Title: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Author: David Wroelewski Setting: Wisconsin 1950's-60's Characters:

Edgar Sawtelle- Mute. Communicates well with the dogs. After his dad dies he becomes angered and confused. Doesn't like clause because he feels like he's taking his place. Runs away after accidentally killing the vet. Takes some dogs and lives with Henry. Tries to go back to prove Claude. Ends up getting killed in the barn fire. Glen Papineau- The vet. Almondine- Edgar's favorite and closest friend. She dies when he runs away.

Plot Summary: A mute boy's father gets killed by his uncle. The boy trains dog. He trains them to do a trick to show he knows his uncle did it. He ran away for a bit. When he comes back, he tries to kill his uncle and they both end up dying in a barn fire. Central Conflict: Edgar vs. himself Resolution: He finally realized he needed to stand up for himself and what was right. Most Significant Scenes:

When Edgar is visited by his father and finds out his uncle murdered him. When he does the tricks with the dogs to show claude he knew he killed his father.

When Edgar came back to face Claude. Title: A Prayer for Owen Meany

Author: John Irving Settings: New Hampshire & Toronto, Canada during the 1980's Characters: John Wheelwright - Owens best friend. Narrator. The son of Tabby Wheelwright and Rev. Louis Merrill (which he doesnt know until the end of the novel. Lead to a religious faith by his best friend, Owen. John is bitter about his experience. Owen Meany - Main Character. Johns best friend Dwarf with luminous skin and a high pitched, nasal voice represented in the novel in all capital letters. Owens father runs a granite quarry; Owens sharp characteristics are possible causes of inhalation of granite dust at an early age. He is tiny but he has a powerful personality. He dominates situations and tells people what to do. Owen has a very strong faith. He accidently kills Johns mother when Owen and John were 11 and foul ball that Owen had hit then breaks her neck.

Dick Jarvits - The boy who kills Owen Meany. A hulking, sadistic fifteen year old from a trashy family in Phoenix. Hester Johns cousin but John feels a strange attraction to her when he was younger. She is bitter about how she is treated so she becomes angry, sexually emotionally aggressive woman. She soon becomes a rock star, going under the Hester the Molester Owen and Hester were romantically involved. Tabitha Wheelright Johns mother, who kept the identiy of Johns father a secret from him. Killed by a foul ball that owen had hit. Dan Needham Johns stepfather. Hes a drama teacher. Raised john as if he was his own and was a father figure to Owen also Reverend Louis Merill Johns father Randy White Antagonist of Owen

Protagonist: Owen Meany

Foil: John wheelwright to Owen Meany. Rev. Dudley Wiggin to Rev. Lewis Merill Plot Summary: John Wheelwright, a teacher, looks over his life from his childhood until his mid-twenties. All of Johns memories whether it be good or bad had his best friend, Owen Meany. He goes through his friendship, his mothers death, and his religious faith. Central Conflict: The conflict in A Prayer for Owen Meany is that of belief and doubt in god that brings the characters together Resolution: Owen's Death. Most significant Scenes:

When Owen kills John's Mother. When Owen gets expelled Owen's death.

Themes:

Religion Fate & Free Will Friendship Family

Title: The Kite Runner Author: Khaled Hosseini Setting: 1975 through 2001, Kabul, Afghanistan; California, United States. Characters: Amir- The narrator and the protagonist of the story. Amir is the sensitive and intelligent son of a well-to-do businessman in Kabul, and he grows up with a sense of entitlement. Hassan- Amirs best friend and half-brother as well as a servant of Babas. Baba- Father of Amir and Hassan and a wealthy, well-respected businessman. Sohrab- Son of Hassan and Farzana. Assef- Hassans and Sohrabs rapist and the novels antagonist. Plot Summary: Amir recalls an event that happened twenty-six years before, when he was still a boy in Afghanistan, and says that that made him who he is. Forced out of Afghanistan by the Soviet invasion, Amir flees to the United States, where he tries to rebuild his life until an old friend offers him a way to make amends for his past. Central Conflict: After failing to intervene in the rape of his friend Hassan, Amir wrestles with his guilt and tries to find a way to atone for his actions.

Resolution: Amir rescues Sohrab from a life of physical and sexual abuse and struggles to learn how he and Sohrab can recover from the traumas each has endured. Most significant Scenes: Hassan is raped in the alley Amir and Baba moving to America

Amir meeting and marrying Soraya The phone call from Rahim Khan Amir returning to Afghanistan for Sohrab

Themes:

The Search For Redemption The Love and Tension Between Fathers and Sons The Persistence of the Past

Title: Pride and Prejudice Author: Jane Austen Settings: Some point during the Napoleonic Wars (17971815), Longbourn, in rural England. Characters: Elizabeth Bennet- The novels protagonist. The second daughter of Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth is the most intelligent and sensible of the five Bennet sisters. Fitzwilliam Darcy- A wealthy gentleman, the master of Pemberley, and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Jane Bennet- The eldest and most beautiful Bennet sister. Jane is more reserved and gentler than Elizabeth Charles Bingley- Darcys considerably wealthy best friend. Mr. Bennet- The patriarch of the Bennet family, a gentleman of modest income with five unmarried daughters. Mrs. Bennet- Mr. Bennets wife, a foolish, noisy woman whose only goal in life is to see her daughters married.

Antagonists- Snobbish class-consciousness (Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Miss Bingley) Plot Summary: The news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor of Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the nearby village of Longbourn, especially in the Bennet household.

The Bennets have five unmarried daughtersfrom oldest to youngest, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia and Mrs. Bennet is desperate to see them all married. At social functions over subsequent weeks, however, Mr. Darcy finds himself increasingly attracted to Elizabeths charm and intelligence. Central Conflict: The conflict between the lower class, aspiring to rise, and the resisting, and eventually yielding upper class. Resolution: Jane is married to Mr Bingley. Elizabeth is married to Mr Darcy. Lydia is married to Mr Wickam. Mr and Mrs Collins are happy (Charlotte is Mrs Collins) Mr and Mrs Bennet are left with Mary to take care of. The Bennet family is considered very fortunate, and they are very happy. Most significant Scenes:

The Bingley's and Darcy at the ball. Jane falling ill at Netherfield and Elizabeth going to her. Mr. Collins arrival and proposal to Elizabeth. Mr. Wickham's arrival and background. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy's conversation on the dance floor. Mr. Darcy's first proposal and his subsequent letter. Elizabeth and the Gardiners at Derbyshire. Lydia's elopement. Mr. Darcy's help in the marriage between Lydia and Mr. Wickham -Mr. Darcy's second proposal and Elizabeth's acceptance.

Themes:

Love Reputation Class

Title: Invisible Man Author: Ralph Ellison Settings: The 1930s, A black college in the South; New York City, especially Harlem Characters: The narrator - The nameless protagonist of the novel. The narrator is the invisible man of the title. A black man in 1930s America, the narrator considers himself invisible because people never see his true self beneath the roles that stereotype and racial prejudice compel him to play. Brother Jack - The white and blindly loyal leader of the Brotherhood, a political organization that professes to defend the rights of the socially oppressed. Mr. Norton - One of the wealthy white trustees at the narrators college. Mr. Norton is a narcissistic man who treats the narrator as a tally on his scorecardthat is, as proof that he is liberal-minded and philanthropic.

Mary - A serene and motherly black woman with whom the narrator stays after learning that the Mens House has banned him. Plot Summary: The narrator begins telling his story with the claim that he is an invisible man. His invisibility, he says, is not a physical conditionhe is not literally invisiblebut is rather the result of the refusal of others to see him. He says that because of his invisibility, he has been hiding from the world, living underground and stealing electricity from the Monopolated Light & Power Company. He is a young man from the South who is haunted by his grandfather's deathbed warning against conforming to the wishes of white people because the young man sees that as the way to be successful.The narrator's first real glimpse at the cruel manipulation of white people comes when he is invited to the local men's club to read the speech he

prepared for his high school graduation. He gives the speech and is rewarded with a briefcase and a scholarship to a black college, but only after he endures the humiliation of performing for the white men there. He and several black boys are forced to box each other and then scramble around a rug pulsing with electric current to grab coins while the white men laugh at their pain. The narrator goes off to college and determines to model himself after Dr. Bledsoe, the college's dean and a successful black man who is well respected in his community and his field. Unfortunately, the narrator makes a dreadful mistake when he is chauffeuring Mr. Norton, a wealthy white man who donates a great deal of money to the college. He inadvertently reveals the seedier side of the black race by allowing the man to stop and speak with Joe Trueblood, a poor, black man ostracized from the black community because he got his own daughter pregnant. After the upsetting encounter with Trueblood, the white man is feeling weak and needs a drink, so the young man takes him to the closest place he can think of, the local black bar and brothel. After a disastrous encounter with a mentally altered war veteran, the narrator takes Mr. Norton back to campus. Dr. Bledsoe is so furious with the narrator's indiscretion and stupidity that he expels him. Dr. Bledsoe offers him some hope, however, by offering to write him several letters of recommendation to deliver to the school's trustees in New York. The dean tells the young man that if he makes enough money for tuition, he can come back to school. The young man sets out for the city unaware that the letters of recommendation are really a hoax just to get him quietly away from the school. Once he finds out about the letters, he is so broke that he takes a job in a paint factory where he has an accident. He wakes up in the factory hospital where they are doing painful experiments on him that leave him disoriented. He recovers somewhat and is released only to dump a spittoon on some man whom he mistakes for Dr. Bledsoe at his boarding house. After that incident, he moves into a room in a kindly woman's apartment and stays there without a job until he gets caught up with the Communist party. They give him a position as a speaker in Harlem and he works with them until he becomes so disillusioned by their politics and betrayal that he gets caught up in a riot in Harlem and falls into a manhole. He builds himself a room in the cellar of an all-white building and hibernates there contemplating his relationship to reality and the invisibility he feels is caused by his race. He lives in that hole until he runs into Mr. Norton one day in the subway and realizes that he will no longer conform to white expectations of him. Instead, he will reclaim his humanity by being who he is and no longer struggling to change that. Central Conflict: The narrator seeks to act according to the values and expectations of his immediate social group, but he finds himself continuously unable to reconcile his socially imposed role as a black man with his inner concept of identity, or even to understand his inner identity.

Resolution: It's time for the narrator to come out of hibernation. So the manhole's great and all, since no one's there to try and define him, but there's also no one there. Since his social life has taken a hit after the whole falling-into-a-manhole business, the narrator is finally ready to come out of hiding after accepting that living in a manhole is no way to live. He leaves us on that note; we can only speculate what his posthibernation life looks like. Most significant Scenes:

When the invisible man has to fight for the scholarship. When the invisible man gets kicked out of the college. When the invisible man finally gets a job.

Themes:

Racism as an obstacle to individual identity. The limitations of ideology . The danger of fighting stereotype with stereotype.

Title: Hamlet Author: William Shakspeare Setting: 1050s in Denmark Characters: Hamlet Prince of Denmark. He is bitter and cynical, hates his uncle and disgusted by his mother. He is also indecisive and hesitant but he is prone to rash and impulsive acts. Hamlet is depressed about his fathers death and questioning that his uncle, Claudius killed his father. Claudius The King of Denmark, Hamlets uncle. He kills his brother for his own selfish desires for the throne and for his wife.. Gertrude The Queen of Denmark, Hamlets mother, recently married to Claudius very soon after he kills Hamlets father. She feels bad about it but she seeks affection and status than the truth. Fortinbras Prince of Norway, whose father was killed by Hamlets father so he wanted to attack Denmark to avenge his fathers honor. Leartes gives good advice but doesnt use it himself. He tries to get revenge but he gets killed in the duel with Hamlet

Horatio Hamlets close friend and helps Hamlet throughout the play.

Antagonist: Claudious Protagonist: Hamlet Foil: Laertes to Hamlet, Fortinbras for Hamlet. Plot summary: Hamlet's father, the king, has died and his uncle, Claudius, has married Hamlet's widowed mother, Gertrude, and taken over the throne. One night Hamlet's father's ghost is spotted and talks to Hamlet and tells him that Claudius killed him. Hamlet is to revenge his murder. He eventually does, but Hamlet dies and so does his mother (who drinks poison intended for Hamlet). Central conflict: Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his fathers murder by his uncle Claudius, but Claudius is now the king and thus well protected. Moreover, Hamlet struggles with his doubts about whether he can trust the ghost and whether killing Claudius is the appropriate thing to do. Resolution: Horatio tells Fortinbras that Hamlet needs to be honored and that he will explain the story of the House of Denmark and the Great Tragedy that has happened. Horatio emphasizes the causes of the tragedy. Scenes:

When Hamlets father's ghost appears to Hamlet. When Hamlet goes crazy.

Themes:

Revenge Mortality

Lies & Deceit -Family

Title: The Stranger Author: Albert Camus Setting: Early 1940s, France Characters:

Meursault The narrator of the stranger. He is a detached figure and emotionally different than others. He refused to adhere to what society thinks. After Meursault kills a man for no reason. The focus of Meursaults trial wasnt mainly on the murder itself, it was about his attitudes and beliefs. Marie Cardona former coworker of Meursault who begins to have a relationship with him after his mother funeral. Meursault does not want to marry her but she still wants to be with him and supports him throughout his arrest and trial The Chaplain - A priest who attends to the religious needs of condemned men, the chaplain acts as a catalyst for Meursaults psychological and philosophical development. After Meursault is found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death, he repeatedly refuses to see the chaplain. The chaplain visits Meursault anyway, and nearly demands that he take comfort in God. The chaplain seems threatened by Meursaults stubborn atheism. Meursaults Mother - Madame Meursaults death begins the action of the novel. Three years prior, Meursault sent her to an old persons home. Meursault identifies with his mother and believes that she shared many of his attitudes about life, including a love of nature and the capacity to become

accustomed to virtually any situation or occurrence. Antagonist: Protagonist: Meursault Foil: Thomas Perez Plot Summary: Mersault is arrested and imprisoned for the murder. He is not worried about his case, for he feels the jury will understand how the shooting was not intentional. He does not hire his own attorney, but accepts the court appointed one. When the attorney tries to get Mersault to slant the truth about his reactions to his mothers death, he refuses, for Mersault values honesty and is true to himself. He also fails to see the relationship between his case and his feelings for his mother. Mersault also refuses to see the chaplain, who eventually barges in to Mersaults cell. When Mersault refuses to confess his guilt and beg forgiveness, the chaplain reacts with disbelief. When he tries pray for Mersault, he screams at the chaplain. In a similar manner, he refuses to react to the crucifix that the magistrate shows him and reveals that he does not believe in God. Central Conflict: After committing murder, Merusault struggles against societys attempts to impose and rationalize explanations for his attitude and his actions. Resolution: Significant Scenes:

Meursaults mothers death When him and Marie talked about marriage and love When he killed a man for no reason and was arrested The trial The chaplain visits Meursualt and they talk about faith

Themes:

Mortality: The idea of death revolves around the novel. It states that death is inevitable and that is what makes all men equal. Isolation: the novel focuses on Meursaults isolation from society and from his Religion

Title: In the Lake of the Woods Author: Tim O'brien Settings: Late 1970's Characters:

John Wade- He is a vietnam veteran, who has PTSD. He burns plants with hot water. When he was a young boy he was really into magic and when he was uncomfortable with something he would "go to the mirrors in his head". He tried to run for governor but lost. The lieutenant governor of Minesota and was running for U.S. Senate when he was defeated after details his war actions in Vietnam were revealed. John and his wife Kathy went to a cottage in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota to escape everything that was going on. John was still repressing the memories of Vietnam and cetain parts of his

childhood.

Kathy Wade- John Wade's wife wife who has been with him since they were in college. Shes stood by John throughout their marriage even though she hated politics. Disappears when she and john go to a cabin in the woods. Eleanor Wade Johns mother. Paul Wade Johns father that commited suicide when John was a kid. He was an alchoholic and abusive but John still looked up to him. He offered no affection towards John, which he later struggles with. Patricia S. Hood Kathys sister, who never trusted John. Kathy always confinded in her when she couldnt hold in the pressure of her relationship. She has been always suspicious at John. Arthur Lux sheriff of Lake of the Woods County and heads the investigation in charge for Kathy. The Rasmussens- They helped John look for his wife. They also gave john and kathy the cabin.

Plot Summary: John and Kathy Wade go to a cabin offered to John after he loses the election. Shortly after Kathy goes missing, John doesn't report it until midnight after he realized she was gone. John tries to look for her. You never find out wether John killed her or if she ran off. Central Conflict: John v. Himself. Resolution: John tries different methods in order to get his thoughts straight but he will never be completely normal. Most Significant Scenes: - When Kathy goes missing. When John partakes in the Mi Lai massacre. When Kathy runs away and you don't find out whether John killed her or if she ran away.

Theme(s): Mystery- it is never really told why Kathy disappeared.