this paly? What do the characters think about the institution?
2.
What is gained from the fact that this piece of literature is meant to be performed rather than read aloud? What makes a play different from a novel or poem?
3.
Why or how is The Importance of Being Earnest funny? Analyze some aspects of
Wilde’s humor.
4.
There are three major male-female relationships in this play: Algernon-Cecily,
Jack-Gwendolen and Prism-Chasuble. Each relationship is stylized with its own particular type of dialogue. In fact, the two members of each pair go together in part because they share a type of language. Analyze a conversation or two of each couple, examining how they speak, what sorts of epigrams or social commentaries they make, what they assume of the other person, and what their primary interests are.
5. Given that characterization in this play is not performed by a narrator, how does
Wilde create his characters? How are they fleshed out? Analyze two or three characters and show how Wilde provides insights into their personalities.
6. The play is set in both London and in the country. What are the differences between the two settings? How are they each created?
7. How is death treated by the play? While no characters actually die, death is prominent issue in some of the scenes. What is the attitude towards death?
8. Algernon and Jack are two very different people with different interests. Algernon is more nonchalant with regard to romance, and Jack is usually not as clever as
Algernon. How does Wilde contrast the two individual characters? How are they similar, and how are they different?
9. The Importance of Being Earnest certainly addresses many social concerns, one of which is class. How does the play create the two classes in Britain? With Lady
Bracknell representing the aristocracy and Lane, Merriman and Miss Prism (and perhaps Chasuble) representing the lower classes, what differences do we see between the two? How are their language patterns similar and different?
10. A major threat in this play is the pursuit of marriage, a bond between a man and a woman. How does the play deal with the two different sexes? Analyze the language and interests of women in this play as opposed to those of men.

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Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.
1. Is Tolkien a fatalist? That is, is the plot and conclusion of The Fellowship of the Ring presented as fated and unavoidable?
2. Is Sauron more like Satan (a supernatural force of evil) or is he more like an earthly tyrant?
3. Tolkien intersperses many songs throughout The Fellowship of the Ring. What literary functions do they serve?
4. Did Frodo make the right decision in the last chapter, on Amon Hen, in leaving with no one but Sam? What might have happened if he had talked to the others and gone to
Mordor with the rest of the company (save Boromir)? Would this have conflicted with
Aragorn's destiny?
5. What do you think Gandalf would have advised if he had been present at the last debate on Amon Hen? Consider especially the wizard's words to Frodo in Book I, Chapter 2, and his speech to the Council of Elrond in Book II.
6. Considering that the Lord of the Rings was published in the early 1950s. What influences of the post-WW II era do you see in The Fellowship of the Ring?
7. The elves in Lothlórien discuss a Nirvana or Heaven across the Sea. For Tolkien, could
America have been the imagined, distant land of peace and prosperity?
8. Throughout the Fellowship of the Ring, characters long for the peaceful days of freedom in the past, or an idealized future into which they hope to move. How do these idealized notions of freedom keep the struggle for freedom alive in the Company?
9. Compare Frodo’s relationship to the Ring to Bilbo’s relationship to it.
10. The power of the Ring saves Frodo at first, but then threatens to destroy him. Gandalf,
Elrond and Lady Galadriel all refuse to be the possessor of the Ring because they fear its strength. Discuss how the power of the Ring affects its owner.
11. Haldir, an elf in Lothlórien, describes the power of the Dark Lord, "Indeed in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all

I n d e p e n d e n t N o v e l A s s i g n m e n t | 7 those who still oppose him." Discuss how fear and mistrust are everywhere in Middleearth.
12. Discuss how the Elves and Dwarves have feuded, how men lost Gondor to the rising
Dark Lord because "…the blood of Numenoreans became mingled with that of lesser men."
13. Discuss themes of racial superiority in the book and consider the racial attitudes present in pre-WW II Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo, African Congo, etc.
14. Discuss Tom Bombadil. When he wore the Ring, nothing happened, making Frodo think the power of the Ring was lost. Bombadil is mentioned at the Council of Elrond, but it is decided that he will not be called because he is his own master.
15. What does it mean to remain neutral in a battle of Good vs. Evil?
16. While at Tom Bombadil’s on the edge of the Old Forest and in Lothlórien, members of the group have a different sense of time. Discuss the differences between a linear concept of time and one that tends to be spatial or non-linear.
17. How is the Fellowship of the Ring like the Commonwealth that existed in England?
18. Throughout much of the book, weather or natural objects play a role in deterring the group from reaching its goal, sometimes the natural environment takes action against the
Company. Discuss the role of nature (natural environment, natural phenomena) in the service of Good or Evil.
19. The noblest characters in the book seem to be those who resist the power of the Ring and thus the Dark Lord. Who are those characters and how are they able to resist the temptations of the power of the Ring?
20. "But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it." Says Gandalf. Discuss how the Company plans to use this approach to surprise the Dark Lord.
21. Gandalf the Grey, Saruman the White, Radagast the Brown, The Black Riders. Discuss the connection of color to characters.
Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.

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1 . Describe the character of Basil Hallward. How is he an artist figure and how is he a moral figure in the novel?
2. Describe the character of Lord Henry Wotton. How does he exert his influence on Dorian Gray?
3. Trace the changes that occur in the portrait over time. How does
Wilde make the reader feel that the portrait is in fact magical and not just a figment of Dorian Gray’s imagination?
4. Choose one of the aphorisms of the Preface and find textual support for it in the novel. Is the aphorism borne out or is it disproven by the novel?
5. Examine the female characters in the novel. How do they illustrate Lord Henry’s misogyny (women hating)? Does the novel support that misogyny or just give voice to it?
6. Write a definition of aestheticism and apply it to the triangular relationship among Lord Henry, Basil Hallward, and Dorian Gray.
7. What is Dorian Gray’s past? How does his past influence his behavior in life?
8. Examine the normative world of the novel, the world of the people who form the mainstream of the aristocrats. Are there any of its representatives who stands as a positive character?
9. Analyze Oscar Wilde’s use of class divisions in his plot line.
How does the class difference between Sibyl Vane and Dorian
Gray function in working out of the plot?
10. Trace the idea of life as art which Dorian Gray lives out. What are the ways Dorian Gray makes art of his life?
Choose any 12 questions from the following categories. Write your answers FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences, as you read the novel. Use the question themselves, reworded or shortened as needed as the topic sentences in your paragraphs.
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THEMES

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1.
Discuss David's development as a writer, and how it works as a theme of the novel.
2.
Look at the different "homes" David has. What is each lacking? What is
David searching for in a home?
3.
Compare David's love for Dora to his love for Agnes. Which do you think
Dickens prefers? Which do you prefer? Why?
4.
Choose which marriage in the book you think is the best, and which is the worst. Compare them.
5.
Discuss at least three of the single parents in the novel and examine their relationships to their children.
6.
Relate the major themes of this novel to events in Dickens' life.
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CHARACTERS
1.
Compare David to Tommy Traddles. What does this comparison teach you about David?
2.
Is Uriah Heep a realistic character or a caricature? Define your terms and defend your opinion.
3.
Do you think Micawber's success in Australia is believable? Why or why not?
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4.
Discuss Clara Copperfield from two angles: as David sees her and as Dickens sees her.
5.
Discuss James Steerforth from two angles: as David sees him with his head and as David sees him with his heart.
6.
Do you think Dickens created believable women? Defend your answer by discussing at least three female characters from David Copperfield. Compare them to female characters from other Dickens novels, if you can.
7.
Choose one of these minor characters and discuss his or her role in the novel:
Dr. Chillip, Barkis, Mrs. Gummidge, Mr. Omer, Mrs. Markleham, Mrs.
Crupp, Mr. Jorkins, Sophy.
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TECHNIQUES
1.
Discuss the image of drowning.

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2.
Analyze the speech of one of these characters: Mr. Micawber, Uriah Heep,
Rosa Dartle, Miss Mowcher. Discuss how speech patterns define the character's personality, referring to specific passages.
3.
Discuss Dickens' use of cinematic techniques, with reference to specific scenes.
4.
Compare the climactic scenes of each of these plots: Emily/Ham/Steerforth,
Wickfield/Heep, David/Dora, David/Agnes.
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BACKGROUND
1.
Was David's experience in the wine warehouse typical for those times?
Research the history of child labor and its reform in England.
2.
Find the different settings of David Copperfield on a map of England. How far apart were they, and what would they have looked like in the early nineteenth century? How would railroads change this English landscape?
3.
What were the different courts in nineteenth-century England, including
Doctor's Commons? What different kinds of lawyers were there? How would a firm like Wickfield & Heep differ from Spenlow & Jorkins?
Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.
1. How does Heller employ time as a structural as well as a thematic device in Catch-22?
2. What functions do the hospital in Pianosa and the officer’s apartments in Rome serve in the novel?
3. Discuss the importance of Heller’s novel as more than just an anti-war protest?
4. Describe how Heller mingles humor and terror, comedy and tragedy to produce dazzling yet realistic effects in his novel.
5. Examine, in some detail, the growth of Yossarian as a character who moves from escapism to hope, courage and a sense of responsibility?
6. What effect does the proliferation of Milo Minderbinder’s black- market operations have on the lives of the men in the squadron?
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‘M&M Enterprises’?
7. Examine how Heller satirizes both the military bureaucracy and capitalistic enterprise in Catch-22.
8. Discuss the role played by the chaplain in the novel. Can he be considered a success in his profession and as a person?
9. Explain how Heller presents different perspectives on life and death through some of the major characters he depicts in his novel.
10. Examine Yossarian as an anti-hero or victim-hero in the novel.
11. Discuss in detail the central dramatic issue in the novel-
Yossarian’s search for a strategy for survival.
12. Explain the implications of the phrase Catch-22 and describe now it operates in the life of Yossarian.
Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.
1. Explain John the Savage's beginning and why he wants to depart the Savage Reservation.
2. Contrast the brave new world as it exists with John's idealized version of the new world order.
3. What is the significance of the title of the novel and where does it come from?
4. Compare and contrast Bernard and John.
5. Compare and contrast Bernard and Helmholtz.
6. Describe the Controller, Mustafa Mond.
7. Contrast the old world order with the brave new world. Who are

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8. What is the conflict in the novel and how is it resolved?
9. What aspects of his age is Huxley criticizing in "Brave New
World"? What aspects of our world are satirized in the novel?
10. Explain why brave new world becomes an anti-utopian novel.
11. What does Huxley criticize about science in the novel?
13. Do you believe that the novel has a satisfactory ending? Fully explain your answer.
14. What are some of the high technology gimmicks and comforts that exist in "Brave New World"? Have any of them come to pass?
15. Why do you think that Huxley criticizes the novel as not being whole or complete? Give specific from the novel to support your response.
Answer each of the following questions FULLY, in paragraph form, in complete sentences as you read the novel. The questions should be typed in bold, followed by your answers.
1.
In what way is this story "unsurpassed for ugliness, horror, and pain"?
2.
Is The Turn of the Screw a ghost story or a psychological tale?
3.
Virginia Woolf said that Henry James's ghosts "have their origin within us." Explain.
4.
Discuss the question of reliability with respect to the governess. Give examples of her unreliability in the story. Must you believe in her to believe in the ghosts?
5.
What evidence is there that the governess was infatuated with her employer? Why is this significant to the story?

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6.
Discuss the theme of repression of desires in The Turn of the Screw.
7.
Why is ambiguity an important element in this story?
8.
Try to imagine the story from the point of view of Flora and Miles. How might they have told the story differently? How might their telling of it have changed its nature?
9.
What characteristics and circumstances make Mrs. Grose an ideal confidant for the governess?