To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Themes: Knowledge vs Ignorance, Bravery vs Fear, Progress vs past, Humility vs Ignorance
Motifs: Maycomb, Water imagery, Courthouse
Symbols: Mockingbird, Radley House, Rabid dog
1st person, Detached autobiography
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Themes: Life is a quest to seek meaning, Emptiness of contemporary culture, Loss of childhood innocence
Motifs: inertia for fear of destroying innocence, phoniness, unconventional kindness, alternatives to phony adulthood
Symbols: red hat, ducks. museum/glass cases, carousel, patting head
1st person, stream of consciousness, unreliable narrator
Zeitgeist
Fences by August Wilson
Themes: Gender roles, Religion
Motifs: Baseball, Gardening, Fences, Truth/lies/legends, A Dog Named Blue song
No narrator
Black Arts Movement
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare
Themes: Jealousy is self-perpetuating and destructive
Motifs: Disparity between appearance and reality, Ironic misplacement of trust, Black/white, Heaven/hell, good/ evil, Honor and reputation, Racism, Differences between Othello and Desdemona
Symbols
Handkerchief
No narrator
Any literary term to do with Shakespearean poetry and plays
Patriarchy, separate spheres, power dynamic
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Themes: Gender, Patriarchy, Separate spheres, Power dynamics- husband/wife, Doctor/patient
Motifs: Creeping-dehumanization, infantilization, Moonlight- lunacy, hysteria, archetypal night vs day
Symbols: Wallpaper- mental state, function in society, confinement
1st person, diary narration
Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol
Theme
Strange fruit hanging from trees
Symbols
Strange fruit = victims of lynchings
Rhyme scheme
AA BB CC DD EE FF
Personification: fruit=people
Between the World and Me by Richard Wright
Theme: Aftermath of lynching
No Rhyme Scheme
Literary Devices
Personification- accusing the sky
Alliteration -black blood
Juxtaposition- cool/burned
Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
Theme: World can end in hatred or desire
Symbols: Ice- hate/cold shoulder, Fire- desire/devilish temptation
Bouncy rhyme scheme
Literary Devices
Juxtaposition- fire/ice and rhyme scheme/topic
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Theme: Regret/sorrow about life choices
Symbol: Archetypal symbols of time of day, Path in woods = path in life
Rhyme Scheme
ABAAB CDCCD…
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Theme: Death or just the beauty of snowy woods
Symbols
Woods, evening, and winter = death
Horse = animal survival skills
Horserider = humane desire for beauty
O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
Theme: Poem mourning Lincoln
Symbols: stormy waters = civil war, Ship = U.S., Captain = Lincoln
Free verse
Literary Devices
Alliteration, Parallelism, Internal and End rhymes, Elegy
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman
Theme: Firsthand experiences are better than secondhand accounts/lectures, Mysticism
Symbols: Passive voice = secondhand account, Active voice = firsthand experience
Free verse
Literary Devices
Imagery, Alliteration, Ineffability
An Irish Airman Foresees his Death by William Butler Yeats
Theme: Chase your dreams
Symbols: Clouds= heaven
ABABCDCD...
Literary Devices
End Rhymes, Parallelism, Archetypal symbols
Sonnet 1
Theme: You should have kids because you’re so beautiful and if you don’t you’re a narcissist
Symbols: Light = beauty
Rhyme/meter
Shakespearean sonnet layout
Literary Devices
Metaphor
Sonnet 2
Theme: You should have kids because where will your beauty go when you’re older?
Symbols: Deep trenches = wrinkles, Beauty's field = face
Shakespearean sonnet
Literary Devices
Archetypal Symbols, Juxtaposition, Warm blood = youth, Cold blood = death
Sonnet 18
Theme: Natural beauty dwindles but the subject never will
Symbols: Eye of heaven = sun
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Personification - death and time
Sonnet 19
Theme: Asking time not to destroy his love's beauty
Symbolism: Pen lines = wrinkles
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Personifiication - time, Imagery - animals
Sonnet 29
Theme: Your love makes me love my life
Symbols: Wealth = hope
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Simile
Sonnet 30
Theme: Sad about past until I remember you
Symbols: Paying = grieving
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Archetypal symbols- night and death, Sibilance
Sonnet 71
Theme: Don't mourn me when I die because society will mock you
Symbols: Bell = death, Worms = death
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
repetition
Sonnet 73
Theme: coming to terms with death
Symbols: Cold = death, Night = death, Ashes = death
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Parallelism, Archetypal Symbols, Sibilance, Personification
Sonnet 116
Theme: Love is unconditional
Symbols: Star = solidity of love, Wandering = wandering for love
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Personification- time and love, Imagery
Sonnet 130
Theme: I love my lover despite how ugly she is
Shakespearean sonnet
Literary Devices
Contreblazon, Simile, Metaphor
Be Kind by Charles Bukowski
Theme: Why should older people not have to change with the world
Symbols: Vision = understanding
Free verse
Literary Devices
Repetition
The Genius of the Crowd by Charles Bukowski
Theme: Hatred = art
Symbols: Genius = hate, Hemlock, tiger, moutain, etc. = hate
Free verse
Literary device
Parallelism, Hyperbole
Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
Theme: Societal views of male vulnerability
Symbols: Bluebird = vulnerability/unreleased emotions, Blue=sadness
Literary Devices
Personification of emotions