Modernism 1900-1945

Notable Works
1. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
2. The sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway
3. The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald
4. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
5. The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot
Controversial Works
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Call of The Wild by Jack London
8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
9. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
10. Of Mice of Men by
NOTES:
1. To the Lighthouse, novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1927. The work is one of her most successful and
accessible experiments in the stream-of-consciousness style.
The three sections of the book take place between 1910 and 1920 and revolve around various members of
the Ramsay family during visits to their summer residence on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. A central motif of the
novel is the conflict between the feminine and masculine principles at work in the universe. In the first part, the
reader looks at the world through Mrs. Ramsay’s eyes as she presides over her children and a group of guests
on a summer holiday. In the second section of the novel, Woolf illustrates time’s passage by describing the
changes wrought in the summer home over a decade. The third section relates the return of the Ramsay
children, now grown, and Lily Briscoe, a painter and friend of the family.

With her emotional, poetical frame of mind, Mrs. Ramsay represents the female principle, while Mr. Ramsay, a
self-centred philosopher, expresses the male principle in his rational point of view. Both are flawed by their
limited perspectives. Lily Briscoe is Woolf’s vision of the androgynous artist who personifies the ideal blending
of male and female qualities. Her successful completion of a painting that she has been working on since the
beginning of the novel is symbolic of this unification.

To the Lighthouse Summary

Mrs. Ramsay, Mr. Ramsay (a philosopher), their eight children, and several guests are staying at the family's
summer home in the Hebrides, on the Isle of Skye, just before the start of World War I. Just across the bay is a
lighthouse, which becomes a prominent presence in the family's life. James Ramsay, the youngest child, wants
to go to the Lighthouse the next day, but Mr. Ramsay crushes his hopes, saying that the weather will not be
pleasant enough for the trip. James resents his father for his insensitivity as well as for his emotional demands
on Mrs. Ramsay, and this resentment persists throughout the novel.
The houseguests include Lily Briscoe, an unmarried painter who begins a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay; Charles
Tansley, who is not very well liked; William Bankes, whom Mrs. Ramsay wants Lily to marry, but Lily never
does; and Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle, who become engaged during their visit.
Mrs. Ramsay spends the afternoon reading to James as Lily watches her from the lawn, attempting to paint her
portrait. Mr. Ramsay also watches her as he walks and worries about his intellectual shortcomings, afraid that
he will never achieve greatness. Andrew Ramsay, Nancy Ramsay, Paul Rayley, and Minta Doyle take a walk
on the beach, where Paul proposes to Minta.
For the evening, Mrs. Ramsay has planned a dinner for fifteen guests including Augustus Carmichael, a friend
and poet. The dinner gets off to a shaky start as Mr. Ramsay becomes angry with Mr. Carmichael for
requesting more soup and no one seems to be enjoying the conversation. However, at a certain magical
moment, everyone in the room seems to connect, and Mrs. Ramsay hopes that something permanent will
result from this connection. Following dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay sit together in the parlor, and Mrs. Ramsay
finds that she unable to tell her husband that she loves him. Nevertheless, though their unspoken
communication she is sure that he knows. The Ramsays and their guests go to sleep.
In the second section of the novel, "Time Passes," the house is abandoned for ten years, suffering the ravages
of time, neglect, and decay. Mrs. Ramsay unexpectedly dies one night, as does Prue in an illness related to
childbirth. Andrew is the third Ramsay to die when he is killed instantaneously in battle. Mrs. McNab goes to
the house occasionally to tidy it up and restore it, but it is not until she hears word that the remaining Ramsays
will be returning for the summer that she gets everything in order.
In "The Lighthouse," all of the living Ramsays, as well as other guests (including Lily Briscoe), return to the
summer home. Mr. Ramsay decides that he, James, and Cam Ramsay will finally take the trip to the
Lighthouse, but the children are resentful of his domineering manner. He is angry about delays on the morning
of the trip, and he approaches Lily for sympathy, but she is unable to feel any sympathy for him until he has
already set off on the journey, when it is too late. Just as Mr. Ramsay decides to finally take this journey, Lily
Briscoe decides to finally finish the painting that she started ten years ago.
On the boat, the children continue to resent their father's self-pity, yet as the ship approaches the Lighthouse,
they find a new tenderness for and connection to him. As the boat reaches its destination, Lily paints the final
stroke on her canvas and finally achieves her vision.

2. The Sun Also Rises was the first published novel by Ernest Hemingway and it is regarded by many,
including his biographer Jeffrey Meyers, as his greatest work. Initially receiving mixed reviews, it is now
regarded as an iconic modernist novel. The book is based on Hemingway’s 1925 trip to Spain; its characters
are based on real people of Hemingway’s circle; and the action is based on real events. The novel relates the
account of a group of people who travel from Paris to Spain to attend the Festival of San Fermín, famous for
the running of the bulls and the bullfights. The novel’s protagonist Jake Barnes is a man whose war wound has
made him impotent while its heroine Brett Ashley is a twice-divorced promiscuous Englishwoman. Brett, a
liberated modern woman, is regarded as one of the most interesting and influential female characters of 20th-
century American literature. The Sun Also Rises has been in print continuously since its publication, and is said
to be one of the most translated titles in the world.

Jake Barnes, the narrator, describes his friend, Robert Cohn. Cohn, like Jake, is an American expatriate living
in Paris, although unlike Jake he did not fight in World War I. He's a Jewish writer who has recently published a
novel and was a middleweight boxing champion in college at Princeton. Cohn lives with a woman
named Frances Clyne, who was originally using him for his money but now that she's older wants to make him
marry her. After reading a book that romanticizes travel Cohn has come to the conclusion that he's wasting his
life, and one day he visits Jake, who is a journalist, at his office to ask him to take a trip with him to South
America. Jake refuses, on the grounds that the only people who don't waste their lives are bullfighters.
That night, while out with Cohn and others, Jake runs into Lady Brett Ashley. Brett is an independent, tomboy-
ish, soon-to-be-divorced wife of an English lord who as a volunteer during the war helped to treat Jake for a
war wound he received. While she was treating him, they fell in love. Brett confesses to Jake that she is
miserable and still loves him, just as he loves her. But though they never say it explicitly, the conversation
implies that Jake's injury made him impotent, and that Brett is unwilling to give up sex, so they can't be
together. Still, they make plans to see each other the next afternoon.
Jake has lunch with Cohn the next morning. Cohn is smitten by Brett, and is upset when Jake describes her in
less-then-positive terms (and also when he learns that she's soon to marry a Scottish war veteran named Mike
Campbell). Brett stands Jake up for their afternoon plans. But in the middle of the night she appears at his
apartment along with Count Mippipopolous, a rich Greek man who really knows how to enjoy life. In a moment
when they are alone, Brett tells Jake that it's too hard for them to be near each other and that she's leaving the
next day to go to San Sebastian, a beach town in Spain. Cohn also leaves Paris around this time to spend time
out in the country.
A few weeks later, a writer and army-friend of Jake's named Bill Gorton arrives in Paris. They plan to go fishing
in Spain and then to go to the fiesta and bullfights in Pamplona, and to join up with Cohn along the way. That
afternoon, Jake runs into Brett, who has returned from San Sebastian and is with her fiancé Mike. Mike and
Brett also want to come to Pamplona. Brett privately asks Jake if Cohn is also coming, revealing that she was
actually with Cohn in San Sebastian.
Bill and Jake meet Cohn in Bayonne, France, and then all three travel to Pamplona. Brett, however, falls ill
while traveling to Pamplona with Mike. Cohn decides to stay in Pamplona to wait for her while Jake and Bill
head out into rural Spain to fish. For five blissful days Jake and Bill fish, play cards, drink, and remember their
days and friends from the army. But on the fifth day they learn that Brett and Mike will be arriving in Pamplona
that night, and they immediately head back.
In Pamplona, they stay at a hotel owned by Montoya, a man who loves bullfighting and appreciates Jake's own
love of the sport. Jake, Bill, Cohn, Mike, and Brett all meet up. They go to watch the unloading of the bulls, and
see a bull kill a steer. Afterward, Mike compares Cohn to the steer because Cohn won't stop following Brett
around.
The fiesta begins, and Pamplona is filled with drinking and dancing. During the bullfights on the first day, a
nineteen-year-old bullfighter named Pedro Romero especially stands out. Brett is mesmerized by the violence
of the fight (while Cohn is made ill by it). Brett is also particularly taken with Romero. Brett eventually gets Jake
to introduce her to Romero, much to Montoya's dismay because he thinks she will corrupt the boy. Mike again
verbally attacks Cohn, and they almost fight before Jake pulls them apart. Later that night, Brett asks Jake to
help her find Romero. He does, and she and Romero go off together.
Later that night, while Jake is out with the drunken Mike and Bill, Cohn arrives and demands to know where
Brett is. After Jake refuses and insults fly, Cohn knocks down Mike and knocks Jake out cold. When Jake
comes to and returns to the hotel, he finds Cohn weeping in his room. Cohn begs Jake's forgiveness. After
some resistance, Jake gives it. Cohn says he is leaving Pamplona.
The next morning, a man is killed by a bull outside the bullfighting stadium. Soon after, Jake learns from Bill
and Mike that the night before Cohn also beat up Romero, but Romero wouldn't back down. Cohn gave in, and
asked Romero to forgive him, but Romero just punched him. At the bullfight that afternoon, a bullfighter who
had come out of retirement named Belmonte fails to live up to his reputation and is jeered by the crowd. But
Romero fights magnificently, and the crowd adores him. Later that night, Jake learns from Mike that Romero
and Brett have left Pamplona together.
The fiesta ends the next day. Jake, Mike, and Bill leave Pamplona together, then go their separate ways. Jake
decides to lay low in San Sebastian rather than return to Paris. But he soon gets a telegram from Brett saying
she needs his help in Madrid. He goes immediately, and learns that Brett has left Romero because she feared
corrupting him but also because he wanted her to act like a more traditional woman. As they ride in a taxi
through Madrid, Brett sadly comments that she and Jake could have had such a good time together. Jake
says, "Yes, isn't it pretty to think so?"
3. The Great Gatsby

Widely considered his greatest work, The Great Gatsby is set in the Jazz Age, a term popularized by
Fitzgerald. It captures the prosperity of a postwar America, filled with jazz music and illegal alcohol. A story
about the promise and failure of the American Dream, it centers around the character of Jay Gatsby, a young
man who rises from rags to riches, and his love for a wealthy young woman. The book was unsuccessful when
it was first published. Reviews were mixed, and the first printing sold slowly. The novel, however, was
rediscovered a few years after Fitzgerald died and grew in popularity, becoming a standard text of high school
curricula. It is now considered a masterpiece of American fiction. Several film adaptations have been made of
the book, most notably a production directed by Jack Clayton in 1974, starring Robert Redford as Gatsby, and
one in 2013 directed by Baz Luhrmann, starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role.

The Great Gatsby Summary:

Our narrator, Nick Carraway, moves to the East Coast to work as a bond trader in Manhattan. He rents a small
house in West Egg, a nouveau riche town in Long Island. In East Egg, the next town over, where old money
people live, Nick reconnects with his cousin Daisy Buchanan, her husband Tom, and meets their friend Jordan
Baker.

Tom takes Nick to meet his mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle is married to George Wilson, who runs a gas
station in a gross and dirty neighborhood in Queens. Tom, Nick, and Myrtle go to Manhattan, where she hosts
a small party that ends with Tom punching her in the face.

Nick meets his next-door neighbor, Jay Gatsby, a very rich man who lives in a giant mansion and throws wildly
extravagant parties every weekend, and who is a mysterious person no one knows much about.

Gatsby takes Nick to lunch and introduces him to his business partner - a gangster named Meyer Wolfshiem.

Nick starts a relationship with Jordan. Through her, Nick finds out that Gatsby and Daisy were in love five
years ago, and that Gatsby would like to see her again.

Nick arranges for Daisy to come over to his house so that Gatsby can "accidentally" drop by. Daisy and Gatsby
start having an affair.

Tom and Daisy come to one of Gatsby's parties. Daisy is disgusted by the ostentatiously vulgar display of
wealth, and Tom immediately sees that Gatsby's money most likely comes from crime.

We learn that Gatsby was born into a poor farming family as James Gatz. He has always been extremely
ambitious, creating the Jay Gatsby persona as a way of transforming himself into a successful self-made man
—the ideal of the American Dream.

Nick, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Jordan get together for lunch. At this lunch, Daisy and Gatsby are planning to
tell Tom that she is leaving him. Gatsby suddenly feels uncomfortable doing this in Tom's house, and Daisy
suggests going to Manhattan instead.

In Manhattan, the five of them get a suite at the Plaza Hotel where many secrets come out. Gatsby reveals that
Daisy is in love with him. Tom in turn reveals that Gatsby is a bootlegger, and is probably engaged in other
criminal activities as well. Gatsby demands that Daisy renounce Tom entirely, and say that she has never
 loved him. Daisy can't bring herself to say this because it isn't true, crushing Gatsby's dream and obsession.
It's clear that their relationship is over and that Daisy has chosen to stay with Tom.

That evening, Daisy and Gatsby drive home in his car, with Daisy behind the wheel. When they drive by the
Wilson gas station, Myrtle runs out to the car because she thinks it's Tom driving by. Daisy hits and kills her,
driving off without stopping.

Nick, Jordan, and Tom investigate the accident. Tom tells George Wilson that the car that struck Myrtle
belongs to Gatsby, and George decides that Gatsby must also be Myrtle's lover.

That night, Gatsby decides to take the blame for the accident. He is still waiting for Daisy to change her mind
and come back to him, but she and Tom skip town the next day. Nick breaks up with Jordan because she is
completely unconcerned about Myrtle's death.

Gatsby tells Nick some more of his story. As an officer in the army, he met and fell in love with Daisy, but after
a month had to ship out to fight in WWI. Two years later, before he could get home, she married Tom. Gatsby
has been obsessed with getting Daisy back since he shipped out to fight five years earlier.

The next day, George Wilson shoots and kills Gatsby, and then himself.

The police leave the Buchanans and Myrtle's affair out of the report on the murder-suicide.

Nick tries to find people to come to Gatsby's funeral, but everyone who pretended to be Gatsby's friend and
came to his parties now refuses to come. Even Gatsby's partner Wolfshiem doesn't want to go to the funeral.
Wolfshiem explains that he first gave Gatsby a job after WWI and that they have been partners in many illegal
activities together.

Gatsby's father comes to the funeral from Minnesota. He shows Nick a self-improvement plan that Gatsby had
written for himself as a boy.

Disillusioned with his time on the East coast, Nick decides to return to his home in the Midwest.

4. The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken is a poem by Robert Frost that looks at the inevitability of choices and the fact that
everyone has to follow its own path. Yet, there is also an irony into this: by choosing a path you automatically
miss on what the other one might have reserved for you.
The Road Not Taken 
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BY RO BERT FRO ST
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
5. The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot was a British writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 for “his outstanding,
pioneer contribution to present-day poetry”. The Hollow Men, the narrators of this poem, are trapped in a go-
between world, a sort of twilight world between “death and dying“. Eliot perhaps uses them to personify the
spiritual emptiness of the world. The poem is regarded by critics to be primarily about post-World War I
Europe and the difficulty of hope and religious conversion. In keeping with Modernist poetry, it uses very short
lines, is open to interpretation and doesn’t have a recognizable story progression. The Hollow Men contains
some of Eliot’s most famous lines, most prominently its concluding lines: “This is the way the world ends / Not
with a bang but a whimper“, which have been called “probably the most quoted lines of any 20th-century poet
writing in English”.
 We are the hollow men
    We are the stuffed men
    Leaning together
    Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
    Our dried voices, when
    We whisper together
    Are quiet and meaningless
    As wind in dry grass
    Or rats' feet over broken glass
    In our dry cellar
  
    Shape without form, shade without colour,
    Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
  
    Those who have crossed
    With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
    Remember us-if at all-not as lost
    Violent souls, but only
    As the hollow men
    The stuffed men.

  
                              II

    Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

    In death's dream kingdom
    These do not appear:
    There, the eyes are
    Sunlight on a broken column
    There, is a tree swinging
    And voices are
    In the wind's singing
    More distant and more solemn
    Than a fading star.
  
    Let me be no nearer
    In death's dream kingdom
    Let me also wear
    Such deliberate disguises
    Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
    In a field
    Behaving as the wind behaves
    No nearer-
  
    Not that final meeting
    In the twilight kingdom

  
                    III

    This is the dead land

    This is cactus land
    Here the stone images
    Are raised, here they receive
    The supplication of a dead man's hand
    Under the twinkle of a fading star.
  
    Is it like this
    In death's other kingdom
    Waking alone
    At the hour when we are
    Trembling with tenderness
    Lips that would kiss
    Form prayers to broken stone.

  
                      IV

    The eyes are not here

    There are no eyes here
    In this valley of dying stars
    In this hollow valley
    This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
  
    In this last of meeting places
    We grope together
    And avoid speech
    Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
  
    Sightless, unless
    The eyes reappear
    As the perpetual star
    Multifoliate rose
    Of death's twilight kingdom
    The hope only
    Of empty men.

  
              V

    Here we go round the prickly pear

    Prickly pear prickly pear
    Here we go round the prickly pear
    At five o'clock in the morning.
  
    Between the idea
    And the reality
    Between the motion
    And the act
    Falls the Shadow
                                    For Thine is the Kingdom
  
    Between the conception
    And the creation
    Between the emotion
    And the response
    Falls the Shadow
                                    Life is very long
  
    Between the desire
    And the spasm
    Between the potency
    And the existence
    Between the essence
    And the descent
    Falls the Shadow
                                    For Thine is the Kingdom
  
    For Thine is
    Life is
    For Thine is the
  
    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
     This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper.
6. Ulysses
Ulysses is a modernist novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It was first serialized in parts in the American
journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920 and then published in its entirety in Paris
by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, Joyce's 40th birthday. It is considered one of the most important works
of modernist literature[1] and has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire
movement."[2] According to Declan Kiberd, "Before Joyce, no writer of fiction had so foregrounded the process
of thinking".[3]
Ulysses chronicles the appointments and encounters of the itinerant Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of
an ordinary day, 16 June 1904.[4][5] Ulysses is the Latinised name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's epic poem
the Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between the poem and the novel, with structural
correspondences between the characters and experiences of Bloom and Odysseus, Molly
Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus, in addition to events and themes of the early
20th-century context of modernism, Dublin, and Ireland's relationship to Britain. The novel is highly allusive and
also imitates the styles of different periods of English literature.
Since its publication, the book has attracted controversy and scrutiny, ranging from an obscenity trial in the
United States in 1921 to protracted textual "Joyce Wars". The novel's stream of consciousness technique,
careful structuring, and experimental prose—replete with puns, parodies, and allusions—as well as its
rich characterisation and broad humour have led it to be regarded as one of the greatest literary works in
history; Joyce fans worldwide now celebrate 16 June as Bloomsday.
Summary:
Stephen Dedalus leaves for work. He gives his friend Buck Mulligan his house key, and they agree to meet at
the pub at 12:30.Stephen teaches a history class at Garret Deasy’s boys’ school around 10 a.m. After class,
Stephen gets paid by Deasy. He also agrees to share an editorial piece on cattle disease written by Deasy
with acquaintances at the newspaper. Stephen spends the rest of the morning walking on Sandymount
Strand, thinking and composing a poem.
The same morning, Leopold brings Molly her breakfast and her mail in bed. Blazes Boylon, Molly’s concert
tour manager, writes that he will visit at 4 p.m. Leopold reads a letter from Milly, their daughter.At 10 a.m.,
Leopold picks up a love letter from Martha Clifford at the post office. He reads the letter in a church and goes
to the pharmacy for lotion for Molly. He runs into Bantam Lyons, with whom he discusses a horse race.At 11
a.m., Leopold attends a funeral. during which he thinks about the deaths of both his father and son.

At noon, both Leopold and Stephen are at the offices of the Freeman newspaper. Leopold is negotiating an
ad, and Stephen is there with Deasy’s letter.At 1 p.m., Leopold bumps into a former girlfriend, and they
discuss Mina Purefoy, who is in labor. He eats lunch at Davy Byrne’s. He goes into the National Library to
avoid Blazes Boylon, who in addition to being Molly’s concert manager is also her suspected lover.
At 2 p.m., Stephen makes a presentation on Hamlet theory at the National Library to librarians and a poet.
His friend Buck teases Stephen for forgetting to meet him for lunch. Stephen and Buck pass Leopold, who is
there on business. At 4 p.m., Molly is scheduled to meet with Blazes Boylon. Leopold enters the bar at the
posh Ormond Hotel as Blazes is leaving to meet Molly. Also in the bar is Stephen Dedalus’s father, Simon,
who plays the piano.
At 5 p.m., Leopold gets yelled at for being Jewish while in Barney Kiernan’s pub waiting to meet Martin
Cunningham.Around sunset, a young woman reveals her legs to Leopold, who is relaxing on Sandymount
Strand. Leopold secretly masturbates before dozing.
At 10 p.m., Bloom checks on Mina Purefoy at the maternity hospital. Stephen is also at the hospital drinking
and talking with friends who are medical students. Leopold is invited to join them at Burke’s Pub. Stephen
leaves to go to Bella Cohen’s brothel, followed by Leopold who feels protective of the younger man. Leopold
finds Stephen knocked out after a drunken brawl with a British soldier. Leopold invites Stephen to his
home.After midnight, Stephen and Leopold talk over cocoa at his home. Leopold goes to bed, tells Molly
about his day, and surprises her with a request for breakfast in bed. Molly remains awake, thinking about her
day and a memory of a time with Leopold.
Born in Dublin in 1882, James Joyce,a modernist writer, was one of the most respected writers of the
twentieth century.  His works are known for examining major events though the day-to-day small events in
everyday life. In 1914, he published his first book, Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories. Portrait of
the Artist as a Young Man came out two years later and was praised by Ezra Pound, an American poet.
Following the publication of Ulysses in 1922, Joyce published Finnegan’s Wake  in 1939. In his personal life,
he and Nora Barnacle had two children together, Georgio and Lucia. James and Nora were not officially
married until three decades after they met. Joyce died on January 13, 1941, after intestinal surgery.
7. The Call of The Wild

If you thought a book about a dog would never appear on a list like this, well, you were wrong. Jack London’s
best-known short novel is often challenged for being too violent. Though its length, concise writing and main
character (a dog named Buck) often lead to people thinking this is a children’s book, the novel doesn’t shy
away from describing animal abuse, dog fights, or the burning need to break out of society’s constraints. 

What’s more, Jack London was a vocal Socialist, leading the book to be banned by fascist leaders in Italy in
1929, and being burned in Nazi bonfires in 1933.

Summary
The story opens in 1897 with Buck, a powerful 140-pound St. Bernard–Scotch Collie mix,[1][2] happily living
in California's Santa Clara Valley as the pampered pet of Judge Miller and his family. One night, assistant
gardener Manuel, needing money to pay off gambling debts, steals Buck and sells him to a stranger. Buck is
shipped to Seattle where he is confined in a crate, starved, and ill-treated. When released, Buck attacks his
handler, the "man in the red sweater," who teaches Buck the "law of club and fang," sufficiently cowing him.
The man shows some kindness after Buck demonstrates obedience.
Shortly after, Buck is sold to two French-Canadian dispatchers from the Canadian government, François and
Perrault, who take him to Alaska. Buck is trained as a sled dog for the Klondike region of Canada. In addition
to Buck, François and Perrault add an additional 10 dogs to their team (Spitz, Dave, Dolly, Pike, Dub, Billie,
Joe, Sol-leks, Teek, and Koona). Buck's teammates teach him how to survive cold winter nights and about
pack society. Over the next several weeks on the trail, a bitter rivalry develops between Buck and the lead dog,
Spitz, a vicious and quarrelsome white husky. Buck eventually kills Spitz in a fight and becomes the new lead
dog.
When François and Perrault complete the round-trip of the Yukon Trail in record time, returning
to Skagway with their dispatches, they are given new orders from the Canadian government. They sell their
sled team to a "Scotch half-breed" man, who works in the mail service. The dogs must make long, tiring trips,
carrying heavy loads to the mining areas. While running the trail, Buck seems to have memories of a canine
ancestor who has a short-legged "hairy man" companion. Meanwhile, the weary animals become weak from
the hard labor, and the wheel dog, Dave, a morose husky, becomes terminally sick and is eventually shot.
With the dogs too exhausted and footsore to be of use, the mail-carrier sells them to three stampeders from
the American Southland (the present-day contiguous United States)—a vain woman named Mercedes, her
sheepish husband Charles, and her arrogant brother Hal. They lack survival skills for the Northern wilderness,
struggle to control the sled, and ignore others' helpful advice—particularly warnings about the dangerous
spring melt. When told her sled is too heavy, Mercedes dumps out crucial supplies in favor of fashion objects.
She and Hal foolishly create a team of 14 dogs, believing they will travel faster. The dogs are overfed and
overworked, then are starved when food runs low. Most of the dogs die on the trail, leaving only Buck and four
other dogs when they pull into the White River.
The group meets John Thornton, an experienced outdoorsman, who notices the dogs' poor, weakened
condition. The trio ignores Thornton's warnings about crossing the ice and press onward. Exhausted, starving,
and sensing danger ahead, Buck refuses to continue. After Hal whips Buck mercilessly, a disgusted and angry
Thornton hits him and cuts Buck free. The group presses onward with the four remaining dogs, but their weight
causes the ice to break and the dogs and humans (along with their sled) to fall into the river and drown.
As Thornton nurses Buck back to health, Buck grows to love him. Buck kills a malicious man named Burton by
tearing out his throat because Burton hit Thornton while the latter was defending an innocent "tenderfoot." This
gives Buck a reputation all over the North. Buck also saves Thornton when he falls into a river. After Thornton
takes him on trips to pan for gold, a bonanza king (someone who struck it rich in the gold fields) named Mr.
Matthewson wagers Thornton on Buck's strength and devotion. Buck pulls a sled with a half-ton (1,000-pound
(450 kg)) load of flour, breaking it free from the frozen ground, dragging it 100 yards (91 m) and winning
Thornton US$1,600 in gold dust. A "king of the Skookum Benches" offers a large sum (US$700 at first, then
$1,200) to buy Buck, but Thornton declines and tells him to go to hell.
Using his winnings, Thornton pays his debts but elects to continue searching for gold with partners Pete and
Hans, sledding Buck and six other dogs to search for a fabled Lost Cabin. Once they locate a suitable gold
find, the dogs find they have nothing to do. Buck has more ancestor-memories of being with the primitive "hairy
man."[3] While Thornton and his two friends pan gold, Buck hears the call of the wild, explores the wilderness,
and socializes with a northwestern wolf from a local pack. However, Buck does not join the wolves and returns
to Thornton. Buck repeatedly goes back and forth between Thornton and the wild, unsure of where he belongs.
Returning to the campsite one day, he finds Hans, Pete, and Thornton have been murdered by Native
American Yeehats. Enraged, Buck kills several Natives to avenge Thornton, then realizes he no longer has
any human ties left. He goes looking for his wild brother and encounters a hostile wolf pack. He fights them
and wins, then discovers that the lone wolf he had socialized with is a pack member. Buck follows the pack into
the forest and answers the call of the wild.
 The legend of Buck spreads among other Native Americans as the "Ghost Dog" of the Northland (Alaska and
northwestern Canada). Each year, on the anniversary of his attack on the Yeehats, Buck returns to the former
campsite where he was last with Thornton, Hans, and Pete, to mourn their deaths. Every winter, leading the
wolf pack, Buck wreaks vengeance on the Yeehats "as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the
song of the pack."
8. Brave New World
Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931
and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered
into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive
technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make
a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist. Huxley followed this
book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final
novel, Island (1962), the utopian counterpart. The novel is often compared to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-
Four (published 1949).
In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World at number 5 on its list of the 100 best English-language
novels of the 20th century.[2] In 2003, Robert McCrum, writing for The Observer, included Brave New
World chronologically at number 53 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time",[3] and the novel was listed at
number 87 on The Big Read survey by the BBC.[4]
Despite the above, Brave New World has frequently been banned and challenged since its original publication.
It has landed on the American Library Association list of top 100 banned and challenged books of the decade
since the association began the list in
Summary
Brave New World is set in 2540 CE, which the novel identifies as the year AF 632. AF stands for “after Ford,”
as Henry Ford’s assembly line is revered as god-like; this era began when Ford introduced his Model T. The
novel examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around science and efficiency. In this
society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are no lasting
relationships because “every one belongs to every one else” (a common World State dictum). Huxley begins
the novel by thoroughly explaining the scientific and compartmentalized nature of this society, beginning at the
Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where children are created outside the womb and cloned in
order to increase the population. The reader is then introduced to the class system of this world, where citizens
are sorted as embryos to be of a certain class. The embryos, which exist within tubes and incubators, are
provided with differing amounts of chemicals and hormones in order to condition them into predetermined
classes. Embryos destined for the higher classes get chemicals to perfect them both physically and mentally,
whereas those of the lower classes are altered to be imperfect in those respects. These classes, in order from
highest to lowest, are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The Alphas are bred to be leaders, and the
Epsilons are bred to be menial labourers.

Bernard Marx, an Alpha, is one of the main characters of the story. He and his love interest, Lenina Crowne,
travel to a “savage reservation,” where Marx’s boss (the Director) supposedly lost a female companion some
years ago. When the two arrive, they see people living there engaging in unfamiliar rituals. They also stumble
upon a woman (Linda) and her son (John, also referred to as the Savage) who Marx correctly assumes to be
the lost family mentioned by the Director. The Director had recently been threatening to send Marx away for his
antisocial behavior, so Marx decides to bring the two home with him.
Marx presents Linda and John to the Director, and John, the son the Director never knew he had, calls the
Director “father.” This provokes the Director’s resignation, as procreation between persons is outlawed, and his
crime has been exposed. John is kept in the “brave new world,” as he calls it, as a sort of experiment. Linda,
however, is sent to a hospital because of her addiction to “soma,” a drug used by citizens to feel calmer. She
eventually dies because of it, which causes John to go on an anti-soma rampage in the hallway of the hospital.
John becomes angrier and angrier with this society, until eventually he runs away to a lighthouse to live in
isolation. He is able to evade tourists and reporters for a while, but eventually they find him and gawk as he
engages in self-flagellation. The intensity of the crowd increases when John whips not only himself but a
woman as well. Crowds descend from helicopters to witness the spectacle. Another woman appears (who is
implied to be Lenina), and John attempts to whip her too. John is soon overcome with passion, and, after
coming under the influence of soma, he falls asleep. The next morning, appalled at his complicity in the
system, he hangs himself.
9. Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Cancer is a novel by Henry Miller that has been described as "notorious for its candid sexuality" and
as responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature." [2][3] It was first published in
1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition was banned in the United States. [4] Its publication in
1961 in the U.S. by Grove Press led to obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography in the early
1960s. In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the book non-obscene. It is regarded as an important work
of 20th-century literature.
Summary
Set in France (primarily Paris) during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Tropic of Cancer centers on Miller's life
as a struggling writer. Late in the novel, Miller explains his artistic approach to writing the book itself, stating:
Up to the present, my idea of collaborating with myself has been to get off the gold standard of literature. My
idea briefly has been to present a resurrection of the emotions, to depict the conduct of a human being in the
stratosphere of ideas, that is, in the grip of delirium.[10]:243
Combining autobiography and fiction, some chapters follow a narrative of some kind and refer to Miller's actual
friends, colleagues, and workplaces; others are written as stream-of-consciousness reflections that are
occasionally epiphanic. The novel is written in the first person, as are many of Miller's other novels, and does
not have a linear organization, but rather fluctuates frequently between the past and present.
10. Of Mice of Men
Of Mice and Men is a novella written by John Steinbeck.[1][2] Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of
George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place
in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States.
Steinbeck based the novella on his own experiences working alongside migrant farm workers as a teenager in
the 1910s (before the arrival of the Okies that he would describe in The Grapes of Wrath). The title is taken
from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse", which reads: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft
agley". (The best laid schemes of mice and men / Often go awry.)
While it is a book taught in many schools,[3] Of Mice and Men has been a frequent target of censors for
vulgarity, and what some consider offensive and racist language; consequently, it appears on the American
Library Association's list of the Most Challenged Books of the 21st Century
Summary
Two migrant field workers in California on their plantation during the Great Depression—George Milton, an
intelligent but uneducated man, and Lennie Small, a bulky, strong man but mentally disabled—are
in Soledad on their way to another part of California. They hope to one day attain the dream of settling down
on their own piece of land. Lennie's part of the dream is merely to tend and pet rabbits on the farm, as he loves
touching soft animals, although he always accidentally kills them. This dream is one of Lennie's favorite
stories, which George constantly retells. They had fled from Weed after Lennie grabbed a young woman's skirt
and would not let go, leading to an accusation of rape. It soon becomes clear that the two are close and
George is Lennie's protector, despite his antics.
After being hired at a farm, the pair are confronted by Curley—the Boss's small, aggressive son with a
Napoleon complex who dislikes larger men. Curley starts to target Lennie. Curley's flirtatious and provocative
wife, to whom Lennie is instantly attracted, poses a problem as well. In contrast, the pair also meets Candy, an
elderly ranch handyman with one hand and a loyal dog, and Slim, an intelligent and gentle jerkline-
skinner whose dog has recently had a litter of puppies. Slim gives a puppy to Lennie and Candy, whose loyal,
accomplished sheep dog was put down by fellow ranch-hand Carlson.
In spite of problems, their dream leaps towards reality when Candy offers to pitch in $350 with George and
Lennie so that they can buy a farm at the end of the month, in return for permission to live with them. The trio
are ecstatic, but their joy is overshadowed when Curley attacks Lennie, who defends himself by easily crushing
Curley's fist while urged on by George.
Nevertheless, George feels more relaxed, to the extent that he even leaves Lennie behind on the ranch while
he goes into town with the other ranch hands. Lennie wanders into the stable, and chats with Crooks, the
bitter, yet educated stable buck, who is isolated from the other workers due to being black. Candy finds them
and they discuss their plans for the farm with Crooks, who cannot resist asking them if he can hoe a garden
patch on the farm albeit scorning its possibility. Curley's wife makes another appearance and flirts with the
men, especially Lennie. However, her spiteful side is shown when she belittles them and threatens to have
Crooks lynched.
The next day, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy while stroking it. Curley's wife enters the barn and tries to
speak to Lennie, admitting that she is lonely and how her dreams of becoming a movie star are crushed,
revealing her personality. After finding out about Lennie's habit, she offers to let him stroke her hair, but panics
and begins to scream when she feels his strength. Lennie becomes frightened, and unintentionally breaks her
neck thereafter and runs away. When the other ranch hands find the corpse, they form into a Lynch mob intent
on killing him, then send for the police before beginning the search. George then quickly realises that their
dream is at an end and hurries to find Lennie, hoping he will be at the meeting place they designated in case
he got into trouble (the riverbank where they camped at the start of the book).
George meets Lennie at their camping spot before they came to the ranch. The two sit together and George
retells the beloved story of the dream, despite knowing it is something they will never share. Upon hearing the
Lynch mob near them, George shoots Lennie, knowing it to be a more merciful death than that at the hands of
a mob. Curley, Slim, and Carlson arrive seconds after. Only Slim realizes what happened, and consolingly
leads him away. Curley and Carlson look on, unable to comprehend the subdued mood of the two men.

Post- Modernism
Notable Works
1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburry
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
5. The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
6. The Shining by Stephen King
7. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Controversial
8. The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10 The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburry

Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best
works,[4] the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that
are found.[5] The book's tagline explains the title as "'the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and
burns": the autoignition temperature of paper. The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes
disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and
committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
The novel has been the subject of interpretations focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing
dissenting ideas for change. In a 1956 radio interview,[6] Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because
of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In
later years, he described the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature.
[7]

In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and

the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal.[8][9][10] It later won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in
1984[11] and a "Retro" Hugo Award, one of a limited number of Best Novel Retro Hugos ever given, in 2004.
[12]
 Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version.[13]
Summary
"The Hearth and the Salamander"[edit]
Guy Montag is a fireman employed to burn houses containing outlawed books. He is married but has no
children. One fall night while returning from work, he meets his new neighbour, a teenage girl named Clarisse
McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and his own perceived
happiness. Montag returns home to find that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills, and he calls for
medical attention. Two uncaring EMTs pump Mildred's stomach, drain her poisoned blood, and fill her with new
blood. After the EMTs leave to rescue another overdose victim, Montag goes outside and overhears Clarisse
and her family talking about the way life is in this hedonistic, illiterate society. Montag's mind is bombarded with
Clarisse's subversive thoughts and the memory of his wife's near-death. Over the next few days, Clarisse
faithfully meets Montag each night as he walks home. She tells him about how her simple pleasures and
interests make her an outcast among her peers and how she is forced to go to therapy for her behavior and
thoughts. Montag looks forward to these meetings, and just as he begins to expect them, Clarisse goes
missing. He senses something is wrong.[18]
In the following days, while at work with the other firemen ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman
and drenching it in kerosene before the inevitable burning, Montag steals a book before any of his coworkers
notice. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match and burn
herself alive. Jarred by the woman's suicide, Montag returns home and hides the stolen book under his pillow.
Later, Montag wakes Mildred from her sleep and asks her if she has seen or heard anything about Clarisse
McClellan. She reveals that Clarisse's family moved away after Clarisse was hit by a speeding car and died
four days ago. Dismayed by her failure to mention this earlier, Montag uneasily tries to fall asleep. Outside he
suspects the presence of "The Mechanical Hound", an eight-legged[19] robotic dog-like creature that resides in
the firehouse and aids the firemen in hunting book hoarders.
Montag awakens ill the next morning. Mildred tries to care for her husband but finds herself more involved in
the "parlor wall" entertainment in the living room – large televisions filling the walls. Montag suggests that
maybe he should take a break from being a fireman after what happened last night, and Mildred panics over
the thought of losing the house and her parlor wall "family". Captain Beatty, Montag's fire chief, personally
visits Montag to see how he is doing. Sensing his concerns, Beatty recounts the history of how books lost their
value and how the firemen were adapted for their current role: over the course of several decades, people
began to embrace new media (in this case, film and television), sports, and an ever-quickening pace of life.
Books were ruthlessly abridged or degraded to accommodate short attention spans. At the same time,
advances in technology resulted in nearly all buildings being made out of fireproof materials, and the traditional
role of firemen in preventing fires was no longer necessary. The government instead turned the firemen into
officers of society's peace of mind: instead of putting out fires, they became responsible for starting them,
specifically for the purpose of burning books, which were condemned as sources of confusing and depressing
thoughts that only complicated people's lives. After an awkward exchange between Mildred and Montag over
the book hidden under Montag's pillow, Beatty becomes suspicious and casually adds a passing threat as he
leaves, telling Montag that if a fireman had a book, he would be asked to burn it within the next 24 hours. If he
refused, the other firemen would come and burn it for him. The encounter leaves Montag shaken.
After Beatty leaves, Montag reveals to Mildred that, over the last year, he has accumulated a stash of books
that he has kept hidden in the air-conditioning duct in their ceiling. In a panic, Mildred grabs a book and rushes
to throw it in the kitchen incinerator. Montag subdues her and tells her that the two of them are going to read
the books to see if they have value. If they do not, he promises the books will be burned and all will return to
normal.
"The Sieve and the Sand"[edit]
Montag and Mildred discuss the stolen books, and Mildred refuses to go along with it, questioning why she or
anyone else should care about books. Montag goes on a rant about Mildred's suicide attempt, Clarisse's
disappearance and death, the old woman who burned herself, and the imminent threat of war that goes
ignored by the masses. He suggests that perhaps the books of the past have messages that can save society
from its own destruction. The conversation is interrupted by a call from Mildred's friend, Mrs. Bowles, and they
set up a date to watch the "parlor walls" that night at Mildred's house.
Montag concedes that Mildred is a lost cause and he will need help to understand the books. He remembers
an old man named Faber, an English professor before books were banned, whom he once met in a park.
Montag makes a subway trip to Faber's home along with a rare copy of the Bible, the book he stole at the
woman's house. Once there, Montag forces the scared and reluctant Faber into helping him by methodically
ripping pages from the Bible. Faber concedes and gives Montag a homemade ear-piece communicator so he
can offer constant guidance.
At home, Mildred's friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps arrive to watch the "parlor walls." Not interested in
this insipid entertainment, Montag turns off the walls and tries to engage the women in meaningful
conversation, only for them to reveal just how indifferent, ignorant, and callous they truly are. Enraged by their
idiocy, Montag leaves momentarily and returns with a book of poetry. This confuses the women and alarms
Faber, who is listening remotely. Mildred tries to dismiss Montag's actions as a tradition firemen act out once a
year: they find an old book and read it as a way to make fun of how silly the past is. Montag proceeds to recite
the poem Dover Beach, causing Mrs. Phelps to cry. At the behest of Faber in the earpiece, Montag burns the
book. Mildred's friends leave in disgust, while Mildred locks herself in the bathroom and attempts to kill herself
again by overdosing on sleeping pills.
Montag hides his books in the backyard before returning to the firehouse late at night, where he finds Beatty
playing cards with the other firemen. Montag hands Beatty a book to cover for the one he believes Beatty
knows he stole the night before, which is unceremoniously tossed into the trash. Beatty tells Montag that he
had a dream in which they fought endlessly by quoting books to each other. Thus Beatty reveals that, despite
his disillusionment, he was once an enthusiastic reader. A fire alarm sounds and Beatty picks up the address
from the dispatcher system. They drive recklessly in the fire truck to the destination: Montag's house.
"Burning Bright"[edit]
Beatty orders Montag to destroy his house with a flamethrower, rather than the more powerful "salamander"
that is usually used by the fire team, and tells him that his wife and her friends reported him after what
happened the other night. Montag watches as Mildred walks out of the house, too traumatized about losing her
parlor wall family to even acknowledge her husband's existence or the situation going on around her, and
catches a taxi. Montag obeys the chief, destroying the home piece by piece, but Beatty discovers Montag's
earpiece and plans to hunt down Faber. Montag threatens Beatty with the flamethrower and, after Beatty
taunts him, Montag burns Beatty alive and knocks his co-workers unconscious. As Montag escapes the scene,
the Mechanical Hound attacks him, managing to inject his leg with a tranquilizer. He destroys the Hound with
the flamethrower and limps away. Before he escapes, however, he realizes that Beatty had wanted to die a
long time ago and had purposely goaded Montag as well as provided him with a weapon.
Montag runs through the city streets towards Faber's house. On his way, he crosses a wide road as a
speeding car attempts to run him over, but he manages to evade the vehicle, and realizes he almost suffered
the same fate as Clarisse. Faber urges him to make his way to the countryside and contact the exiled book-
lovers who live there. He mentions he will be leaving on an early bus heading to St. Louis and that he and
Montag can rendezvous there later. On Faber's television, they watch news reports of another Mechanical
Hound being released to track down and kill Montag, with news helicopters following it to create a public
spectacle. After wiping his scent from around the house in hopes of thwarting the Hound, Montag leaves
Faber's house. He escapes the manhunt by wading into a river and floating downstream. Montag leaves the
river in the countryside, where he meets the exiled drifters, led by a man named Granger. Granger shows
Montag the ongoing manhunt on a portable battery TV and predicts that “Montag” will be caught within the next
few minutes; as predicted, an innocent man is then caught and killed.
The drifters are all former intellectuals. They have each memorized books should the day arrive that society
comes to an end and is forced to rebuild itself anew, with the survivors learning to embrace the literature of the
past. Granger asks Montag what he has to contribute to the group and Montag finds that he had partially
memorized the Book of Ecclesiastes, discovering that the group has a special way of unlocking photographic
memory. While learning the philosophy of the exiles, Montag and the group watch helplessly as bombers fly
overhead and annihilate the city with nuclear weapons: the imminent war has begun and ended in the same
night. While Faber would have left on the early bus, everyone else (including Mildred) is immediately killed.
Montag and the group are injured and dirtied, but manage to survive the shockwave.
The following morning, Granger teaches Montag and the others about the legendary phoenix and its endless
cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth. He adds that the phoenix must have some relationship to
mankind, which constantly repeats its mistakes, but explains that man has something the phoenix does not:
mankind can remember its mistakes and try to never repeat them. Granger then muses that a large factory of
mirrors should be built so that people can take a long look at themselves and reflect on their lives. When the
meal is over, the exiles return to the city to rebuild society.
2. 1984 by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the
English novelist George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker
& Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-
Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of
persons by Socialist regimes.[2][3] Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian government
in the novel after Stalinist Russia.[2][3][4] More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within
politics and the ways in which they are manipulated.
The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim
to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda. Great Britain,
known as Airstrip One, has become a province of a totalitarian superstate named Oceania that is ruled by the
Party who employ the Thought Police to persecute individuality and independent thinking.[5] Big Brother, the
leader of the Party, enjoys an intense cult of personality despite the fact that he may not even exist. The
protagonist, Winston Smith, is a diligent and skillful rank-and-file worker and Outer Party member who secretly
hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. He enters into a forbidden relationship with a colleague, Julia, and
starts to remember what life was like before the Party came to power.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction. It also
popularised the term "Orwellian" as an adjective, with many terms used in the novel entering common usage,
including "Big Brother", "doublethink", "Thought Police", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "2 + 2 =
5", and "proles". Time included it on its 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.[6] It was placed
on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels, reaching No. 13 on the editors' list and No. 6 on the readers' list.[7] In
2003, the novel was listed at No. 8 on The Big Read survey by the BBC.[8] Parallels have been drawn between
the novel's subject matter and real life instances of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and violations of freedom
of expression among other themes.[9][10][11]
Summary
In the year 1984, civilization has been damaged by world war, civil conflict, and revolution. Airstrip One
(formerly known as Great Britain) is a province of Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super-states that rule
the world. It is ruled by the "Party" under the ideology of "Ingsoc" (a Newspeak shortening of "English
Socialism") and the mysterious leader Big Brother, who has an intense cult of personality. The Party brutally
purges out anyone who does not fully conform to their regime using the Thought Police and constant
surveillance through telescreens (two-way televisions), cameras, and hidden microphones. Those who fall out
of favour with the Party become "unpersons", disappearing with all evidence of their existence destroyed.
In London, Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites
historical records to conform to the state's ever-changing version of history. Winston revises past editions
of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into ducts leading to the memory
hole. He secretly opposes the Party's rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a
"thoughtcriminal" and likely to be caught one day.
While in a prole (Proletariat) neighbourhood, he meets Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antiques shop, and
buys a diary where he writes thoughts criticising the Party and Big Brother, and also writes that "if there is
hope, it lies in the proles". To his dismay, when he visits a prole quarter he discovers they have no political
consciousness. An old man he talks to there has no significant memory of life before the Revolution. As he
works in the Ministry of Truth, he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the novel-writing machines at the
ministry, whom Winston suspects of being a spy against him, and develops an intense hatred of her. He
vaguely suspects that his superior, an Inner Party official O'Brien, is part of an enigmatic
underground resistance movement known as the Brotherhood, formed by Big Brother's reviled political
rival Emmanuel Goldstein. In a lunch conversation with his co-worker Syme, who is assisting in developing a
revised version of Newspeak (a controlled language of limited vocabulary), Syme bluntly reveals the true
purpose of Newspeak: to reduce the capacity of human thought. Winston reflects that Syme will disappear as
he is "too intelligent" and therefore dangerous to the Party. Winston also discusses preparations for Hate Week
with his neighbour and colleague Parsons.
One day, Julia secretly hands Winston a note saying she loves him, and the two begin a torrid affair; an act of
rebellion as the Party insists that sex is only for reproduction. Julia shares Winston's loathing of the Party, but
he realizes that she is politically apathetic and uninterested in overthrowing the regime, thinking it impossible.
Initially meeting in the country, they later meet in a rented room above Mr. Charrington's shop. During his affair
with Julia, Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war of the 1950s and his tense
relationship with his wife Katharine, from whom he is separated (divorce is not permitted by the Party). He also
notices the disappearance of Syme during one of his working days. Weeks later, Winston is approached by
O'Brien, who invites Winston over to his flat, which is noted as being of far higher quality than Winston's.
O'Brien introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends Winston a copy of The Theory and
Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Goldstein. Meanwhile, during the nation's Hate Week, Oceania's
enemy suddenly changes from Eurasia to Eastasia, with no-one seemingly noticing the shift. Winston is
recalled to the Ministry to help make the major necessary revisions of the records. Afterwards Winston and
Julia read parts of the book, which explains more about how the Party maintains power, the true meanings of
its slogans, and the concept of perpetual war. It argues that the Party can be overthrown if proles rise up
against it. However, to Winston, it does not answer 'why' the Party is motivated to maintain power.
Winston and Julia are captured and imprisoned when Mr. Charrington is revealed to be a Thought Police
agent. At the Ministry of Love, Winston briefly interacts with colleagues who have been arrested for other
offences. O'Brien arrives, revealing himself as a Thought Police agent, who tells Winston that he will never
know whether the Brotherhood actually exists and that Emmanuel Goldstein's book was written collaboratively
by O'Brien and (presumably) other Party members. Over several months, Winston is starved and tortured to
"cure" himself of his "insanity" by changing his own perception to fit in line with the Party. O'Brien reveals to
Winston that the Party "seeks power for its own sake." When he taunts Winston by asking him if there is any
humiliation which he has not yet been made to suffer, Winston points out that the Party has not managed to
make him betray Julia, even after he accepted the party's invincibility and its principles. Winston accepts
internally that he really means he has not rescinded his feelings toward Julia; he betrays her by revealing her
crimes many times. He fantasizes that moments before his execution his heretic side will emerge, which, as
long as he is killed while unrepentant, will be his great victory over the Party.
O'Brien takes Winston to Room 101 for the final stage of re-education, which contains each prisoner's worst
fear, indicating that the level of surveillance on the public is far more thorough than initially believed by
Winston. Confronted with a wire cage holding frenzied rats, his biggest fear, in his face, Winston willingly
betrays Julia by wishing the suffering upon her instead. Winston is released back into public life and continues
to frequent the Chestnut Tree Café. One day, Winston encounters Julia, who was also tortured. Both reveal
that they have betrayed the other and no longer possess feelings for one other. Back in the café, a news alert
sounds and celebrates Oceania's supposed massive victory over Eurasian armies in Africa. Winston finally
accepts that he loves Big Brother.
3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was
published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and
awarded a prize from the New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. The book remains popular and is
recognized as a classic in children's literature.
The Hobbit is set within Tolkien's fictional universe and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins, the
titular hobbit, to win a share of the treasure guarded by Smaug the dragon. Bilbo's journey takes him from his
light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory.
The story is told in the form of an episodic quest, and most chapters introduce a specific creature or type of
creature of Tolkien's geography. Bilbo gains a new level of maturity, competence, and wisdom by accepting
the disreputable, romantic, fey, and adventurous sides of his nature and applying his wits and common sense.
The story reaches its climax in the Battle of Five Armies, where many of the characters and creatures from
earlier chapters re-emerge to engage in conflict.
Personal growth and forms of heroism are central themes of the story, along with motifs of warfare. These
themes have led critics to view Tolkien's own experiences during World War I as instrumental in shaping the
story. The author's scholarly knowledge of Germanic philology and interest in mythology and fairy tales are
often noted as influences.
Summary
Gandalf tricks Bilbo Baggins into hosting a party for Thorin Oakenshield and his band of twelve dwarves,
(Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur) who sing of reclaiming the Lonely
Mountain and its vast treasure from the dragon Smaug. When the music ends, Gandalf unveils Thrór's map
showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's
"burglar". The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself.

The group travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell,
where Elrond reveals more secrets from the map. When they attempt to cross the Misty Mountains they are
caught by goblins and driven deep underground. Although Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from
the others as they flee the goblins. Lost in the goblin tunnels, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then
encounters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles. As a reward for solving all riddles Gollum will show
him the path out of the tunnels, but if Bilbo fails, his life will be forfeit. With the help of the ring, which confers
invisibility, Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, improving his reputation with them. The goblins and Wargs
give chase, but the company are saved by eagles before resting in the house of Beorn.

Sketch map of Northeast Mirkwood, showing the Elvenking's Halls, the Lonely Mountain of Erebor, and
Esgaroth upon the Long Lake
The company enters the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf. In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves the dwarves
from giant spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves. Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travellers
are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfil prophecies of Smaug's
demise. The expedition reaches the mountain, and finds the secret door; its Moon-letters can only be read on
Durin's Day by the last light of the setting sun. Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and espying a
gap in Smaug's armour. The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruder, sets out to
destroy the town. A thrush had overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability and reports it to Lake-town
defender Bard. Bard's arrow finds the hollow spot and kills the dragon.

When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the Arkenstone, an heirloom of Thorin's family,
and hides it away. The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the mountain and request compensation for their
aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims on the treasure. Thorin refuses and,
having summoned his kin from the Iron Hills, reinforces his position. Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to
head off a war, but Thorin is only enraged at the betrayal. He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable.

Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs. The dwarves, men and elves
band together, but only with the timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn do they win the climactic Battle of Five
Armies. Thorin is fatally wounded and reconciles with Bilbo before he dies.

Bilbo accepts only a small portion of his share of the treasure, having no want or need for more, but still returns
home a very wealthy hobbit roughly a year and a month after he first left. He writes the story of his adventures.
4. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Charlotte's Web is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth
Williams; it was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of
a livestock pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger
of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web
in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a classic of children's literature,
enjoyable to adults as well as children.[1] The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the
farm is an often cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the
swing. In 2000, Publishers Weekly listed the book as the best-selling children's paperback of all time.[2]
Summary
After a little girl named Fern Arable pleads for the life of the runt of a litter of piglets, her father gives her the pig
to nurture, and she names him Wilbur. She treats him as a pet, but a month later, Wilbur is no longer small,
and is sold to Fern's uncle, Homer Zuckerman. In Zuckerman's barnyard, Wilbur yearns for companionship, but
is snubbed by the other animals. He is befriended by a barn spider named Charlotte, whose web sits in a
doorway overlooking Wilbur's enclosure. When Wilbur discovers that he is being raised for slaughter, she
promises to hatch a plan guaranteed to spare his life. Fern often sits on a stool, listening to the animals'
conversation, but over the course of the story, as she starts to mature, she begins to find other interests.
As the summer passes, Charlotte ponders the question of how to save Wilbur. At last, she comes up with a
plan, which she proceeds to implement. Reasoning that Zuckerman would not kill a famous pig, Charlotte
weaves words and short phrases in praise of Wilbur into her web. This makes Wilbur, and the barn as a whole,
into tourist attractions, as many people believe the webs to be miracles. Wilbur is eventually entered into the
county fair, and Charlotte, as well as the barn rat Templeton, accompany him. He fails to win the blue ribbon,
but is awarded a special prize by the judges. Charlotte hears the presentation of the award over the public
address system and realizes that the prize means Zuckerman will cherish Wilbur for as long as the pig lives,
and will never slaughter him for his meat. However, Charlotte, being a barn spider with a naturally short
lifespan, is already dying of natural causes by the time the award is announced. Knowing that she has saved
Wilbur, and satisfied with the outcome of her life, she does not return to the barn with Wilbur and Templeton,
and instead remains at the fairgrounds to die. However, she allows Wilbur to take with him her egg sac, from
which her children will hatch in the spring. Meanwhile, Fern, who has matured significantly since the beginning
of the novel, loses interest in Wilbur and starts paying more attention to boys her age. She misses most of the
fair's events in order to go on the Ferris wheel with Henry Fussy, one of her classmates.
Wilbur waits out the winter, a winter he would not have survived but for Charlotte. He is initially delighted when
Charlotte's children hatch, but is later devastated when most leave the barn. Only three remain to take up
residence in Charlotte's old doorway. Pleased at finding new friends, Wilbur names one of them Nellie, while
the remaining two name themselves Joy and Aranea. Further generations of spiders keep Wilbur company in
subsequent years.
5. The Old Man and The Sea
The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cayo
Blanco (Cuba), and published in 1952.[1] It was the last major work of fiction written by Hemingway that was
published during his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an
aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba.[2]
In 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it was cited by the Nobel
Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954
Summary
Santiago is an aging, experienced fisherman who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. He is now
seen as "salao," the worst form of unlucky. Manolin, a young man whom Santiago has trained since childhood,
has been forced by his parents to work on a luckier boat. Manolin remains dedicated to Santiago, visiting his
shack each night, hauling his fishing gear, preparing food, and talking about American baseball and Santiago's
favorite player, Joe DiMaggio. Santiago says that tomorrow, he will venture far out into the Gulf Stream, north
of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.
On the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak, Santiago takes his skiff out early. By noon, he has hooked a big
fish that he is sure is a marlin, but he is unable to haul it in. He is unwilling to tie the line to the boat for fear that
a sudden jerk from the fish would break the line. With his back, shoulders, and hands, he holds the line for two
days and nights. He gives slack as needed while the marlin pulls him far from land. He uses his other hooks to
catch fish and a dolphin to eat. The line cuts his hands, his body is sore, and he sleeps little. Despite this, he
expresses compassion and appreciation for the marlin, often referring to him as a brother. He determines that
no one is worthy enough to eat the marlin.
On the third day, the fatigued marlin begins to circle the skiff. Santiago, almost delirious, draws the line inward,
bringing the marlin towards the boat. He pulls the marlin onto its side and stabs it with a harpoon, killing it.
Seeing that the fish is too large to fit in the skiff, Santiago lashes it to the side of his boat. He sets sail for
home, thinking of the high price the fish will bring him at the market and how many people he will feed.
The trail of blood from the dead marlin attracts sharks. Santiago berates himself for having gone out too far. He
kills a great mako shark with his harpoon but loses the weapon. He makes a spear by strapping his knife to the
end of an oar. He kills three more sharks before the blade of the knife snaps, and he clubs two more sharks
into submission. But each shark has bitten the great marlin, increasing the flow of blood. That night, an entire
school of sharks arrives. Santiago attempts to beat them back. When the oar breaks, Santiago rips out the
skiff's tiller and continues fighting. Upon seeing a shark attempt to eat the marlin's head, Santiago realizes the
fish has been completely devoured. He tells the sharks they have killed his dreams.
Santiago reaches shore before dawn the next day. He struggles to his shack, leaving the fish head and
skeleton with his boat. Once home, he falls into a deep sleep. In the morning, Manolin finds Santiago. As he
leaves to get coffee for Santiago, he cries. A group of fishermen have gathered around the remains of the
marlin. One of them measures it at 18 feet (5.5 m) from nose to tail. The fishermen tell Manolin to tell Santiago
how sorry they are. A pair of tourists at a nearby café mistake the dead fish for a shark. When Santiago wakes,
he donates the head of the fish to Pedrico. He and Manolin promise to fish together once again. Santiago
returns to sleep, and he dreams of his youth and of lions on an African beach.
6. The Shining by Stephen King
The Shining is a 1977 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is King's third published novel and first
hardback bestseller; its success firmly established King as a preeminent author in the horror genre. The setting
and characters are influenced by King's personal experiences, including both his visit to The Stanley Hotel in
1974 and his struggle with alcoholism. The novel was adapted into a 1980 film of the same name. The book
was followed by a sequel, Doctor Sleep, published in 2013, which was adapted into a film of the same name.
Summary
The Shining mainly takes place in the fictional Overlook Hotel, an isolated, haunted resort hotel located in
the Colorado Rockies. The history of the hotel, which is described in backstory by several characters, includes
the deaths of some of its guests and of former winter caretaker Delbert Grady, who “succumbed to cabin fever”
and killed his family and himself.
Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their five-year-old son Danny move into the hotel after Jack accepts the
position as winter caretaker. Jack is an aspiring writer[1] and recovering alcoholic with anger issues which, prior
to the story, had caused him to accidentally break Danny's arm and lose his position as a teacher after
assaulting a student. Jack hopes that the hotel's seclusion will help him reconnect with his family and give him
the motivation needed to work on a play. Danny, unknown to his parents, possesses psychic abilities referred
to as "the shining" that enable him to read minds and experience premonitions as well as clairvoyance. The
Torrances arrive at the hotel on closing day and are given a tour by the manager. They meet Dick Hallorann,
the chef, who also possesses similar abilities to Danny's and helps to explain them to him, giving Hallorann
and Danny a special connection.[2] The remaining staff and guests depart the hotel, leaving the Torrances
alone in the hotel for the winter.
As the Torrances settle in at the Overlook, Danny sees ghosts and frightening visions. Although Danny is close
to his parents, he does not tell either of them about his visions because he senses that the care-taking job is
important to his father and the family's future. Wendy considers leaving Jack at the Overlook to finish the job
by himself; Danny refuses, thinking his father will be happier if they stayed. However, Danny soon realizes that
his presence in the hotel makes the supernatural activity more powerful, turning echoes of past tragedies into
dangerous threats. Apparitions take solid form and the garden's topiary animals come to life. The winter
snowfall leaves the Torrances cut off from the outside world in the isolated hotel.
The Overlook has difficulty possessing Danny, so it begins to possess Jack by frustrating his need and desire
to work and by enticing him with the storied history of the hotel through a scrapbook and records in the
basement. Jack starts to develop cabin fever and becomes increasingly unstable, destroying a CB radio and
sabotaging a snowmobile, the only two links with the outside world the Torrances had. One day, after a fight
with Wendy, Jack finds the hotel's bar fully stocked with liquor despite being previously empty, and witnesses a
party at which he meets the ghost of a bartender named Lloyd. He also dances with a young woman ghost
who tries to seduce Jack. As he gets drunk, the hotel uses the ghost of the former caretaker Grady to urge
Jack to kill his wife and son. He initially resists, but the increasing influence of the hotel combined with Jack's
own alcoholism and anger prove too great. He succumbs to his dark side and the control of the hotel.[3]
[4]
 Wendy and Danny get the better of Jack after he attacks Wendy, locking him inside the walk-in pantry, but
the ghost of Delbert Grady releases him after he makes Jack promise to bring him Danny and to kill Wendy.
Jack attacks Wendy with one of the hotel's roque mallets, grievously injuring her, but she escapes to the
caretaker's suite and locks herself in the bathroom. Jack attempts to break the door with the mallet, but Wendy
slashes his hand with a razor blade to deter him.
Meanwhile, Hallorann has received a psychic distress call from Danny while working at a winter resort
in Florida. Hallorann rushes back to the Overlook, only to be attacked by the topiary animals and severely
injured by Jack. As Jack pursues Danny through the Overlook and corners him on the hotel's top floor, he
briefly gains control of himself and implores Danny to run away after Danny stands his ground and denounces
Jack as a mask and false face worn by the hotel. The hotel takes control of Jack again, making him violently
batter his own face and skull into ruin with the mallet, destroying the last vestiges of Jack and leaving a being
controlled by the hotel's own malevolent "manager" personality. Remembering that Jack has neglected to
relieve the pressure on the hotel's unstable boiler, Danny informs the hotel that it is about to explode. As
Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann flee, the hotel-creature rushes to the basement in an attempt to vent the
pressure, but it is too late and the boiler explodes, killing Jack and destroying the Overlook. Fighting off a last
attempt by the hotel to possess him, Hallorann guides Danny and Wendy to safety.
The book's epilogue is set during the next summer. Hallorann, who has taken a chef's job at a resort in Maine,
comforts Danny over the loss of his father as Wendy recuperates from the injuries Jack inflicted on her.

7. East of Eden
East of Eden is a novel by American author and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Published in September
1952, the work is regarded by many to be Steinbeck's most ambitious novel and by Steinbeck himself to be
his magnum opus.[2] Steinbeck stated about East of Eden: "It has everything in it I have been able to learn
about my craft or profession in all these years," and later said: "I think everything else I have written has been,
in a sense, practice for this." The novel was originally addressed to Steinbeck's young sons, Thom and John
(then 6½ and 4½ years old, respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail:
the sights, sounds, smells and colors.
Summary
Holden Caulfield, a depressed 16-year-old, lives in an unspecified institution in California after the end of World
War II. After his discharge within a month, he intends to go live with his brother D.B., an author and war
veteran with whom Holden is angry for becoming a Hollywood screenwriter.
Holden recalls the events of the previous Christmas, beginning at Pencey Preparatory Academy, a boarding
school in Pennsylvania. Holden has just learned that he won't be allowed back at Pencey after the Christmas
break because he had failed all classes except English. After forfeiting a fencing match in New York by
forgetting the equipment on the subway, he says goodbye to his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, who is a well-
meaning but long-winded old man. Spencer offers him advice and simultaneously embarrasses Holden by
criticizing his history exam.
Back at his dorm, Holden's dorm neighbor, Robert Ackley, who is unpopular among his peers, disturbs Holden
with his impolite questioning and mannerisms. Holden, who feels sorry for Ackley, tolerates his presence.
Later, Holden agrees to write an English composition for his roommate, Ward Stradlater, who is leaving for a
date. Holden and Stradlater normally hang out well together, and Holden admires Stradlater's physique. He is
distressed to learn that Stradlater's date is Jane Gallagher, with whom Holden was infatuated and feels the
need to protect. That night, Holden decides to go to a Cary Grant comedy with Mal Brossard and Ackley. Since
Ackley and Mal had already seen the film, they end up just playing pinball and returning to Pencey. When
Stradlater returns hours later, he fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden wrote for him
about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother Allie and refuses to say whether he slept with Jane. Enraged,
Holden punches him, and Stradlater easily wins the fight. When Holden continues insulting him, Stradlater
leaves him lying on the floor with a bloody nose. He goes to the room of Ackley, who is already asleep, and
doesn't give him any attention. Fed up with the "phonies" at Pencey Prep, Holden decides to leave Pencey
early and catches a train to New York. Holden intends to stay away from his home until Wednesday when his
parents would have received notification of his expulsion. Aboard the train, Holden meets the mother of a
wealthy, obnoxious Pencey student, Ernest Morrow, and makes up nice but false stories about her son.
In a taxicab, Holden asks the driver whether the ducks in the Central Park lagoon migrate during winter, a
subject he brings up often, but the man barely responds. Holden checks into the Edmont Hotel and spends an
evening dancing with three tourists at the hotel lounge. Holden is disappointed that they are unable to hold a
conversation. Following an unpromising visit to a nightclub, Holden becomes preoccupied with his internal
angst and agrees to have a prostitute named Sunny visit his room. His attitude toward the girl changes when
she enters the room and takes off her clothes. Holden, who is a virgin, says he only wants to talk, which
annoys her and causes her to leave. Even though he maintains that he paid her the right amount for her time,
she returns with her pimp Maurice and demands more money. Holden insults Maurice, Sunny takes money
from Holden's wallet, and Maurice snaps his fingers on Holden's groin and punches him in the stomach.
Afterward, Holden imagines that he has been shot by Maurice and pictures murdering him with
an automatic pistol.
The next morning, Holden, becoming increasingly depressed and in need of personal connection, calls Sally
Hayes, a familiar date. Although Holden claims that she is "the queen of all phonies," they agree to meet that
afternoon to attend a play at the Biltmore Theater. Holden shops for a special record, "Little Shirley Beans", for
his 10-year-old sister Phoebe. He spots a small boy singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye",
which lifts his mood. After the play, Holden and Sally go ice skating at Rockefeller Center, where Holden
suddenly begins ranting against society and frightens Sally. He impulsively invites Sally to run away with him
that night to live in the wilderness of New England, but she is uninterested in his hastily conceived plan and
declines. The conversation turns sour, and the two angrily part ways.
Holden decides to meet his old classmate, Carl Luce, for drinks at the Wicker Bar. Holden annoys Carl, whom
Holden suspects of being gay, by insistently questioning him about his sex life. Before leaving, Luce says that
Holden should go see a psychiatrist, to better understand himself. After Luce leaves, Holden gets drunk,
awkwardly flirts with several adults, and calls an icy Sally. Exhausted and out of money, Holden wanders over
to Central Park to investigate the ducks, accidentally breaking Phoebe's record on the way. Nostalgic, he
heads home to see his sister Phoebe. He sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out, and wakes up
Phoebe — the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate his true feelings. Although Phoebe
is happy to see Holden, she quickly deduces that he has been expelled, and chastises him for his aimlessness
and his apparent disdain for everything. When asked if he cares about anything, Holden shares a selfless
fantasy he has been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns's Comin' Through the Rye), in
which he imagines himself as making a job of saving children running through a field of rye by catching them
before they fell off a nearby cliff (a "catcher in the rye").
When his parents return home, Holden slips out and visits his former and much-admired English teacher, Mr.
Antolini, who expresses concern that Holden is headed for "a terrible fall". Mr. Antolini advises him to begin
applying himself and provides Holden with a place to sleep. Holden is upset when he wakes up to find Mr.
Antolini patting his head, which he interprets as a sexual advance. He leaves and spends the rest of the night
in a waiting room at Grand Central Station, where he sinks further into despair and expresses regret over
leaving Mr. Antolini. He spends most of the morning wandering Fifth Avenue.
Losing hope of finding belonging or companionship in the city, Holden impulsively decides that he will head
out West and live a reclusive lifestyle in a log cabin. He decides to see Phoebe at lunchtime to explain his plan
and say goodbye. While visiting Phoebe's school, Holden sees graffiti containing a curse word and becomes
distressed by the thought of children learning the word's meaning and tarnishing their innocence. When he
meets Phoebe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she arrives with a suitcase and asks to go with him, even
though she was looking forward to acting as Benedict Arnold in a play that Friday. Holden refuses to let her
come with him, which upsets Phoebe. He tries to cheer her up by allowing her to skip school and taking her to
the Central Park Zoo, but she remains angry. They eventually reach the zoo's carousel, where Phoebe
reconciles with Holden after he buys her a ticket. Holden is finally filled with happiness and joy at the sight of
Phoebe riding the carousel.
Holden finally alludes to encountering his parents that night and "getting sick", mentioning that he will be
attending another school in September. Holden says that he doesn't want to tell anything more because talking
about them has made him find himself missing his former classmates.

8. The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J. D. Salinger, partially published in serial form in 1945–1946 and as a
novel in 1951.[3] It was originally intended for adults but is often read by adolescents for its themes
of angst, alienation, and as a critique on superficiality in society. [4][5] It has been translated widely. [6] About one
million copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books.[7] The novel's
protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion.[8] The novel also deals with complex
issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression.
Summary
Holden Caulfield, a depressed 16-year-old, lives in an unspecified institution in California after the end of World
War II. After his discharge within a month, he intends to go live with his brother D.B., an author and war
veteran with whom Holden is angry for becoming a Hollywood screenwriter.
Holden recalls the events of the previous Christmas, beginning at Pencey Preparatory Academy, a boarding
school in Pennsylvania. Holden has just learned that he won't be allowed back at Pencey after the Christmas
break because he had failed all classes except English. After forfeiting a fencing match in New York by
forgetting the equipment on the subway, he says goodbye to his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, who is a well-
meaning but long-winded old man. Spencer offers him advice and simultaneously embarrasses Holden by
criticizing his history exam.
Back at his dorm, Holden's dorm neighbor, Robert Ackley, who is unpopular among his peers, disturbs Holden
with his impolite questioning and mannerisms. Holden, who feels sorry for Ackley, tolerates his presence.
Later, Holden agrees to write an English composition for his roommate, Ward Stradlater, who is leaving for a
date. Holden and Stradlater normally hang out well together, and Holden admires Stradlater's physique. He is
distressed to learn that Stradlater's date is Jane Gallagher, with whom Holden was infatuated and feels the
need to protect. That night, Holden decides to go to a Cary Grant comedy with Mal Brossard and Ackley. Since
Ackley and Mal had already seen the film, they end up just playing pinball and returning to Pencey. When
Stradlater returns hours later, he fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden wrote for him
about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother Allie and refuses to say whether he slept with Jane. Enraged,
Holden punches him, and Stradlater easily wins the fight. When Holden continues insulting him, Stradlater
leaves him lying on the floor with a bloody nose. He goes to the room of Ackley, who is already asleep, and
doesn't give him any attention. Fed up with the "phonies" at Pencey Prep, Holden decides to leave Pencey
early and catches a train to New York. Holden intends to stay away from his home until Wednesday when his
parents would have received notification of his expulsion. Aboard the train, Holden meets the mother of a
wealthy, obnoxious Pencey student, Ernest Morrow, and makes up nice but false stories about her son.
In a taxicab, Holden asks the driver whether the ducks in the Central Park lagoon migrate during winter, a
subject he brings up often, but the man barely responds. Holden checks into the Edmont Hotel and spends an
evening dancing with three tourists at the hotel lounge. Holden is disappointed that they are unable to hold a
conversation. Following an unpromising visit to a nightclub, Holden becomes preoccupied with his internal
angst and agrees to have a prostitute named Sunny visit his room. His attitude toward the girl changes when
she enters the room and takes off her clothes. Holden, who is a virgin, says he only wants to talk, which
annoys her and causes her to leave. Even though he maintains that he paid her the right amount for her time,
she returns with her pimp Maurice and demands more money. Holden insults Maurice, Sunny takes money
from Holden's wallet, and Maurice snaps his fingers on Holden's groin and punches him in the stomach.
Afterward, Holden imagines that he has been shot by Maurice and pictures murdering him with
an automatic pistol.
The next morning, Holden, becoming increasingly depressed and in need of personal connection, calls Sally
Hayes, a familiar date. Although Holden claims that she is "the queen of all phonies," they agree to meet that
afternoon to attend a play at the Biltmore Theater. Holden shops for a special record, "Little Shirley Beans", for
his 10-year-old sister Phoebe. He spots a small boy singing "If a body catch a body coming through the rye",
which lifts his mood. After the play, Holden and Sally go ice skating at Rockefeller Center, where Holden
suddenly begins ranting against society and frightens Sally. He impulsively invites Sally to run away with him
that night to live in the wilderness of New England, but she is uninterested in his hastily conceived plan and
declines. The conversation turns sour, and the two angrily part ways.
Holden decides to meet his old classmate, Carl Luce, for drinks at the Wicker Bar. Holden annoys Carl, whom
Holden suspects of being gay, by insistently questioning him about his sex life. Before leaving, Luce says that
Holden should go see a psychiatrist, to better understand himself. After Luce leaves, Holden gets drunk,
awkwardly flirts with several adults, and calls an icy Sally. Exhausted and out of money, Holden wanders over
to Central Park to investigate the ducks, accidentally breaking Phoebe's record on the way. Nostalgic, he
heads home to see his sister Phoebe. He sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out, and wakes up
Phoebe — the only person with whom he seems to be able to communicate his true feelings. Although Phoebe
is happy to see Holden, she quickly deduces that he has been expelled, and chastises him for his aimlessness
and his apparent disdain for everything. When asked if he cares about anything, Holden shares a selfless
fantasy he has been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns's Comin' Through the Rye), in
which he imagines himself as making a job of saving children running through a field of rye by catching them
before they fell off a nearby cliff (a "catcher in the rye").
When his parents return home, Holden slips out and visits his former and much-admired English teacher, Mr.
Antolini, who expresses concern that Holden is headed for "a terrible fall". Mr. Antolini advises him to begin
applying himself and provides Holden with a place to sleep. Holden is upset when he wakes up to find Mr.
Antolini patting his head, which he interprets as a sexual advance. He leaves and spends the rest of the night
in a waiting room at Grand Central Station, where he sinks further into despair and expresses regret over
leaving Mr. Antolini. He spends most of the morning wandering Fifth Avenue.
Losing hope of finding belonging or companionship in the city, Holden impulsively decides that he will head
out West and live a reclusive lifestyle in a log cabin. He decides to see Phoebe at lunchtime to explain his plan
and say goodbye. While visiting Phoebe's school, Holden sees graffiti containing a curse word and becomes
distressed by the thought of children learning the word's meaning and tarnishing their innocence. When he
meets Phoebe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she arrives with a suitcase and asks to go with him, even
though she was looking forward to acting as Benedict Arnold in a play that Friday. Holden refuses to let her
come with him, which upsets Phoebe. He tries to cheer her up by allowing her to skip school and taking her to
the Central Park Zoo, but she remains angry. They eventually reach the zoo's carousel, where Phoebe
reconciles with Holden after he buys her a ticket. Holden is finally filled with happiness and joy at the sight of
Phoebe riding the carousel.
Holden finally alludes to encountering his parents that night and "getting sick", mentioning that he will be
attending another school in September. Holden says that he doesn't want to tell anything more because talking
about them has made him find himself missing his former classmates.

9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly
successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. To Kill a Mockingbird has
become a classic of modern American literature, winning the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are loosely
based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown
of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was ten.
Despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality, the novel is renowned for its warmth and
humor. Atticus Finch, the narrator's father, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of
integrity for lawyers. The historian Joseph Crespino explains, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is
probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its main character, Atticus Finch, the
most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."[1] As a Southern Gothic and Bildungsroman novel, the primary
themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted
that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the Deep South. The book
is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice.
[2]
 Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public
classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of
the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die".[3]
Reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication. Despite the number of copies sold and its widespread
use in education, literary analysis of it is sparse. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual
impressions of To Kill a Mockingbird by several authors and public figures, calls the book "an astonishing
phenomenon".[4] It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with
a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper
Lee's hometown.
To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's only published book until Go Set a Watchman, an earlier draft of To Kill a
Mockingbird, was published on July 14, 2015. Lee continued to respond to her work's impact until her death in
February 2016, although she had refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964.
Summary
The story, told by the six-year-old Jean Louise Finch, takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great
Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. Nicknamed Scout, she
lives with her older brother Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer.
Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three
children are terrified, yet fascinated by their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The adults of
Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and few of them have seen him for many years. The children feed
one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they
fantasize about how to get him out of his house. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find
that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo
makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.
Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young
white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom
to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus's actions, calling him a "nigger-lover".
Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. One night,
Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This crisis is averted in an unexpected manner: Scout,
Jem, and Dill show up, and Scout inadvertently breaks the mob mentality by recognizing and talking to a
classmate's father, and the would-be lynchers disperse.
Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson's trial. No seat is available on the main
floor, but the Rev. Sykes invites Jem, Scout, and Dill to watch from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes
that Mayella and Bob Ewell are lying. It is revealed that Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom,
subsequently resulting in her being beaten by her father. The townspeople refer to the Ewells as "white trash"
who are not to be trusted, but the jury convicts Tom regardless. Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken. Atticus is
hopeful that he can get the verdict overturned, but Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.
Despite Tom's conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial, Atticus explaining that he
"destroyed [Ewell's] last shred of credibility at that trial." Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus' face, trying to
break into the judge's house and menacing Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks Jem and Scout while
they are walking home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant. Jem suffers a broken arm in the
struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem
home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley.
Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers Ewell dead from a knife wound. Atticus believes that Jem was responsible,
but Tate is certain it was Boo. The sheriff decides that, to protect Boo's privacy, he will report that Ewell simply
fell on his own knife during the attack. Boo asks Scout to walk him home. After she says goodbye to him at his
front door, he disappears, never to be seen again by Scout. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout
imagines life from Boo's perspective.
10. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Chocolate War is a young adult novel by American author Robert Cormier, published in 1974. It was
adapted into a film in 1988. Although it received mixed reviews at the time of its publication, some reviewers
have argued it is one of the best young adult novels of all time. [1] Set at a fictional Catholic high school, the
story depicts a secret student organization's manipulation of the student body, which descends into cruel and
ugly mob mentality against a lone, non-conforming student. Because of the novel's language, the concept of a
high school secret society using intimidation to enforce the cultural norms of the school and various characters'
sexual ponderings, it has been embroiled in censorship controversies and appeared as third on the American
Library Association's list of the "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000–2009."[2] A sequel was published
in 1985 called Beyond the Chocolate War.
Summary
Jerry is a freshman attending an all-boys Catholic high school called Trinity, while coping with depressive
feelings and existential questions that stem largely from his mother's recent death and his father's enduring
grief. Jerry is quickly recruited onto Trinity's football team, where he meets Roland "The Goober" Goubert, a
fellow freshman and instant friend.
Vice-principal Brother Leon has recently become acting headmaster and overextends his rising ambition by
committing Trinity to selling double the previous year's amount of chocolates during an annual fundraising
event, quietly enlisting the support of Archie Costello, the genesis and leader behind The Vigils: the school's
cruelly manipulative secret society of student pranksters.
Archie arrogantly plans to alternate between betraying and supporting Leon in a frenzied series of power plays.
His first "assignment" is to incite Jerry to refuse to sell any chocolate for ten days. However, Jerry, inspired
after reading a quotation inside his locker: "Do I dare disturb the universe?" from T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock," feels strangely determined to sell nothing even after the ten days have passed, thus
estranging himself from both Leon and The Vigils.
At first, Jerry's refusal to cooperate with the corrupt school culture and fundraiser is seen by many classmates
as heroic, but the gesture threatens Brother Leon and The Vigils' ability to coerce the student population. Leon
presses Archie to put The Vigils' full force behind the chocolate sales, so they set up Jerry as an enemy for the
rest of the student body to harass through bullying, prank calls, and vandalism. Only The Goober remains
Jerry's friend but does little to protect him. Ultimately, Archie enlists the school bully Emile Janza to beat up
Jerry just outside the school, but, even in the aftermath, Jerry maintains his defiant nonconformity.
Finally, Archie concocts a showdown: a boxing match at night between Jerry and Emile. On the football field,
the match is watched by all students, who can select which blows will be laid during the fight through a
randomized lottery system; however, the fight ends when a teacher shuts down the electrical power on the
field, and Jerry is brutally injured in the ensuing darkness. Half-conscious, he tells The Goober that there was
no way to win and he should have just complied, conceding that it is best, after all, not to "disturb the universe."
Though Archie is apprehended as the mastermind of the fight, Brother Leon intervenes on his behalf and
privately praises his efforts in the unprecedented success of the chocolate sales. Leon implies that next year, if
he is officially made the new headmaster, he will work to preserve Archie's power.