cole.studies
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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…
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Sonnet 18
Theme: Natural beauty dwindles but the subject never will
Symbols: Eye of heaven = sun
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Personification - death and time
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Sonnet 19
Theme: Asking time not to destroy his love's beauty
Symbolism: Pen lines = wrinkles
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Personifiication - time, Imagery - animals
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Sonnet 29
Theme: Your love makes me love my life
Symbols: Wealth = hope
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Simile
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Sonnet 30
Theme: Sad about past until I remember you
Symbols: Paying = grieving
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Archetypal symbols- night and death, Sibilance
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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
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Sonnet 73
Theme: coming to terms with death
Symbols: Cold = death, Night = death, Ashes = death
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Parallelism, Archetypal Symbols, Sibilance, Personification
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Sonnet 116
Theme: Love is unconditional
Symbols: Star = solidity of love, Wandering = wandering for love
Shakespearean Sonnet
Literary Devices
Personification- time and love, Imagery
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Sonnet 130
Theme: I love my lover despite how ugly she is
Shakespearean sonnet
Literary Devices
Contreblazon, Simile, Metaphor
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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
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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
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Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
Theme: Societal views of male vulnerability
Symbols: Bluebird = vulnerability/unreleased emotions, Blue=sadness
Literary Devices
Personification of emotions
