Annotated Bibliography

Contemporary/ Classic Novels

Pride and Prejudice (1190L)

            Austen, J. (2002). Pride and Prejudice. New York, NY: Penguin Classics.

            Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a novel that surrounds the life of Elizabeth Bennet and her family. The reader learns that Elizabeth’s mother wants all of her five daughters to find husbands who have money and could provide for them. This is one of the main topics of the book. Elizabeth’s pride gets her in trouble with one of the characters that keeps getting drawn to her, Mr. Darcy. They quarrel with one another throughout the book. Despite their differences in class and beliefs, they eventually fall in love and get married. But of course, Mr. Darcy had to propose a couple of times before she agreed to become his wife.

            This is my favorite Jane Austen novel. I was introduced to it in high school. The character depiction throughout the novel creates a connection with the reader. Each of the characters in the novel has personalities and situation that you associate with.

            This novel has themes of family, love, loyalty, mothering, parent-child relationships, prejudice, pride, seizing the moment, and winners and losers. 

The Catcher in the Rye (790L)

            Salinger, J. D. (1979). The Catcher in the Rye. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

           

            J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is a great novel told from the mind and journey of the main character Holden Caulfield. Holden travels to New York and we learn what he is thinking throughout his journey.

            The journey that Holden goes through is interesting to the reader to learn about how he is reacting to everything in New York and with all of the people he meets along the way.         

            This novel has themes of coming of age, family, freedom, hate, love, need for change, quest for knowledge. 

Of Mice and Men (630L)

            Steinbeck, J. (1993). Of Mice and Men. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

            John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a novel about two friends and their journey to find work to better their lives and to fulfill a dream of owning land. George and Lennie are the main characters in the novel. By Steinbeck’s descriptions of the characters, Lennie seemed to have a bit of a mental disability and George was his friend and basically his guardian. Poor Lennie did not know his own strength and could not grasp the idea of petting things nicely and gently. He had a tendency to kill animals while petting them, like the mouse and a puppy. He even accidently killed their boss’s wife. That incident causes George and Lennie to run away. George had to kill his best friend before he would be tortured and killed by their boss and old co-workers.

            George and Lennie’s relationship is a beautiful friendship and I was so sad when George killed Lennie.

           This novel has themes of family, fate, fear, freedom, friendship, loyalty, justice, peer pressure, and perserverance. 

Romeo and Juliet

            Shakespeare, W. (2016). Romeo and Juliet. New York, NY: Penguin Classics.

            William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is one of his greatest plays. Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy. Romeo’s family had a grudge against Juliet’s family, and vise versa. Yet when Romeo and Juliet saw one another, they fell in love and decided to be together forever, no matter the family issues. They ended up killing themselves accidently, when Juliet pretended to be dead; Romeo was so upset and killed himself. Juliet then woke up and killed herself.

            Romeo and Juliet is a great play. People constantly incorrectly categorize this play as a romance.

            This novel has themes of coming of age, courage, fall from grace, fate, fear of failure, friendship, love, loyalty, manipulation, revenge, secrecy, and war. 

Fahrenheit 451 (890L)

            Bradbury, R. (2012). Fahrenheit 451. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

            Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is one of his greatest novels. The main character is a man named Guy Montag. He is a fireman in an era when books were considered to be illegal and the fireman’s main job is to light fires to burn the books. He ends up looking at books and begins to question society.

            The thought of living in a society where books are illegal is crazy to me. Reading is way for people to lose themselves in a different world or different time. A life without books would bring sadness to my world.

             This novel has themes of abuse of power, corruption, fear, justice, manipulation, need for change, obligation, secrecy, revenge and survival.