Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Having run up large debts, a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby faces the prospect of losing
everything he owns. Though he and his wife, Emily Shelby, have a kindhearted and affectionate
relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise money by selling two of his slaves to Mr.
Haley, a coarse slave trader. The slaves in question are Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a
wife and children on the farm, and Harry, the young son of Mrs. Shelby’s maid Eliza. When
Shelby tells his wife about his agreement with Haley, she is appalled because she has promised
Eliza that Shelby would not sell her son.
However, Eliza overhears the conversation between Haley and his wife and, after warning Uncle
Tom and his wife, Aunt Chloe, she takes Harry and flees to the North, hoping to find freedom
with her husband George in Canada. Haley pursues her, but two other Shelby slaves alert Eliza to
the danger. She miraculously evades capture by crossing the half-frozen Ohio River, the
boundary separating Kentucky from the North. Haley hires a slave hunter named Loker and his
gang to bring Eliza and Harry back to Kentucky. Eliza and Harry make their way to a Quaker
settlement, where the Quakers agree to help transport them to safety. They are joined at the
settlement by George, who reunites joyously with his family for the trip to Canada.
Meanwhile, Uncle Tom sadly leaves his family and Mas’r George, Shelby’s young son and
Tom’s friend, as Haley takes him to a boat on the Mississippi to be transported to a slave market.
On the boat, Tom meets an angelic little white girl named Eva, who quickly befriends him.
When Eva falls into the river, Tom dives in to save her, and her father, Augustine St. Clare,
gratefully agrees to buy Tom from Haley. Tom travels with the St. Clares to their home in New
Orleans, where he grows increasingly invaluable to the St. Clare household and increasingly
close to Eva, with whom he shares a devout Christianity.
Up North, George and Eliza remain in flight from Loker and his men. When Loker attempts to
capture them, George shoots him in the side, and the other slave hunters retreat. Eliza convinces
George and the Quakers to bring Loker to the next settlement, where he can be healed.
Meanwhile, in New Orleans, St. Clare discusses slavery with his cousin Ophelia, who opposes
slavery as an institution but harbors deep prejudices against blacks. St. Clare, by contrast, feels
no hostility against blacks but tolerates slavery because he feels powerless to change it. To help
Ophelia overcome her bigotry, he buys Topsy, a young black girl who was abused by her past
master and arranges for Ophelia to begin educating her.
After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. She slowly weakens,
then dies, with a vision of heaven before her. Her death has a profound effect on everyone who
knew her: Ophelia resolves to love the slaves, Topsy learns to trust and feel attached to others,
and St. Clare decides to set Tom free. However, before he can act on his decision, St. Clare is
stabbed to death while trying to settle a brawl. As he dies, he at last finds God and goes to be
reunited with his mother in heaven.
St. Clare’s cruel wife, Marie, sells Tom to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Tom
is taken to rural Louisiana with a group of new slaves, including Emmeline, whom the demonic
Legree has purchased to use as a sex slave, replacing his previous sex slave Cassy. Legree takes
a strong dislike to Tom when Tom refuses to whip a fellow slave as ordered. Tom receives a
severe beating, and Legree resolves to crush his faith in God. Tom meets Cassy, and hears her
story. Separated from her daughter by slavery, she became pregnant again but killed the child
because she could not stand to have another child taken from her.
Around this time, with the help of Tom Loker—now a changed man after being healed by the
Quakers—George, Eliza, and Harry at last cross over into Canada from Lake Erie and obtain
their freedom. In Louisiana, Tom’s faith is sorely tested by his hardships, and he nearly ceases to
believe. He has two visions, however—one of Christ and one of Eva—which renew his spiritual
strength and give him the courage to withstand Legree’s torments. He encourages Cassy to
escape. She does so, taking Emmeline with her, after she devises a ruse in which she and
Emmeline pretend to be ghosts. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline
have gone, Legree orders his overseers to beat him. When Tom is near death, he forgives Legree
and the overseers. George Shelby arrives with money in hand to buy Tom’s freedom, but he is
too late. He can only watch as Tom dies a martyr’s death.
Taking a boat toward freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris’s sister and travel with
her to Canada, where Cassy realizes that Eliza is her long-lost daughter. The newly reunited
family travels to France and decides to move to Liberia, the African nation created for former
American slaves. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm, where, after his father’s death, he
sets all the slaves free in honor of Tom’s memory. He urges them to think on Tom’s sacrifice
every time they look at his cabin and to lead a pious Christian life, just as Tom did.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain
An imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-
brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from
school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as
punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However,
he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his
work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible
verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however,
when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first
two disciples were David and Goliath.
Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to
him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been engaged before—to a girl
named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry
Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the
graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native American “half-breed”
Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they
have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is
wrongfully arrested, and Tom’s anxiety and guilt begin to grow.
Tom, Huck, and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While
frolicking around and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the
community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe
the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck
by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do
the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of
all their friends.
Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky’s favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a
book that she has ripped. Soon Muff Potter’s trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies
against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window.
Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After
venturing upstairs they hear a noise below. Peering through holes in the floor, they see Injun Joe
enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard. He and his companion, an unkempt man,
plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own. From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle
with delight at the prospect of digging it up. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his
partner find a buried box of gold themselves. When they see Tom and Huck’s tools, they become
suspicious that someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying
it.
Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold.
Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal’s Cave with Becky and their classmates. That
same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears
their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch
help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero.
Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following
morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out
of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when Tom,
looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout.
Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and
Becky’s father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death.
A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which
are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape
civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom’s robber band.
Reluctantly, Huck agrees.
Silas Marner
George Eliot
Silas Marner is the weaver in the English countryside village of Raveloe in the early nineteenth
century. Like many weavers of his time, he is an outsider—the object of suspicion because of his
special skills and the fact that he has come to Raveloe from elsewhere. The villagers see Silas as
especially odd because of the curious cataleptic fits he occasionally suffers. Silas has ended up in
Raveloe because the members of his religious sect in Lantern Yard, an insular neighborhood in a
larger town, falsely accused him of theft and excommunicated him.
Much shaken after the accusation, Silas finds nothing familiar in Raveloe to reawaken his faith
and falls into a numbing routine of solitary work. His one attempt at neighborliness backfires:
when an herbal remedy he suggests for a neighbor’s illness works, he is rumored to be a sort of
witch doctor. With little else to live for, Silas becomes infatuated with the money he earns for his
work and hoards it, living off as little as possible. Every night he pulls his gold out from its
hiding place beneath his floorboards to count it. He carries on in this way for fifteen years.
Squire Cass is the wealthiest man in Raveloe, and his two eldest sons are Godfrey and Dunstan,
or Dunsey. Dunsey is greedy and cruel, and enjoys tormenting Godfrey, the eldest son. Godfrey
is good-natured but weak-willed, and, though secretly married to the opium addict Molly Farren,
he is in love with Nancy Lammeter. Dunsey talked Godfrey into the marriage and repeatedly
blackmails him with threats to reveal the marriage to their father. Godfrey gives Dunsey 100
pounds of the rent money paid to him by one of their father’s tenants. Godfrey then finds himself
in a bind when Dunsey insists that Godfrey repay the sum himself. Dunsey once again threatens
to reveal Godfrey’s marriage but, after some arguing, offers to sell Godfrey’s prize horse,
Wildfire, to repay the loan.
The next day, Dunsey meets with some friends who are hunting and negotiates the sale of the
horse. Dunsey decides to participate in the hunt before finalizing the sale, and, in doing so, he
has a riding accident that kills the horse. Knowing the rumors of Silas’s hoard, Dunsey makes
plans to intimidate the weaver into lending him money. His walk home takes him by Silas’s
cottage, and, finding the cottage empty, Dunsey steals the money instead.
Silas returns from an errand to find his money gone. Overwhelmed by the loss, he runs to the
local tavern for help and announces the theft to a sympathetic audience of tavern regulars. The
theft becomes the talk of the village, and a theory arises that the thief might have been a peddler
who came through the village some time before. Godfrey, meanwhile, is distracted by thoughts
of Dunsey, who has not returned home. After hearing that Wildfire has been found dead,
Godfrey decides to tell his father about the money, though not about his marriage. The Squire
flies into a rage at the news, but does not do anything drastic to punish Godfrey.
Silas is utterly disconsolate at the loss of his gold and numbly continues his weaving. Some of
the townspeople stop by to offer their condolences and advice. Among these visitors, Dolly
Winthrop stands out. Like many of the others, she encourages Silas to go to church—something
he has not done since he was banished from Lantern Yard—but she is also gentler and more
genuinely sympathetic.
Nancy Lammeter arrives at Squire Cass’s famed New Year’s dance resolved to reject Godfrey’s
advances because of his unsound character. However, Godfrey is more direct and insistent than
he has been in a long time, and Nancy finds herself exhilarated by the evening in spite of her
resolution. Meanwhile, Molly, Godfrey’s secret wife, is making her way to the Casses’ house to
reveal the secret marriage. She has their daughter, a toddler, in her arms. Tiring after her long
walk, Molly takes a draft of opium and passes out by the road. Seeing Silas’s cottage and drawn
by the light of the fire, Molly’s little girl wanders through the open door and falls asleep at
Silas’s hearth.
Silas is having one of his fits at the time and does not notice the little girl enter his cottage. When
he comes to, he sees her already asleep on his hearth, and is as stunned by her appearance as he
was by the disappearance of his money. A while later, Silas traces the girl’s footsteps outside and
finds Molly’s body lying in the snow. Silas goes to the Squire’s house to find the doctor, and
causes a stir at the dance when he arrives with the baby girl in his arms. Godfrey, recognizing his
daughter, accompanies the doctor to Silas’s cottage. When the doctor declares that Molly is dead,
Godfrey realizes that his secret is safe. He does not claim his daughter, and Silas adopts her.
Silas grows increasingly attached to the child and names her Eppie, after his mother and sister.
With Dolly Winthrop’s help, Silas raises the child lovingly. Eppie begins to serve as a bridge
between Silas and the rest of the villagers, who offer him help and advice and have come to think
of him as an exemplary person because of what he has done. Eppie also brings Silas out of the
benumbed state he fell into after the loss of his gold. In his newfound happiness, Silas begins to
explore the memories of his past that he has long repressed.
The novel jumps ahead sixteen years. Godfrey has married Nancy and Squire Cass has died.
Godfrey has inherited his father’s house, but he and Nancy have no children. Their one daughter
died at birth, and Nancy has refused to adopt. Eppie has grown into a pretty and spirited young
woman, and Silas a contented father. The stone-pit behind Silas’s cottage is drained to water
neighboring fields, and Dunsey’s skeleton is found at the bottom, along with Silas’s gold. The
discovery frightens Godfrey, who becomes convinced that his own secrets are destined to be
uncovered as well. He confesses the truth to Nancy about his marriage to Molly and fathering of
Eppie. Nancy is not angry but regretful, saying that they could have adopted Eppie legitimately if
Godfrey had told her earlier.
That evening, Godfrey and Nancy decide to visit Silas’s cottage to confess the truth of Eppie’s
lineage and claim her as their daughter. However, after hearing Godfrey and Nancy’s story,
Eppie tells them she would rather stay with Silas than live with her biological father. Godfrey
and Nancy leave, resigning themselves to helping Eppie from afar. The next day Silas decides to
visit Lantern Yard to see if he was ever cleared of the theft of which he was accused years
before. The town has changed almost beyond recognition, though, and Silas’s old chapel has
been torn down to make way for a new factory. Silas realizes that his questions will never be
answered, but he is content with the sense of faith he has regained through his life with Eppie.
That summer Eppie is married to Aaron Winthrop, Dolly’s son. Aaron comes to live in Silas’s
cottage, which has been expanded and refurbished at Godfrey’s expense.
The Pearl
John Steinbeck
Kino, Juana, and their infant son, Coyotito, live in a modest brush house by the sea. One
morning, calamity strikes when a scorpion stings Coyotito. Hoping to protect their son, Kino and
Juana rush him to the doctor in town. When they arrive at the doctor’s gate, they are turned away
because they are poor natives who cannot pay enough.
Later that same morning, Kino and Juana take their family canoe, an heirloom, out to the estuary
to go diving for pearls. Juana makes a poultice for Coyotito’s wound, while Kino searches the
sea bottom. Juana’s prayers for a large pearl are answered when Kino surfaces with the largest
pearl either of them has ever seen. Kino lets out a triumphant yell at his good fortune, prompting
the surrounding boats to circle in and examine the treasure.
In the afternoon, the whole neighborhood gathers at Kino’s brush house to celebrate his find.
Kino names a list of things that he will secure for his family with his newfound wealth, including
a church wedding and an education for his son. The neighbors marvel at Kino’s boldness and
wonder if he is foolish or wise to harbor such ambitions.
Toward evening, the local priest visits Kino to bless him in his good fortune and to remind him
of his place within the church. Shortly thereafter, the doctor arrives, explaining that he was out in
the morning but has come now to cure Coyotito. He administers a powdered capsule and
promises to return in an hour.
In the intervening period, Coyotito grows violently ill, and Kino decides to bury the pearl under
the floor in a corner of the brush house. The doctor returns and feeds Coyotito a potion to quiet
his spasms. When the doctor inquires about payment, Kino explains that soon he will sell his
large pearl and inadvertently glances toward the corner where he has hidden the pearl. This
mention of the pearl greatly intrigues the doctor, and Kino is left with an uneasy feeling.
Before going to bed, Kino reburies the pearl under a stone in his fire hole. That night, he is
roused by an intruder digging around in the corner. A violent struggle ensues, and Kino’s efforts
to chase away the criminal leave him bloodied. Terribly upset by this turn of events, Juana
proposes that they abandon the pearl, which she considers an agent of evil.
The next morning, Kino and Juana make their way to town to sell the pearl. Juan Tomás, Kino’s
brother, advises Kino to be wary of cheats. Indeed, all of the dealers conspire to bid low on the
pearl. Kino indignantly refuses to accept their offers, resolving instead to take his pearl to the
capital. That evening, as Kino and Juana prepare to leave, Juan Tomás cautions Kino against
being overly proud, and Juana repeats her wish to be rid of the pearl. Kino silences her,
explaining that he is a man and will take care of things.
In the middle of the night, Juana steals away with the pearl. Kino wakes as she leaves and
pursues her, apprehending her just as she is poised to throw the pearl into the sea. He tackles her,
takes the pearl back, and beats her violently, leaving her in a crumpled heap on the beach. As he
returns to the brush house, a group of hostile men confronts him and tries to take the pearl from
him. He fights the men off, killing one and causing the rest to flee, but drops the pearl in the
process.
As Juana ascends from the shore to the brush house, she finds the pearl lying in the path. Just
beyond, she sees Kino on the ground, next to the dead man. He bemoans the loss of the pearl,
which she presents to him. Though Kino explains that he had no intention to kill, Juana insists
that he will be labeled a murderer. They resolve to flee at once. Kino rushes back to the shore to
prepare the canoe, while Juana returns home to gather Coyotito and their belongings.
Kino arrives at the shore and finds his canoe destroyed by vandals. When he climbs the hill, he
sees a fire blazing, and realizes that his house has burned down. Desperate to find refuge, Kino,
Juana and Coyotito duck into Juan Tomás’s house, where they hide out for the day. Relieved that
the three did not perish in the blaze, as the rest of the neighborhood believes, Juan Tomás and his
wife, Apolonia, reluctantly agree to keep Kino and Juana’s secret and provide shelter for them
while pretending to be ignorant of their whereabouts.
At nightfall, Kino, Juana, and Coyotito set out for the capital. Skirting the town, they travel north
until sunrise and then take covert shelter by the roadside. They sleep for most of the day and are
preparing to set out again when Kino discovers that three trackers are following them. After
hesitating briefly, Kino decides that they must hurry up the mountain, in hopes of eluding the
trackers. A breathless ascent brings them to a water source, where they rest and take shelter in a
nearby cave. Kino attempts to mislead the trackers by creating a false trail up the mountain.
Kino, Juana, and Coyotito then hide in the cave and wait for an opportunity to escape back down
the mountain.
The trackers are slow in their pursuit and finally arrive at the watering hole at dusk. They make
camp nearby, and two of the trackers sleep while the third stands watch. Kino decides that he
must attempt to attack them before the late moon rises. He strips naked to avoid being seen and
sneaks up to striking distance. Just as Kino prepares to attack, Coyotito lets out a cry, waking the
sleepers. When one of them fires his rifle in the direction of the cry, Kino makes his move,
killing the trackers in a violent fury. In the aftermath, Kino slowly realizes that the rifle shot
struck and killed his son in the cave.
The next day, Kino and Juana make their way back through town and the outlying brush houses.
Juana carries her dead son slung over her shoulder. They walk all the way to the sea, as
onlookers watch in silent fascination. At the shore, Kino pulls the pearl out of his clothing and
takes one last, hard look at it. Then, with all his might, under a setting sun, he flings the pearl
back into the sea.
Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
Jim Hawkins is a young boy who lives at his parents’ inn, the Admiral Benbow, near Bristol,
England, in the eighteenth century. An old sea captain named Billy Bones dies in the inn after
being presented with a black spot, or official pirate verdict of guilt or judgment. Jim is stirred to
action by the spot and its mysterious, accurate portent of Billy’s death. Hastily, Jim and his
mother unlock Billy’s sea chest, finding a logbook and map inside. Hearing steps outside, they
leave with the documents before Billy’s pursuers ransack the inn.
Jim realizes that the contents he has snatched from the sea chest must be valuable, so he takes
one of the documents he has found to some local acquaintances, Dr. Livesey and Squire
Trelawney. Excited, they recognize it as a map for a huge treasure that the infamous pirate
Captain Flint has buried on a distant island. Trelawney immediately starts planning an
expedition. Naïve in his negotiations to outfit his ship, the Hispaniola, Trelawney is tricked into
hiring one of Flint’s former mates, Long John Silver, and many of Flint’s crew. Only the captain,
Smollett, is trustworthy. The ship sets sail for Treasure Island with nothing amiss, until Jim
overhears Silver’s plans for mutiny. Jim tells the captain about Silver and the rest of the
rebellious crew.
Landing at the island, Captain Smollett devises a plan to get most of the mutineers off the ship,
allowing them leisure time on shore. On a whim, Jim sneaks into the pirates’ boat and goes
ashore with them. Frightened of the pirates, Jim runs off alone. From a hiding place, he witnesses
Silver’s murder of a sailor who refuses to join the mutiny. Jim flees deeper into the heart of the
island, where he encounters a half-crazed man named Ben Gunn. Ben had once served in Flint’s
crew but was marooned on the island years earlier.
Meanwhile, Smollett and his men have gone ashore and taken shelter in a stockade the pirates
have built. Jim returns to the stockade, bringing Ben with him. Silver visits and attempts a
negotiation with the captain, but the captain is wary and refuses to speak to him. The pirates
attack the stockade the next day, and the captain is wounded. Eager to take action, Jim follows
another whim and deserts his mates, sneaking off to hunt for Ben’s handmade boat hidden in the
woods.
After finding Ben’s boat, Jim sails out to the anchored ship with the intention of cutting it adrift,
thereby depriving the pirates of a means of escape. He cuts the rope, but he realizes his small
boat has drifted near the pirates’ camp and fears he will be discovered. By chance, the pirates do
not spot Jim, and he floats around the island until he catches sight of the ship drifting wildly.
Struggling aboard, he discovers that one of the watchmen, Israel Hands, has killed the other
watchman in a drunken fit. Jim takes control of the ship, but Israel turns against him. Jim is
wounded but kills Israel.
Jim returns to the stockade but finds it occupied by the pirates. Silver takes Jim hostage, telling
the boy that the captain has given the pirates the treasure map, provisions, and the use of the
stockade in exchange for their lives. Jim realizes, however, that Silver is having trouble
managing his men, who accuse him of treachery. Silver proposes to Jim that they help each other
survive by pretending Jim is a hostage. However, the men present Silver with a black spot and
inform him that he has been deposed as their commander.
In a desperate attempt to gain control of his crew, Silver shows them the treasure map to appease
them. Silver leads Jim and the men to the treasure site, but they are shocked to find it already
excavated and the treasure removed. The men are angered and near mutiny again. At that
moment Dr. Livesey, Ben Gunn, and the others fire on the pirate band, which scatters throughout
the island. Jim and Silver flee, and are guided by the others to Ben’s cave, where Ben has hidden
the treasure, which he had discovered months before.
After spending three days carrying the loot to the ship, the men prepare to set sail for home.
There is a debate about the fate of the remaining mutineers. Despite the pirates’ submissive
pleas, they are left marooned on the island. Silver is allowed to join the voyage, but he sneaks off
the ship one night with a portion of the treasure and is never heard from again. The voyage home
comes to a close. Eventually, Captain Smollet retires from the sea, and Ben becomes a lodge-
keeper. Jim swears off treasure-hunting forever and suffers from nightmares about the sea and
gold coins.
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
In the streets of Verona another brawl breaks out between the servants of the feuding noble
families of Capulet and Montague. Benvolio, a Montague, tries to stop the fighting, but is
himself embroiled when the rash Capulet, Tybalt, arrives on the scene. After citizens outraged by
the constant violence beat back the warring factions, Prince Escalus, the ruler of Verona,
attempts to prevent any further conflicts between the families by decreeing death for any
individual who disturbs the peace in the future.
Romeo, the son of Montague, runs into his cousin Benvolio, who had earlier seen Romeo
moping in a grove of sycamores. After some prodding by Benvolio, Romeo confides that he is in
love with Rosaline, a woman who does not return his affections. Benvolio counsels him to forget
this woman and find another, more beautiful one, but Romeo remains despondent.
Meanwhile, Paris, a kinsman of the Prince, seeks Juliet’s hand in marriage. Her father Capulet,
though happy at the match, asks Paris to wait two years, since Juliet is not yet even fourteen.
Capulet dispatches a servant with a list of people to invite to a masquerade and feast he
traditionally holds. He invites Paris to the feast, hoping that Paris will begin to win Juliet’s heart.
Romeo and Benvolio, still discussing Rosaline, encounter the Capulet servant bearing the list of
invitations. Benvolio suggests that they attend, since that will allow Romeo to compare his
beloved to other beautiful women of Verona. Romeo agrees to go with Benvolio to the feast, but
only because Rosaline, whose name he reads on the list, will be there.
In Capulet’s household, young Juliet talks with her mother, Lady Capulet, and her nurse about
the possibility of marrying Paris. Juliet has not yet considered marriage, but agrees to look at
Paris during the feast to see if she thinks she could fall in love with him.
The feast begins. A melancholy Romeo follows Benvolio and their witty friend Mercutio to
Capulet’s house. Once inside, Romeo sees Juliet from a distance and instantly falls in love with
her; he forgets about Rosaline completely. As Romeo watches Juliet, entranced, a young
Capulet, Tybalt, recognizes him, and is enraged that a Montague would sneak into a Capulet
feast. He prepares to attack, but Capulet holds him back. Soon, Romeo speaks to Juliet, and the
two experience a profound attraction. They kiss, not even knowing each other’s names. When he
finds out from Juliet’s nurse that she is the daughter of Capulet—his family’s enemy—he
becomes distraught. When Juliet learns that the young man she has just kissed is the son of
Montague, she grows equally upset.
As Mercutio and Benvolio leave the Capulet estate, Romeo leaps over the orchard wall into the
garden, unable to leave Juliet behind. From his hiding place, he sees Juliet in a window above the
orchard and hears her speak his name. He calls out to her, and they exchange vows of love.
Romeo hurries to see his friend and confessor Friar Lawrence, who, though shocked at the
sudden turn of Romeo’s heart, agrees to marry the young lovers in secret since he sees in their
love the possibility of ending the age-old feud between Capulet and Montague. The following
day, Romeo and Juliet meet at Friar Lawrence’s cell and are married. The Nurse, who is privy to
the secret, procures a ladder, which Romeo will use to climb into Juliet’s window for their
wedding night.
The next day, Benvolio and Mercutio encounter Tybalt—Juliet’s cousin—who, still enraged that
Romeo attended Capulet’s feast, has challenged Romeo to a duel. Romeo appears. Now Tybalt’s
kinsman by marriage, Romeo begs the Capulet to hold off the duel until he understands why
Romeo does not want to fight. Disgusted with this plea for peace, Mercutio says that he will fight
Tybalt himself. The two begin to duel. Romeo tries to stop them by leaping between the
combatants. Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm, and Mercutio dies. Romeo, in a rage,
kills Tybalt. Romeo flees from the scene. Soon after, the Prince declares him forever banished
from Verona for his crime. Friar Lawrence arranges for Romeo to spend his wedding night with
Juliet before he has to leave for Mantua the following morning.
In her room, Juliet awaits the arrival of her new husband. The Nurse enters, and, after some
confusion, tells Juliet that Romeo has killed Tybalt. Distraught, Juliet suddenly finds herself
married to a man who has killed her kinsman. But she resettles herself, and realizes that her duty
belongs with her love: to Romeo.
Romeo sneaks into Juliet’s room that night, and at last they consummate their marriage and their
love. Morning comes, and the lovers bid farewell, unsure when they will see each other again.
Juliet learns that her father, affected by the recent events, now intends for her to marry Paris in
just three days. Unsure of how to proceed—unable to reveal to her parents that she is married to
Romeo, but unwilling to marry Paris now that she is Romeo’s wife—Juliet asks her Nurse for
advice. She counsels Juliet to proceed as if Romeo were dead and to marry Paris, who is a better
match anyway. Disgusted with the Nurse’s disloyalty, Juliet disregards her advice and hurries to
Friar Lawrence. He concocts a plan to reunite Juliet with Romeo in Mantua. The night before her
wedding to Paris, Juliet must drink a potion that will make her appear to be dead. After she is
laid to rest in the family’s crypt, the Friar and Romeo will secretly retrieve her, and she will be
free to live with Romeo, away from their parents’ feuding.
Juliet returns home to discover the wedding has been moved ahead one day, and she is to be
married tomorrow. That night, Juliet drinks the potion, and the Nurse discovers her, apparently
dead, the next morning. The Capulets grieve, and Juliet is entombed according to plan. But Friar
Lawrence’s message explaining the plan to Romeo never reaches Mantua. Its bearer, Friar John,
gets confined to a quarantined house. Romeo hears only that Juliet is dead.
Romeo learns only of Juliet’s death and decides to kill himself rather than live without her. He
buys a vial of poison from a reluctant Apothecary, then speeds back to Verona to take his own
life at Juliet’s tomb. Outside the Capulet crypt, Romeo comes upon Paris, who is scattering
flowers on Juliet’s grave. They fight, and Romeo kills Paris. He enters the tomb, sees Juliet’s
inanimate body, drinks the poison, and dies by her side. Just then, Friar Lawrence enters and
realizes that Romeo has killed Paris and himself. At the same time, Juliet awakes. Friar
Lawrence hears the coming of the watch. When Juliet refuses to leave with him, he flees alone.
Juliet sees her beloved Romeo and realizes he has killed himself with poison. She kisses his
poisoned lips, and when that does not kill her, buries his dagger in her chest, falling dead upon
his body.
The watch arrives, followed closely by the Prince, the Capulets, and Montague. Montague
declares that Lady Montague has died of grief over Romeo’s exile. Seeing their children’s
bodies, Capulet and Montague agree to end their long-standing feud and to raise gold statues of
their children side-by-side in a newly peaceful Verona.
The Red Badge Of Courage
Stephan Crane
During the Civil War, a Union regiment rests along a riverbank, where it has been camped for weeks. A tall soldier named Jim Conklin spreads a rumor that the army will soon march. Henry Fleming, a recent recruit with this 304th Regiment, worries about his courage. He fears that if he were to see battle, he might run. The narrator reveals that Henry joined the army because he was drawn to the glory of military conflict. Since the time he joined, however, the army has merely been waiting for engagement.
At last the regiment is given orders to march, and the soldiers spend several weary days traveling on foot. Eventually they approach a battlefield and begin to hear the distant roar of conflict. After securing its position, the enemy charges. Henry, boxed in by his fellow soldiers, realizes that he could not run even if he wanted to. He fires mechanically, feeling like a cog in a machine.
The blue (Union) regiment defeats the gray (Confederate) soldiers, and the victors congratulate one another. Henry wakes from a brief nap to find that the enemy is again charging his regiment. Terror overtakes him this time and he leaps up and flees from the line. As he scampers across the landscape, he tells himself that he did the right thing, that his regiment could not have won, and that the men who remained to fight were fools. He passes a general on horseback and overhears the commander saying that the regiment has held back the enemy charge. Ashamed of his cowardice, Henry tries to convince himself that he was right to preserve his own life. He wanders through a forest glade in which he encounters the decaying corpse of a soldier. Shaken, he hurries away.
After a time, Henry joins a column of wounded soldiers winding down the road. He is deeply envious of these men, thinking that a wound is like “a red badge of courage”; visible proof of valorous behavior. He meets a tattered man who has been shot twice and who speaks proudly of the fact that his regiment did not flee. He repeatedly asks Henry where he is wounded, which makes Henry deeply uncomfortable and compels him to hurry away to a different part of the column. He meets a spectral soldier with a distant, numb look on his face. Henry eventually recognizes the man as a badly wounded Jim Conklin. Henry promises to take care of Jim, but Jim runs from the line into a small grove of bushes where Henry and the tattered man watch him die.
Henry and the tattered soldier wander through the woods. Henry hears the rumble of combat in the distance. The tattered soldier continues to ask Henry about his wound, even as his own health visibly worsens. At last, Henry is unable to bear the tattered man’s questioning and abandons him to die in the forest.
Henry continues to wander until he finds himself close enough to the battlefield to be able to watch some of the fighting. He sees a blue regiment in retreat and attempts to stop the soldiers to find out what has happened. One of the fleeing men hits him on the head with a rifle, opening a bloody gash on Henry’s head. Eventually, another soldier leads Henry to his regiment’s camp, where Henry is reunited with his companions. His friend Wilson, believing that Henry has been shot, cares for him tenderly.
The next day, the regiment proceeds back to the battlefield. Henry fights like a lion. Thinking of Jim Conklin, he vents his rage against the enemy soldiers. His lieutenant says that with ten thousand Henrys, he could win the war in a week. Nevertheless, Henry and Wilson overhear an officer say that the soldiers of the 304th fight like “mule drivers.” Insulted, they long to prove the man wrong. In an ensuing charge, the regiment’s color bearer falls. Henry takes the flag and carries it proudly before the regiment. After the charge fails, the derisive officer tells the regiment’s colonel that his men fight like “mud diggers,” further infuriating Henry. Another soldier tells Henry and Wilson, to their gratification, that the colonel and lieutenant consider them the best fighters in the regiment.
The group is sent into more fighting, and Henry continues to carry the flag. The regiment charges a group of enemy soldiers fortified behind a fence, and, after a pitched battle, wins the fence. Wilson seizes the enemy flag and the regiment takes four prisoners. As he and the others march back to their position, Henry reflects on his experiences in the war. Though he revels in his recent success in battle, he feels deeply ashamed of his behavior the previous day, especially his abandonment of the tattered man. But after a moment, he puts his guilt behind him and realizes that he has come through “the red sickness” of battle. He is now able to look forward to peace, feeling a quiet, steady manhood within himself.
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe is an Englishman from the town of York in the seventeenth century, the youngest son of a merchant of German origin. Encouraged by his father to study law, Crusoe expresses his wish to go to sea instead. His family is against Crusoe going out to sea, and his father explains that it is better to seek a modest, secure life for oneself. Initially, Robinson is committed to obeying his father, but he eventually succumbs to temptation and embarks on a ship bound for London with a friend. When a storm causes the near deaths of Crusoe and his friend, the friend is dissuaded from sea travel, but Crusoe still goes on to set himself up as merchant on a ship leaving London. This trip is financially successful, and Crusoe plans another, leaving his early profits in the care of a friendly widow. The second voyage does not prove as fortunate: the ship is seized by Moorish pirates, and Crusoe is enslaved to a potentate in the North African town of Sallee. While on a fishing expedition, he and a slave boy break free and sail down the African coast. A kindly Portuguese captain picks them up, buys the slave boy from Crusoe, and takes Crusoe to Brazil. In Brazil, Crusoe establishes himself as a plantation owner and soon becomes successful. Eager for slave labor and its economic advantages, he embarks on a slave-gathering expedition to West Africa but ends up shipwrecked off of the coast of Trinidad.
Crusoe soon learns he is the sole survivor of the expedition and seeks shelter and food for himself. He returns to the wreck’s remains twelve times to salvage guns, powder, food, and other items. Onshore, he finds goats he can graze for meat and builds himself a shelter. He erects a cross that he inscribes with the date of his arrival, September 1, 1659, and makes a notch every day in order never to lose track of time. He also keeps a journal of his household activities, noting his attempts to make candles, his lucky discovery of sprouting grain, and his construction of a cellar, among other events. In June 1660, he falls ill and hallucinates that an angel visits, warning him to repent. Drinking tobacco-steeped rum, Crusoe experiences a religious illumination and realizes that God has delivered him from his earlier sins. After recovering, Crusoe makes a survey of the area and discovers he is on an island. He finds a pleasant valley abounding in grapes, where he builds a shady retreat. Crusoe begins to feel more optimistic about being on the island, describing himself as its “king.” He trains a pet parrot, takes a goat as a pet, and develops skills in basket weaving, bread making, and pottery. He cuts down an enormous cedar tree and builds a huge canoe from its trunk, but he discovers that he cannot move it to the sea. After building a smaller boat, he rows around the island but nearly perishes when swept away by a powerful current. Reaching shore, he hears his parrot calling his name and is thankful for being saved once again. He spends several years in peace.
One day Crusoe is shocked to discover a man’s footprint on the beach. He first assumes the footprint is the devil’s, then decides it must belong to one of the cannibals said to live in the region. Terrified, he arms himself and remains on the lookout for cannibals. He also builds an underground cellar in which to herd his goats at night and devises a way to cook underground. One evening he hears gunshots, and the next day he is able to see a ship wrecked on his coast. It is empty when he arrives on the scene to investigate. Crusoe once again thanks Providence for having been saved. Soon afterward, Crusoe discovers that the shore has been strewn with human carnage, apparently the remains of a cannibal feast. He is alarmed and continues to be vigilant. Later Crusoe catches sight of thirty cannibals heading for shore with their victims. One of the victims is killed. Another one, waiting to be slaughtered, suddenly breaks free and runs toward Crusoe’s dwelling. Crusoe protects him, killing one of the pursuers and injuring the other, whom the victim finally kills. Well-armed, Crusoe defeats most of the cannibals onshore. The victim vows total submission to Crusoe in gratitude for his liberation. Crusoe names him Friday, to commemorate the day on which his life was saved, and takes him as his servant.
Finding Friday cheerful and intelligent, Crusoe teaches him some English words and some elementary Christian concepts. Friday, in turn, explains that the cannibals are divided into distinct nations and that they only eat their enemies. Friday also informs Crusoe that the cannibals saved the men from the shipwreck Crusoe witnessed earlier, and that those men, Spaniards, are living nearby. Friday expresses a longing to return to his people, and Crusoe is upset at the prospect of losing Friday. Crusoe then entertains the idea of making contact with the Spaniards, and Friday admits that he would rather die than lose Crusoe. The two build a boat to visit the cannibals’ land together. Before they have a chance to leave, they are surprised by the arrival of twenty-one cannibals in canoes. The cannibals are holding three victims, one of whom is in European dress. Friday and Crusoe kill most of the cannibals and release the European, a Spaniard. Friday is overjoyed to discover that another of the rescued victims is his father. The four men return to Crusoe’s dwelling for food and rest. Crusoe prepares to welcome them into his community permanently. He sends Friday’s father and the Spaniard out in a canoe to explore the nearby land.
Eight days later, the sight of an approaching English ship alarms Friday. Crusoe is suspicious. Friday and Crusoe watch as eleven men take three captives onshore in a boat. Nine of the men explore the land, leaving two to guard the captives. Friday and Crusoe overpower these men and release the captives, one of whom is the captain of the ship, which has been taken in a mutiny. Shouting to the remaining mutineers from different points, Friday and Crusoe confuse and tire the men by making them run from place to place. Eventually they confront the mutineers, telling them that all may escape with their lives except the ringleader. The men surrender. Crusoe and the captain pretend that the island is an imperial territory and that the governor has spared their lives in order to send them all to England to face justice. Keeping five men as hostages, Crusoe sends the other men out to seize the ship. When the ship is brought in, Crusoe nearly faints.
On December 19, 1686, Crusoe boards the ship to return to England. There, he finds his family is deceased except for two sisters. His widow friend has kept Crusoe’s money safe, and after traveling to Lisbon, Crusoe learns from the Portuguese captain that his plantations in Brazil have been highly profitable. He arranges to sell his Brazilian lands. Wary of sea travel, Crusoe attempts to return to England by land but is threatened by bad weather and wild animals in northern Spain. Finally arriving back in England, Crusoe receives word that the sale of his plantations has been completed and that he has made a considerable fortune. After donating a portion to the widow and his sisters, Crusoe is restless and considers returning to Brazil, but he is dissuaded by the thought that he would have to become Catholic. He marries, and his wife dies. Crusoe finally departs for the East Indies as a trader in 1694. He revisits his island, finding that the Spaniards are governing it well and that it has become a prosperous colony.
Beowulf
Author Unknown
King Hrothgar of Denmark, a descendant of the great king Shield Sheafson, enjoys a prosperous and successful reign. He builds a great mead-hall, called Heorot, where his warriors can gather to drink, receive gifts from their lord, and listen to stories sung by the scops, or bards. But the jubilant noise from Heorot angers Grendel, a horrible demon who lives in the swamplands of Hrothgar’s kingdom. Grendel terrorizes the Danes every night, killing them and defeating their efforts to fight back. The Danes suffer many years of fear, danger, and death at the hands of Grendel. Eventually, however, a young Geatish warrior named Beowulf hears of Hrothgar’s plight. Inspired by the challenge, Beowulf sails to Denmark with a small company of men, determined to defeat Grendel.
Hrothgar, who had once done a great favor for Beowulf’s father Ecgtheow, accepts Beowulf’s offer to fight Grendel and holds a feast in the hero’s honor. During the feast, an envious Dane named Unferth taunts Beowulf and accuses him of being unworthy of his reputation. Beowulf responds with a boastful description of some of his past accomplishments. His confidence cheers the Danish warriors, and the feast lasts merrily into the night. At last, however, Grendel arrives. Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon, who is terrified. As Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off. Mortally wounded, Grendel slinks back into the swamp to die. The severed arm is hung high in the mead-hall as a trophy of victory.
Overjoyed, Hrothgar showers Beowulf with gifts and treasure at a feast in his honor. Songs are sung in praise of Beowulf, and the celebration lasts late into the night. But another threat is approaching. Grendel’s mother, a swamp-hag who lives in a desolate lake, comes to Heorot seeking revenge for her son’s death. She murders Aeschere, one of Hrothgar’s most trusted advisers, before slinking away. To avenge Aeschere’s death, the company travels to the murky swamp, where Beowulf dives into the water and fights Grendel’s mother in her underwater lair. He kills her with a sword forged for a giant, then, finding Grendel’s corpse, decapitates it and brings the head as a prize to Hrothgar. The Danish countryside is now purged of its treacherous monsters.
The Danes are again overjoyed, and Beowulf’s fame spreads across the kingdom. Beowulf departs after a sorrowful goodbye to Hrothgar, who has treated him like a son. He returns to Geatland, where he and his men are reunited with their king and queen, Hygelac and Hygd, to whom Beowulf recounts his adventures in Denmark. Beowulf then hands over most of his treasure to Hygelac, who, in turn, rewards him.
In time, Hygelac is killed in a war against the Shylfings, and, after Hygelac’s son dies, Beowulf ascends to the throne of the Geats. He rules wisely for fifty years, bringing prosperity to Geatland. When Beowulf is an old man, however, a thief disturbs a barrow, or mound, where a great dragon lies guarding a horde of treasure. Enraged, the dragon emerges from the barrow and begins unleashing fiery destruction upon the Geats. Sensing his own death approaching, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon. With the aid of Wiglaf, he succeeds in killing the beast, but at a heavy cost. The dragon bites Beowulf in the neck, and its fiery venom kills him moments after their encounter. The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead. According to Beowulf’s wishes, they burn their departed king’s body on a huge funeral pyre and then bury him with a massive treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea.
The Call Of The Wild
Jack London
Buck, a powerful dog, half St. Bernard and half sheepdog, lives on Judge Miller’s estate in California’s Santa Clara Valley. He leads a comfortable life there, but it comes to an end when men discover gold in the Klondike region of Canada and a great demand arises for strong dogs to pull sleds. Buck is kidnapped by a gardener on the Miller estate and sold to dog traders, who teach Buck to obey by beating him with a club and, subsequently, ship him north to the Klondike.
Arriving in the chilly North, Buck is amazed by the cruelty he sees around him. As soon as another dog from his ship, Curly, gets off the boat, a pack of huskies violently attacks and kills her. Watching her death, Buck vows never to let the same fate befall him. Buck becomes the property of Francois and Perrault, two mail carriers working for the Canadian government, and begins to adjust to life as a sled dog. He recovers the instincts of his wild ancestors: he learns to fight, scavenge for food, and sleep beneath the snow on winter nights. At the same time, he develops a fierce rivalry with Spitz, the lead dog in the team. One of their fights is broken up when a pack of wild dogs invades the camp, but Buck begins to undercut Spitz’s authority, and eventually the two dogs become involved in a major fight. Buck kills Spitz and takes his place as the lead dog.
With Buck at the head of the team, Francois and Perrault’s sled makes record time. However, the men soon turn the team over to a mail carrier who forces the dogs to carry much heavier loads. In the midst of a particularly arduous trip, one of the dogs becomes ill, and eventually the driver has to shoot him. At the end of this journey, the dogs are exhausted, and the mail carrier sells them to a group of American gold hunters—Hal, Charles, and Mercedes.
Buck’s new masters are inexperienced and out of place in the wilderness. They overload the sled, beat the dogs, and plan poorly. Halfway through their journey, they begin to run out of food. While the humans bicker, the dogs begin to starve, and the weaker animals soon die. Of an original team of fourteen, only five are still alive when they limp into John Thornton’s camp, still some distance from their destination. Thornton warns them that the ice over which they are traveling is melting and that they may fall through it. Hal dismisses these warnings and tries to get going immediately. The other dogs begin to move, but Buck refuses. When Hal begins to beat him, Thornton intervenes, knocking a knife from Hal’s hand and cutting Buck loose. Hal curses Thornton and starts the sled again, but before they have gone a quarter of a mile, the ice breaks open, swallowing both the humans and the dogs.
Thornton becomes Buck’s master, and Buck’s devotion to him is total. He saves Thornton from drowning in a river, attacks a man who tries to start a fight with Thornton in a bar, and, most remarkably, wins a $1,600 wager for his new master by pulling a sled carrying a thousand-pound load. But Buck’s love for Thornton is mixed with a growing attraction to the wild, and he feels as if he is being called away from civilization and into the wilderness. This feeling grows stronger when he accompanies Thornton and his friends in search of a lost mine hidden deep in the Canadian forest.
While the men search for gold, Buck ranges far afield, befriending wolves and hunting bears and moose. He always returns to Thornton in the end, until, one day, he comes back to camp to find that Yeehat Indians have attacked and killed his master. Buck attacks the Indians, killing several and scattering the rest, and then heads off into the wild, where he becomes the leader of a pack of wolves. He becomes a legendary figure, a Ghost Dog, fathering countless cubs and inspiring fear in the Yeehats—but every year he returns to the place where Thornton died, to mourn his master before returning to his life in the wild.
To Kill A Mocking Bird
Harper Lee
Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in the sleepy Alabama town of Maycomb. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression, but Atticus is a prominent lawyer and the Finch family is reasonably well off in comparison to the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood for the summer, and the trio acts out stories together. Eventually, Dill becomes fascinated with the spooky house on their street called the Radley Place. The house is owned by Mr. Nathan Radley, whose brother, Arthur (nicknamed Boo), has lived there for years without venturing outside.
Scout goes to school for the first time that fall and detests it. She and Jem find gifts apparently left for them in a knothole of a tree on the Radley property. Dill returns the following summer, and he, Scout, and Jem begin to act out the story of Boo Radley. Atticus puts a stop to their antics, urging the children to try to see life from another person’s perspective before making judgments. But, on Dill’s last night in Maycomb for the summer, the three sneak onto the Radley property, where Nathan Radley shoots at them. Jem loses his pants in the ensuing escape. When he returns for them, he finds them mended and hung over the fence. The next winter, Jem and Scout find more presents in the tree, presumably left by the mysterious Boo. Nathan Radley eventually plugs the knothole with cement. Shortly thereafter, a fire breaks out in another neighbor’s house, and during the fire someone slips a blanket on Scout’s shoulders as she watches the blaze. Convinced that Boo did it, Jem tells Atticus about the mended pants and the presents.
To the consternation of Maycomb’s racist white community, Atticus agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white woman. Because of Atticus’s decision, Jem and Scout are subjected to abuse from other children, even when they celebrate Christmas at the family compound on Finch’s Landing. Calpurnia, the Finches’ black cook, takes them to the local black church, where the warm and close-knit community largely embraces the children.
Atticus’s sister, Alexandra, comes to live with the Finches the next summer. Dill, who is supposed to live with his “new father” in another town, runs away and comes to Maycomb. Tom Robinson’s trial begins, and when the accused man is placed in the local jail, a mob gathers to lynch him. Atticus faces the mob down the night before the trial. Jem and Scout, who have sneaked out of the house, soon join him. Scout recognizes one of the men, and her polite questioning about his son shames him into dispersing the mob.
At the trial itself, the children sit in the “colored balcony” with the town’s black citizens. Atticus provides clear evidence that the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying: in fact, Mayella propositioned Tom Robinson, was caught by her father, and then accused Tom of rape to cover her shame and guilt. Atticus provides impressive evidence that the marks on Mayella’s face are from wounds that her father inflicted; upon discovering her with Tom, he called her a whore and beat her. Yet, despite the significant evidence pointing to Tom’s innocence, the all-white jury convicts him. The innocent Tom later tries to escape from prison and is shot to death. In the aftermath of the trial, Jem’s faith in justice is badly shaken, and he lapses into despondency and doubt.
Despite the verdict, Bob Ewell feels that Atticus and the judge have made a fool out of him, and he vows revenge. He menaces Tom Robinson’s widow, tries to break into the judge’s house, and finally attacks Jem and Scout as they walk home from a Halloween party. Boo Radley intervenes, however, saving the children and stabbing Ewell fatally during the struggle. Boo carries the wounded Jem back to Atticus’s house, where the sheriff, in order to protect Boo, insists that Ewell tripped over a tree root and fell on his own knife. After sitting with Scout for a while, Boo disappears once more into the Radley house.
Later, Scout feels as though she can finally imagine what life is like for Boo. He has become a human being to her at last. With this realization, Scout embraces her father’s advice to practice sympathy and understanding and demonstrates that her experiences with hatred and prejudice will not sully her faith in human goodness.
The Lion, Witch, And The Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are four siblings sent to live in the country with the eccentric Professor Kirke during World War II. The children explore the house on a rainy day and Lucy, the youngest, finds an enormous wardrobe. Lucy steps inside and finds herself in a strange, snowy wood. Lucy encounters the Faun Tumnus, who is surprised to meet a human girl. Tumnus tells Lucy that she has entered Narnia, a different world. Tumnus invites Lucy to tea, and she accepts. Lucy and Tumnus have a wonderful tea, but the faun bursts into tears and confesses that he is a servant of the evil White Witch. The Witch has enchanted Narnia so that it is always winter and never Christmas. Tumnus explains that he has been enlisted to capture human beings. Lucy implores Tumnus to release her, and he agrees.
Lucy exits Narnia and eagerly tells her siblings about her adventure in the wardrobe. They do not believe her, however. Lucy's siblings insist that Lucy was only gone for seconds and not for hours as she claims. When the Pevensie children look in the back of the wardrobe they see that it is an ordinary piece of furniture. Edmund teases Lucy mercilessly about her imaginary country until one day when he sees her vanishing into the wardrobe. Edmund follows Lucy and finds himself in Narnia as well. He does not see Lucy, and instead meets the White Witch that Tumnus told Lucy about. The Witch Witch introduces herself to Edmund as the Queen of Narnia. The Witch feeds Edmund enchanted Turkish Delight, which gives Edmund an insatiable desire for the chocolate. The Witch uses Edmund's greed and gluttony to convince Edmund to bring back his siblings to meet her.
On the way back to the lamppost, the border between Narnia and our world, Edmund meets Lucy. Lucy tells Edmund about the White Witch. Edmund denies any connection between the Witch and the Queen. All Edmund can think about is his desire for the Turkish Delight. Lucy and Edmund return to Peter and Susan, back in their own world. Lucy relies on Edmund to support her story about Narnia, but Edmund spitefully tells Peter and Susan that it is a silly story. Peter and Susan are worried that Lucy is insane so they talk to Professor Kirke. The Professor shocks Peter and Susan by arguing that Lucy is telling the truth.
One day the children hide in the wardrobe to avoid the housekeeper and some houseguests. Suddenly all four Pevensie children find themselves in Narnia. Lucy leads them to Tumnus's home, but a note informs them that Tumnus has been arrested on charges of treason. Lucy realized that this means the Witch knows that Tumnus spared Lucy's life, and that the Witch has captured Tumnus. Lucy implores her siblings to help her rescue Tumnus from the Witch. Guided by a friendly robin, the children wander into the woods, and meet Mr. Beaver. Mr. Beaver brings them back to his home, where he explains that the children cannot do anything to save Tumnus. The only thing the children can do is join Mr. Beaver on a journey to see Aslan, a lion. Aslan appears to be a king or god figure in Narnia. The children are all pleasantly enchanted by the name Aslan, except for Edmund, who is horrified by the sound of it. Mr. Beaver, Peter, Susan, and Lucy plot to meet Aslan at the Stone Table the following day, but they soon notice that Edmund has disappeared. Meanwhile, Edmund searches for the White Witch to warn her of Aslan's arrival and of the Beavers' plan. The Witch is enraged to hear that Aslan is in Narnia and immediately begins plotting to kill the children. The Witch wants to avoid an ancient prophecy that says that four humans will someday reign over Narnia and overthrow her evil regime.
The children and the Beavers, meanwhile, rush to reach the Stone Table before the Witch. As they travel, wonderful seasonal changes occur. First they meet Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, who explains that the Witch's spell of "always winter and never Christmas" has ended. The enchanted winter snow melts and the children see signs of spring. Simultaneously, the Witch drags Edmund toward the Stone Table and treats him very poorly. Once spring arrives, the Witch cannot use her sledge anymore, so she cannot reach the Stone Table before the children.
When the other three Pevensies meet Aslan, they are awed by him, but they quickly grow more comfortable in his presence. They love him immediately, despite their fear. Aslan promises to do all that he can to save Edmund. He takes Peter aside to show him the castle where he will be king. As they are talking, they hear Susan blowing the magic horn that Father Christmas gave her to her, signaling that she is in danger. Aslan sends Peter to help her. Arriving on the scene, Peter sees a wolf attacking Susan, and stabs it to death with the sword given him by Father Christmas. Aslan sees another wolf vanishing into a thicket, and sends his followers to trail it, hoping it will lead them to the Witch.
The Witch is preparing to kill Edmund as the rescue party arrives. Aslan and his followers rescue Edmund, but are unable to find the Witch, who disguises herself as part of the landscape. Edmund is happy to see his siblings, as he has accepted that the Witch is evil. The next day, the Witch and Aslan speak and the Witch demands Edmund's life because she says that Edmund is a traitor. The Witch says that according to the Deep Magic of Narnia, a traitor life's is forfeit to the Witch. Aslan does not deny this, and he secretly reaches a compromise with her. The Witch appears very pleased, while Aslan seems pensive and depressed.
The following night, Susan and Lucy observe Aslan grow increasingly gloomy and sad. The sisters are unable to sleep, and they notice that Aslan has disappeared. Susan and Lucy leave the pavilion to search for Aslan. When they find Aslan, he tells them they can stay until he tells them they must leave. Together, Aslan, Susan, and Lucy walk to the Stone Table, where Aslan tells them to leave. Susan and Lucy hide behind some bushes and watch the Witch and a horde of her followers torment, humiliate, and finally kill Aslan. The Witch explains that Aslan sacrificed his life for Edmund.
Susan and Lucy stay with Aslan's dead body all night. In the morning, they hear a great cracking noise, and are astounded to see the Stone Table broken. Aslan has disappeared. Suddenly Susan and Lucy hear Aslan's voice from behind him. Aslan has risen from the dead. Aslan carries the girls to the Witch's castle, where they free all the prisoners who have been turned to stone. Aslan, Susan, and Lucy charge join the battle between Peter's army and the Witch's troops. Peter and his troops are exhausted. Fortunately, Aslan swiftly kills the Witch and Peter's army then defeats the Witch's followers.
Aslan knights Edmund, who has atoned for his sin of siding with the Witch. The children ascend to the thrones at Cair Paravel, the castle in Narnia. Aslan subsequently disappears. The children eventually become adults and reign over Narnia for many years. One day, in a hunt for a magical white stag, they arrive at the lamppost that had marked the border between Narnia and our world. The Pevensies tumble back out of the wardrobe to our world. No time has passed, and they return to Professor Kirke's house as children. The foursome tells Professor Kirke about their adventure, and the Professor assures them that they will return to Narnia again some day.
Where The Red Fern Grows
Wilson Rawls
Billy lives on a farm. He wants two good coonhounds very badly, but his Papa cannot afford any. Billy works hard, selling fruit and bait to fishermen, so eventually he has enough money for the dogs. He gives the money to his grandfather, who orders the dogs for him. Billy sneaks off in the middle of the night to go to town and pick them up. While in town, other children pick on him, but he stands up for himself and is helped by the marshal. On his way home, he and his two pups sleep in a cave. Outside, they hear a mountain lion, and the pups bravely howl back. He decides to name them Old Dan and Little Ann. He can see that Old Dan is very brave, and that Little Ann is very smart.
Once home, he wants to begin training them. He has to have a raccoon hide to train them with. His grandfather shows him a way to set a trap that will catch even a clever coon. Just when he is about to give up on the traps, he catches a coon. The next day he begins to train Old Dan and Little Ann. By the time raccoon season starts in the fall, they are ready. On the first night, his dogs tree a coon in the biggest tree imaginable. Billy immediately sees that it will take days to cut down. He is determined to cut it down, because he told his dogs that if they could tree a coon he would take care of the rest. His dogs are counting on him. His parents bring him food. His grandfather shows him how to make a scarecrow, to keep the coon in the tree so he can go home and eat dinner. When the big sycamore finally falls and his dogs catch the coon, he is very proud.
Billy goes coon hunting almost every night. His father relieves him of his chores, and Billy gives him the money from his coonskins. Sometimes, coons try to trick his dogs, and Old Dan gets into trouble. One night, Dan gets stuck in a muskrat hole. Another night, he climbs a tree. Little Ann is usually too smart to get into trouble, but one night, after the first snowfall, she falls through the ice on the river. Billy barely rescues her.
One day, Billy and his grandfather make a bet with Ruben and Rainie Pritchard, that Billy's hounds can catch the legendary "ghost coon." The Pritchard boys set out with Billy to see if Old Dan and Little Ann can catch the ghost coon. The coon leads the dogs on a long, complicated chase, and the Pritchard boys want to give up. But Billy is determined. Finally, when the dogs have the coon treed, Billy refuses to kill her. Just as Ruben starts to beat up Billy, Old Dan and Little Ann begin to attack the Pritchards' dog. Ruben runs to attack the dogs with an axe, but falls and kills himself. Billy is very distraught afterward. Finally he goes to Ruben's grave with some flowers, then feels much better.
Billy's grandfather enters Billy in a coon-hunting contest. He, his grandfather, and his father take a buggy to the contest. It is filled with adult coon hunters with expensive gear and beautiful hounds. Somehow, Little Ann wins the beauty contest on the first day. The other coon hunters are very kind to Billy. Billy and his dogs qualify for the championship round. While Billy, his papa, his grandfather, and a judge are out hunting with coons, a winter blizzard begins. They lose track of the dogs, and Billy's grandfather falls and badly sprains his ankle. They stop and build a fire as day begins to break. Soon enough, they find the dogs, covered with ice. They have gotten just enough coons to win. Everyone at the tournament cheers. Billy has also won a jackpot of 300 dollars.
Billy's mama and sisters are overjoyed. Billy keeps up his hunting. One night, however, his dogs tree a mountain lion. Old Dan howls defiantly, and the big cat attacks. Billy is horrified, and with his axe he enters the fray, hoping to save his dogs, but they end up having to save him. Eventually, the dogs defeat the mountain lion, but Old Dan is badly wounded. He dies the next day. Billy is heartbroken, but Little Ann is so sad that she loses her will to live, and dies a few days later. Billy's papa tries to tell him that it is all for the best, because with the money Billy has earned, the family hopes to move to town. Billy does not completely recover until on the day of the move; he goes to visit the dogs' graves and finds a giant red fern. According to Indian legend, only an angel can plant a red fern. Billy and his family look at the fern in awe, and he feels ready to leave for the town.
The Giver
Lois Lowry
The giver is written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. Everyone is unfailingly polite. The society has also eliminated choice: at age twelve every member of the community is assigned a job based on his or her abilities and interests. Citizens can apply for and be assigned compatible spouses, and each couple is assigned exactly two children each. The children are born to Birthmothers, who never see them, and spend their first year in a Nurturing Center with other babies, or “newchildren,” born that year. When their children are grown, family units dissolve and adults live together with Childless Adults until they are too old to function in the society. Then they spend their last years being cared for in the House of the Old until they are finally “released” from the society. In the community, release is death, but it is never described that way; most people think that after release, flawed newchildren and joyful elderly people are welcomed into the vast expanse of Elsewhere that surrounds the communities. Citizens who break rules or fail to adapt properly to the society’s codes of behavior are also released, though in their cases it is an occasion of great shame. Everything is planned and organized so that life is as convenient and pleasant as possible.
Jonas lives with his father, a Nurturer of new children, his mother, who works at the Department of Justice, and his seven-year-old sister Lily. At the beginning of the novel, he is apprehensive about the upcoming Ceremony of Twelve, when he will be given his official Assignment as a new adult member of the community. He does not have a distinct career preference, although he enjoys volunteering at a variety of different jobs. Though he is a well-behaved citizen and a good student, Jonas is different: he has pale eyes, while most people in his community have dark eyes, and he has unusual powers of perception. Sometimes objects “change” when he looks at them. He does not know it yet, but he alone in his community can perceive flashes of color; for everyone else, the world is as devoid of color as it is of pain, hunger, and inconvenience.
At the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas is given the highly honored Assignment of Receiver of Memory. The Receiver is the sole keeper of the community’s collective memory. When the community went over to Sameness—its painless, warless, and mostly emotionless state of tranquility and harmony—it abandoned all memories of pain, war, and emotion, but the memories cannot disappear totally. Someone must keep them so that the community can avoid making the mistakes of the past, even though no one but the Receiver can bear the pain. Jonas receives the memories of the past, good and bad, from the current Receiver, a wise old man who tells Jonas to call him the Giver.
The Giver transmits memories by placing his hands on Jonas’s bare back. The first memory he receives is of an exhilarating sled ride. As Jonas receives memories from the Giver—memories of pleasure and pain, of bright colors and extreme cold and warm sun, of excitement and terror and hunger and love—he realizes how bland and empty life in his community really is. The memories make Jonas’s life richer and more meaningful, and he wishes that he could give that richness and meaning to the people he loves. But in exchange for their peaceful existence, the people of Jonas’s community have lost the capacity to love him back or to feel deep passion about anything. Since they have never experienced real suffering, they also cannot appreciate the real joy of life, and the life of individual people seems less precious to them. In addition, no one in Jonas’s community has ever made a choice of his or her own. Jonas grows more and more frustrated with the members of his community, and the Giver, who has felt the same way for many years, encourages him. The two grow very close, like a grandfather and a grandchild might have in the days before Sameness, when family members stayed in contact long after their children were grown.
Meanwhile, Jonas is helping his family take care of a problem newchild, Gabriel, who has trouble sleeping through the night at the Nurturing Center. Jonas helps the child to sleep by transmitting soothing memories to him every night, and he begins to develop a relationship with Gabriel that mirrors the family relationships he has experienced through the memories. When Gabriel is in danger of being released, the Giver reveals to Jonas that release is the same as death. Jonas’s rage and horror at this revelation inspire the Giver to help Jonas devise a plan to change things in the community forever. The Giver tells Jonas about the girl who had been designated the new Receiver ten years before. She had been the Giver’s own daughter, but the sadness of some of the memories had been too much for her and she had asked to be released. When she died, all of the memories she had accumulated were released into the community, and the community members could not handle the sudden influx of emotion and sensation. The Giver and Jonas plan for Jonas to escape the community and to actually enter Elsewhere. Once he has done that, his larger supply of memories will disperse, and the Giver will help the community to come to terms with the new feelings and thoughts, changing the society forever.
However, Jonas is forced to leave earlier than planned when his father tells him that Gabriel will be released the next day. Desperate to save Gabriel, Jonas steals his father’s bicycle and a supply of food and sets off for Elsewhere. Gradually, he enters a landscape full of color, animals, and changing weather, but also hunger, danger, and exhaustion. Avoiding search planes, Jonas and Gabriel travel for a long time until heavy snow makes bike travel impossible. Half-frozen, but comforting Gabriel with memories of sunshine and friendship, Jonas mounts a high hill. There he finds a sled—the sled from his first transmitted memory—waiting for him at the top. Jonas and Gabriel experience a glorious downhill ride on the sled. Ahead of them, they see—or think they see—the twinkling lights of a friendly village at Christmas, and they hear music. Jonas is sure that someone is waiting for them there.
