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Praxis II Summaries c

Summaries

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

A pampered dog (Buck) and how he adjusts to the harsh realities of life in the North as he struggles with his recovered wild instincts and finds a master (John Thorton) who treats him right; novel, adventure story, setting late 1890s.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Set in Macondo, this novel tells of Ursula, the Buendia family matriarch who dies the size of a fetus at the age of 120.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

A monomaniacal captain tries and fails to kill a monstrous white whale; adventure story, quest tale, allegory; protagonist: Ishmael, Ahab; antogonist: Ahab, great white sperm whale.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

(Arthur Miller, 1953). Miller chose the 1692 Salem witch trials as his setting, but the work is really an allegorical protest against the McCarthy anti-Communist "witch-hunts" of the early 1950s. In the story, Elizabeth Proctor fires servant Abigail Williams after she finds out Abigail had an affair with her husband. In response, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft. She stands trial and is acquitted, but then another girl accuses her husband, John, and as he refuses to turn in others, he is killed, along with the old comic figure, Giles Corey. Also notable: Judge Hathorne is a direct ancestor of the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved's identity is mysterious. The novel provides evidence that she could be an ordinary woman traumatized by years of captivity, the ghost of Sethe's mother, or, most convincingly, the embodied spirit of Sethe's murdered daughter. On an allegorical level, Beloved represents the inescapable, horrible past of slavery returned to haunt the present. Her presence, which grows increasingly malevolent and parasitic as the novel progresses, ultimately serves as a catalyst for Sethe's, Paul D's, and Denver's respective processes of emotional growth.

Summaries

Animal Farm by George Orwell

A group of animals mount a successful rebellion against the farmer who rules them, but their dreams of equality for all are ruined when one pig seizes power; novella, dystopian animal fable..ALLEGORY AND FABLE

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Challenge to communism, tells story of a prerevolutinoary intellectual who rejects the violence and brutality of revolution of 1917 and stalinist years, even as he is destroyed he triumphs because of his humanity and christian spirit.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

A young woman (Esther Greenwood) whose talent and intelligence have brought her close to achieving her dreams must overcome suicidal tendencies.

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

The first volume, published in 1913, immense novel, Remembrance of Things Past. This volume tells two related stories, the first of which encounters a young Marcel, modeled on the author, exploring the French town of Combray and vowing to become an author. The second story jumps back in time fifteen years to tell about the romance between Charles Swann, a friend of Marcel's grandparents who appears regularly in the first story, and his wife Odette, who is presented toward the end of the first story. Swann falls in love with an idealized version of Odette he has constructed and they eventually marry; after time, Swann realizes Odette has been having numerous affairs and is not the woman he imagined her to be.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

(1929) a novel written illustrating the horrors of World War I and the experiences of veterans and soldiers. It was extremely popular, but also caused a lot of political controversy when it was first published, and was banned in Germany in the 1930's.

Summaries

A rhyme that is not exact.

Slant Rhyme

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

Based partly on Salinger's own childhood but set in post-WWII America, the novel follows Holden Caulfield, an adolescent who feels pressure from all sides to grow up and conform to the rules of the adult world. It's use of slang and profanity and its frank discussions of sexuality had caused it to be banned in many places since its publication. The novel tells of Holden's three days in Manhattan after getting expelled from boarding school but before going home to his family.

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

A poet, swordsman, scientist, playwright, musician, and member of the Cadets of Gascoyne, a company of guards from Southern France. For all his prodigious talents, he is unattractive, cursed with a ridiculously long nose that makes him insecure and keeps him from revealing his love for his cousin Roxane.

Hamlet by Shakespeare

"To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them."

Macbeth by Shakespeare

"It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak. Augurs and understood relations have By magot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth The secret'st man of blood.—What is the night?

Summaries

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare

(Fantasy Setting) It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, who are manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set.

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Two star crossed lovers.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

(Greek mythology) a king who created a statue of a woman and fell in love with it.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Also known as The Modern Prometheus,. The novel is about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein, who in his quest for knowledge, creates a monster through unorthodox means. Once the monster is brought to life, Frankenstein abandons his creation out of fear. This begins a war between man and his creation, which ends very tragically.

Antigone by Sophocles

A daughter of the accidentally incestuous marriage between King Oedipus of Thebes and his mother Jocasta. She attempts to secure a respectable burial for her brother Polyneices.

Summaries

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The story follows the fortunes of a poor family as they travel from the Dust Bowl region to California. based on the great depression written by John Steinbeck.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Jim Hawkins (narrator), a young boy who goes on a journey to discover pirate treasure. Long John Silver, former pirate, goes to take back treasure; shifting loyalties. Dr. Livesey, steady, practical leader of the expedition.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Powerful novel that make american aware of the harsh and inhumane conditions of slavery and put the country on the road to civil war.

Gulliver's Travels By Johnathan Swift

Officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships, is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travelers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Wrote about his experiences while living alone on Walden Pond.