Novel Units
                          Novel Selections for English II, Unit 7
 
You have the opportunity to choose the novel you would like to read.  The study guide and essay are due to complete the unit.
Please send your completed assignments to Miss Smith's e-mail

 
Ethan Frome - a novella by Edith Wharton
"This story takes place against the cold, gray, bleakness of a New England winter. Ethan Frome is an isolated farmer trying to scrape out a meager living while also tending to his frigid, demanding and ungrateful wife Zeena. A ray of hope enters Ethan's life of despair when his wife's cousin Mattie arrives to help. His life is transformed as he falls in love Mattie but their fate is doomed by the stifling conventions of the time. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is a compelling classic of American Literature and a powerful tale that should not be missed." - AmericanLiterature.com
 
Online text: Ethan Frome
 
Animal Farm - by George Orwell
"A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals.  With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality.  Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned -- a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.  When Animal Farm was first published fifty years ago, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target.  Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell's masterpiece has a meaning and message still ferociously fresh."  - Signet 1996 edition back cover, Animal Farm
 
Online text: Animal Farm
Study Guide Info. Documents: AnimalFarm-1.pdf  AnimalFarm-2.pdf 
Study Guide Questions: AnimalFarmSG.pdf

The Great Gatsby - by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The hollow pursuit of wealth and social status results in tragedy in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Each character has their own way of showing off their wealth and status. Whether it's by the type of car you drive or the location of your house or even through marriage, it's all shown in this novel." - Anonymous, posted on www.online-literature.com
 

 
The Outsiders - by S.E. Hinton
"A heroic story of friendship and belonging ....  Ponyboy can count on his brothers.  And on his friends.  But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up "greasers" like Ponyboy.  At least he knows what to expect -- until the night someone takes things too far." - Puffin 1997 edition back cover, The Outsiders
 
Text: obtain from library, or contact teacher if you need a copy of the book
Essay questions: TheOutsiders-shortessay.rtf

Homecoming - by Cynthia Voigt
"'IT'S STILL TRUE.'  That's the first thing James Tillerman says to his sister Dicey every morning. It's still true that their mother has abandoned the four Tillerman children somewhere in the middle of Connecticut. It's still true they have to find their way, somehow, to Great-aunt Cilla's house in Bridgeport, which may be their only hope of staying together as a family.  But when they get to Bridgeport, they learn that Great-aunt Cilla has died, and the home they find with her daughter, Eunice, isn't the permanent haven they've been searching for. So their journey continues to its unexpected conclusion — and some surprising discoveries about their history, and their future." - Barnes&Noble.com book synopsis
 
Text: obtain from library, or contact teacher if you need a copy of the book
Essay questions: HomecomingEssay.rtf

Silas Marner - by George Eliot
"After an unfair banishment from a Puritan religious community, Silas Marner adopts a life of near-solitude, forsaking faith in God and his fellow man and replacing it with the worship of gold coins which he keeps hidden in his cottage. A series of events ulimately displace gold from the center of Marner's world and restores other people to his world. The often overlooked story recounts a deeply humanizing journey." - AmericanLiterature.com
 
Online text: Silas Marner
Study Guide: Silas.pdf

 
 

 
Last Modified: Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009
 
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