The Minister’s Black Veil (1260L)
Hawthorne, N. (2014). The Minister’s Black Veil. New York, NY: HarperPerennial Classics.
Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s short story entitled The
Minister’s Black Veil is a tale that surrounds the life of the Reverend Mr.
Hooper. Mr. Hooper, for reasons unknown, is shown wearing a black veil covering
most of his face. This veil makes the very town uncomfortable to be around Mr.
Hooper. This black veil that is shrouding on the face of Mr. Hooper seems to be
symbolic to the veil that people ‘put on’ to hide their true selves from the
rest of the world.
The
themes in this short story are faith, fall from grace, fear, fear of failure,
quest for knowledge, secrecy, and the overlooked.
The Masque of the Red Death (1180L)
Poe, E. A. (2004). The Masque of the Red Death. New York, NY: BookSurge Classics.
Edgar
Allan Poe’s short story entitled The
Masque of the Red Death is a tale that surrounds the party at the home of
Prince Prospero. Poe wrote this tale in such detail; the reader can almost see
the rooms he is describing. The colors and architecture are so vividly
described. The tale describes the massacre that occurs due to the Red Death.
The
themes in this short story are fate, fear, greed, hate, manipulation, secrecy,
survival, and war.
Hamlet (570L)
Shakespeare, W. (2005). Hamlet. Boston, MA: Cambridge University
Press.
William
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet follows the
life of Hamlet, a prince who lives in despair as his father is dead and his
mother married his uncle. Hamlet is a sad character that finds out the truth
that his uncle had murdered his father. Hamlet then tries to avenge his
father’s death. He also has one of Shakespeare’s most famous monologues, “to be
or not be… that is the question.”
The
themes in this drama are abuse of power, beating the odds, corruption, effects
of the past, fall from grace, family, fear, greed, hate, loyalty, love,
manipulation, pride, quest for knowledge, revenge, secrecy, the overlooked, and
war.
King Lear (1330L)
Shakespeare, W. (2004). King Lear. New York, NY: Simon Schuster.
William
Shakespeare’s play King Lear follows
the family of the crazy King Lear. When the King realized he was too old to be
in charge, he decided to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. But
King Lear wanted the daughters to tell him who loved him most, and the one who
showed the most appreciation and love would gain the most land and power. The
youngest daughter did not want to lie to the King and told him how she really
felt. That angered the King; he gave her nothing and divided the kingdom to the
two oldest who were kissing up to their father to gain the land and power.
The
themes in this drama are abuse of power, beauty, coming of age, corruption,
effects of the past, family, greed, hate, honesty, innocence, justice, love,
loyalty, manipulation, need for change, revenge, secrecy, and survival.
The Road Not Taken and
Other Poems (850L)
Frost, R. (1993). The Road Not Taken and Other Poems. New York, NY: Dover
Publications.
Robert Frost’s book of
poetry The Road Not Taken and Other Poems
holds a great assortment of his poetry. The
Road Not Taken is a great poem that shows the reader that sometimes you are
at this fork in the road, maybe figuratively or literally, and you have to
choose which way to go. The reader will look at this poem and see how the paths
are described and think about their own lives and struggles. Which way to go? It’s
up to the reader, in life, which way to choose to go.
The themes in this book
are a bit of everything. There are themes of effects of the past, fate, fear of
failure, quest for knowledge, seizing the moment, and the road not taken.
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