The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Namesake begins with a Bengali couple, Ashima and Ashoke who have recently immigrated to the United States so Ashoke can continue his engineering studies at MIT. The story begins at the hospital, where Ashima has just gone into labor for their first born son. As she prepares to give birth, she realizes how isolated she has become, forced to deliver her baby alone, without the support of her family in Calcutta, India. This isolation she feels only emphasizes the many cultural differences she must overcome. Once she delivers her healthy baby boy, the couple soon realizes they cannot leave the hospital without first giving a legal name to their child. A letter from Ashima’s grandmother was supposed to come with a name, but has been lost in the mail. They decide on the temporary name of “Gogol” for their child, Gogol being the last name of Ashoke’s favorite Russian author, whose work he accredits to saving his life. The letter with the real name never comes and Ashima’s grandmother dies soon after. It is customary in India for children to be given a “good” name to be used in public and a nickname to be used only by those very close to the family, but the name Gogol soon sticks and that becomes the child’s single name. The book brings us through the childhood, adolescence, teenage years, and young adulthood of Gogol. We see the struggles of a Bengali boy growing up amidst the American customs and Bengali customs, but never truly feeling as if he belongs to the United States or India. This personal struggle with his cultural identity begins to spread to Gogol’s namesake in his adolescence. Gogol begins to realize that he has never met another Gogol, he begins to feel hatred towards his parents for giving him such an obscure name and starts to feel self conscious every time his name is mentioned. In his senior year in high school, Gogol begins to go by the name Nikhil. He introduces himself as Nikhil to a girl at a college party and begins to realize that college comes with a chance to completely reinvent himself. This change in name and Gogol's decision to go to Yale, rather than following in his father’s footsteps to attend MIT, sets up the barriers between Gogol and his family. The distance, both geographically and emotionally, between Gogol and his parents continues to increase. He wants to be American, not Bengali. He goes home less frequently, dates American girls, and becomes angry when anyone calls him Gogol. During his college years, he smokes cigarettes and marijuana, goes to many parties, and loses his virginity to a girl he cannot remember. The book goes on to capture the on-going stages of Gogol’s identity and follows his three most serious relationships from beginning to sour end.

Discussion Questions:

How much significance do you feel a name holds over personality? Do you believe that Gogol’s life would have been different if he had started out with a more traditional name?

In The Namesake, it is as if Gogol transforms into an entirely different person when he is using the name Nikhil. Everyone makes mild personality adjustments depending upon the crowd they are around, but do you believe that a person can actually have alternate identities?

(If you are aware of one) What is your namesake? Do you take pride in your parent’s decision to name you what they did, or would you change your name if you had the chance?

The Scarlet Letter By: Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story takes place in Boston, and is started off with the main character, Hester Prynne, being taken from the town prison to the center of the town with her infant daughter Pearl in her arms. Hester has the letter A above her breast. Hester is being punished for Adultery. Hester was sent to America by her husband, but he never arrived himself due to being lost at sea. As she was waiting for her husband to arrive she had an affair. We do not know who her lover is at the beginning of the story, and due to her crime she is being publicly humiliated and is forced to wear the Letter A. In the crowd we learn that an onlooker is her missing husband, Roger Chillingworth and he plans on getting revenge. No one knows who he is except Hester, and she is sworn to secrecy. As years pass, Hester works as a seamstress to support herself and Pearl. They live away from everyone else, and are isolated. The community tries to take Pearl away from Hester but luckily they don't with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, a young minister. Sadly, Arthur is facing some health issues and gets some extra help from Chillingworth who decides to stay with him for some round the clock help. Soon after Chillingworth starts to suspect that Arthur had something to do with Hester and does some investigating and he finds out its true. Knowing this Chillingworth does anything he can to make Arthur suffer and feel bad. Hester recognizes this and meets with Dimmesdale in the forest because she senses that Chillingworth knows she is going to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale. The lovers decide to flee to Europe so they can get away and be a family, but they soon find out that Chillingworth knows of their plan and booked to be on the ship also. After Dimmesdale's sermon he sees Hester and Pearl in the town. From their he confesses to everyone and shows everyone the scarlet letter on his flesh. He drops and dies. About a year later Chillingworth dies and Hester and Pearl leave Boston. When Hester dies she is buried next to Dimmesdale both sharing a tombstone that read the letter A.


Discussion Questions
1. Hester Prynne has to wear the letter A on her knowing that everyone can see it and judge her. How would you feel if you had to go through a similar situation. How would it effect you both physically and mentally? Explain.

2. Chilingworth tires to get revenge on Dimmesdale throughout the story. Do you feel if someone did something hurtful to you its ok to get revenge? Explain.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner is the story of the journey to fulfill a mother and wife’s wish: to be buried next to her father in her home town. Faulkner wrote the story of the Bundren family in the perspective of multiple characters, from neighbors to family members to even the dead mother herself. It is a difficult read due to the fact that it is not a typical narrative; it is written in stream of consciousness writing. This simply means the characters are literally speaking their mind, leaving no thought unaccounted for. As the family takes the journey to bury Addie, each character’s reaction to her death is addressed. Her children, Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell, Vardaman, and Jewel, as well as her husband, Anse, react differently to her death.
Anse was always a self-centered, lazy husband. He even claims he cannot sweat because if he does, he will die. This prevents him from doing any labor, especially in the sun. When Addie learned of her second pregnancy with Darl, she asked Anse to take her to Jefferson, her home town, to be buried with her father once she died. This was one of the only things he ever did for his wife.
Jewel is the driving force behind the trip. His mother loved him a lot, even though he is an illegitimate child. Jewel loves Addie and speaks his love for his mother through actions. He seems to have a lot of trouble with Darl as a reaction to his mother’s death.
Darl, on the other hand, seems to have gotten no love from his mother. He also believes that he doesn’t truly exist. He reasons that Jewel exists and they have the same mother; therefore, he must exist as well. He spends a lot of the trip trying to get into Jewel’s mind because, if he succeeds, he must then exist since Jewel does. He bothers Jewel a lot and is basically the saboteur of the trip.
Dewey Dell must cope with now being the only girl in the family of five boys. On top of this, she also struggles with being pregnant at the age of seventeen. She does her best to hide it from her family and tries to get an abortion on two occasions when they get into town. Cash, the oldest, seems to throw himself into his work due to his mother’s death. He does a lot of carpentry, including building Addie’s coffin. Vardaman, the youngest by many years, really doesn’t understand much of what is going on. One day, he sees a dead fish and therefore deduces that his “…mother is a fish” (84). Also, because he is so young, he believes there should be holes in his mother’s coffin so she can breathe.
The Bundren family struggles over the course of the ten day trip to Jefferson to bury Addie. They stay overnight at friends’ houses and even get aggravated with each other. They lose their mules to drowning and Jewel sells his beloved horse to obtain more mules. By the end of the novel, they reach Jefferson and I saw no indication of the burial of Addie. The book ends with Anse leaving his family and coming back with a new wife as well as new teeth for himself.

Questions:
1) Everyone in the Bundren family reacts differently to Addie’s death. How would you feel/react if one of your parents, or a loved one, passed away? How would this differ from your sibling’s, or friend’s, reactions?
2) Brothers Darl and Jewel have a lot of tension between them due to how their mother views them. Do you have any tension with your siblings or friends that is difficult to deal with?
3) Dewey Dell is pregnant at the age of seventeen and doesn’t know what to do. She tries to hide this from her family and deal with it on her own. Have you ever had a problem that was difficult for you to deal with on your own? What did you do?

All the Pretty Horses

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy takes the reader on a the journey of John Grady Cole and his friend Lacey Rawlins. John Grady Cole is a sixteen year old boy who leaves his hometown in Texas when his grandfather dies. Since Cole's parents are already split up and his mother works out of town pursuing a theater career, Cole feels there is no longer a reason for him to stay. Rawlins and Cole ride their horses south into Mexico. On their way down, they are joined by another boy, Jimmy Blevins who is a fourteen year old sharpshooter. The boys end up finding a job on a ranch in Mexico and stay for some time. Cole ends up falling in love with the daughter of the ranch owner, Alejandra. The boys face many challenges on their journey. Cole and Rawlins saw Jimmy Blevins murdered by a corrupt Mexican official. Cole and Rawlins also ended up spending a chunk of time in Mexican prison. While in prison, Cole was forced to kill someone in self defense. On top of those experiences, the boys had to face bandits and bad desert weather. Luckily, the boys are mature for their age and make it back to Texas in one piece.

1) In the novel, Cole is sent to prison and finds himself in a situation where he must kill another inmate in order to save himself. If you were in a similar situation where you had no other choice but to kill or be killed would you be able to kill another person? If you did, how do you think you would cope with the weight of murder on your mind?

2) Cole experienced quite a bit on his trip through Mexico. His experiences and the situations he was put in made him transform from a teenage boy into a young man. If you were in Cole's shoes and had seen death, prison, found love, and did it all on your own, how do you think it would change you?

The HItchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This story, written by Douglas Adams, begins with a man named Arthur Dent. His house is scheduled for demolition to make a path for a bypass. On on particular day he wakes up and sees bulldozers in his yard preparing to demolish his house. While he is dealing with that situation his friend, Ford, appears and tells him that the world is about to be destroyed. Soon after, Arthur finds himself on a spaceship with Ford. Ford explains that the world has been destroyed to make way for an interstellar bypass. Ford then puts a yellow Babel fish Arthurs ear so that he can understand all the different languages. As the leave the ship, they are picked up by Zaphod and Trillian. Zaphod is the president of the Galaxy and he kidnapped himself and stole a space ship. He is on a quest to find Magrathea, a planet that has a computer designed to answer the ultimate question. The majority of the novel follows the group as they travel around trying to find Magrathea. When they finally reach the computer it does not have the answer they are looking for. It instead tells them the answer to life is "42" and that it first needed a question to answer. It had created another computer, smarter than itself to find the question. The computer that it had created was Earth. But Earth had been recently destroyed so the question was lost.

What do you think Adams was trying to say about earth by making it a computer searching for the "ultimate question"?

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman is the story of Willy Loman a business man in New York City. Even though he is 63, Willy must work every day making little money to support his family. The story begins on a night when Willy returns to Brooklyn after a failed business trip to Boston. Willy now old has a hard time traveling far distances for his job and it is wearing on him. Willy who has worked at the company for almost his whole life hopes that his boss Howard will take pity on him and give him a job in New York. Willy’s sons Biff and Happy are home for a visit causing Willy much grief. Biff who Willy invested all his hope in has failed to live up to his father’s expectations. Throughout the story Willy relives the past through a series of day dreams or hallucinations; this is the first clue to readers get that Willy is not mentally stable. Willy cannot except the future and is stuck reliving memories of the past. Willy is never more than a meagerly successful salesman and this kills Willy. Willy’s dream is to become a rich and successful salesman and he has the same dreams for his sons. He and his sons are both unsuccessful so far but Willy believes he is always on the edge of a break through. Willy cannot understand how Biff became a failure after being a high school football star with potential. In his childhood Willy saw Bif as a sucess but now he was a lazy failure. Willy wanted Biff to become like his older brother Ben who Willy frequently day dreams about throughout the story. Ben became rich at a young age and became the envy of Willy. Biff and Willy constantly fight and Biff seems to care little for his father. After one of their fights Linda tells Happy and Biff that she is worried about their father. She says he now talk to himself a great deal and has attempted to commit suicide. The boys become worried and try to and a way to cheer up their father. One day Happy comes up with the idea that him and Biff go into work together in the sporting goods business. Happy tells Biff to ask his employer in high school Bill Oliver for a business loan. Willy seems excited by the idea and immediately begins giving Biff all the tips he can think of. Willy believe things are looking up and when he wakes up the next morning Linda tells him the boys want to take him out to dinner that night. Excited, Willy announces that he is going to ask Howard Wagner give him a New York job. Willy goes to work and asks Howard for the job but Howard declines. Even though he has worked there for almost his whole life and was good friend with Howard’s father, Howard declines and ends up firing Willy. Willy is crushed and doesn’t know what to do so he decides to visit his neighbors son Bernard who was about Biffs age and hung around with him as a child. Bernard is now the successful business man Willy wished Biff would become. He asks Bernard why Biff turn out to be such a failure. Bernard asks Willy what happened in Boston that made Biff decide not to go to summer school. The audience sees in one of Willy flashbacks when Biff caught Willy with a mistress in Boston. Before the incident Biff wanted to go to summer school and still play football in college but after he didn’t care about anything anymore. Biff finally realized the problems with his father’s ideals and didn’t want anything to do with them. In the back of his mind Willy fells responsible for ruining Biffs life and it haunts him daily. Willy leaves Bernard’s office and heads to the restaurant looking for a little good news. Happy and Biff arrive at the restaurant before their father and Biff tells Happy that Bill Oliver didn’t even remember him. Upset at his father’s unrelenting misconception that he, Biff, was a salesman for Oliver, Biff plans to relieve Willy of his illusions. Willy enters, and Biff tries gently, at first, to tell him what happened at Oliver’s office. Willy blurts out that he was fired. Stunned, Biff again tries to let Willy down easily. Happy cuts in with remarks suggesting Biffs’ success, and Willy eagerly awaits the good news. Biff gets mad when he tries to tell his father the truth but he won’t listen. Willy goes to the bathroom and Happy starts flirting with some girls and leaves with them. Biff gets mad and storms after them leaving Willy alone in the restaurant. When the boys arrive home later that night Linda is furious at them for leaving their father. She tells them to stay away from their father who seems to be going crazy. Biff and Willy have a touching conversation where Biff expresses his love for his father. After this Willy is filled again with hope for his son’s success. Willy decides to himself the only way he can help his son is to kill himself so his son will receive the insurance money. Willy then gets in his car and commits suicide. Barely anyone show up to Willy funeral leaving his family to greave over his unfortunate death. Biff says he feels sorry that his father had the wrong dreams and never knew himself.
1) Do you think it is does more harm then good to chase after dreams that you can never seem to achieve?
2) Do you think it dangerous to force your ideals on others, trying to shape them to become like you.

Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville, starts out on land with the narrator Ishmael. He decides to go whaling to get away from his depressing thoughts; he says the sea always helps him. At an inn, he is asked to share a room with Queequeg, a savage covered in tattoos. This makes him uneasy at first, but he soon finds that he is a good friend. Queequeg is a kind, generous man, even if he does have "savage" ways. They board the same whaling vessel, the Pequod. The captain of this ship is Ahab. Ahab, while doing his job, has another motive to go whaling. He hopes to catch the white whale; it had taken off his leg a while back, and he wanted revenge. For a long time no whales are spotted at all. On the first hunt Pip, a cabin boy, goes crazy after a harrowing experience. He becomes a prophetic, symbolic character. Soon, Queequeg falls ill and expects to do. He orders a coffin made for himself, but he makes an amazing recovery and the coffin is not needed. Ahab becomes crazy about finding the white whale and killing it. To him, it represents all evil in the universe that he must destroy. Even after being warned by other ship captains, he refuses to forget about his vengeance. When they encounter the whale, it ends in disaster. Ahab insists on pursuing the whale as it flees. This turns out to be a terrible mistake, and Ahab does not think clearly about what is best for all the crew members. He is described as a monomaniac throughout the novel. In the end, Ahab leaps out of the boat to attack the whale. He uses a special harpoon that was made to be cruelly painful for the whale, but it ends up being to no avail. Ahab gets caught and tangled in the ropes while on the whale's back. The white whale drowns the caught captain and destroys the ship. Ishmael ends up being the only survivor of the disastor; he uses the coffin as a lifeboat. This is an ironic ending; the thing that is meant for the dead becomes a tool for survival.

1. Ahab dies as a result of his battle/revenge against the whale. This symbolizes Melville's belief in man's insignificance in the unverse and that he will inevitably be defeated by it. Is man significant? Does one human's will mean anything?

2. At first glance, Queequeg seems like a foreboding man. He has dark skin and is covered in tattoos. During the time this novel was written, the Civil War was taking place; slavery was soon to be abolished. What is significant about Ishmael's respect for Queequeg?

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying is a novel about the Bundren family traveling through Mississippi to fulfill their mother and wife’s last request. The novel is set up as The Poisionwood Bible was, each character telling their side of the story. As I Lay Dying begins with the Bundren family preparing for Addie’s death. When Mrs. Bundren says her last request is to be buried across the Mississippi country side in Jefferson, the family accepts her request. As they travel across towns, each family member shares their part of the story, how they feel about their mother’s death, and the difficulties they are going through. As the journey continues, more tension grows between family members. Darl, one of the sons, constantly talks about his “obsession” with his brother Jewel and how Jewel was the favorite child. Also, the only alive female speaker in the book Dewey Dell, the daughter is pregnant and wants an abortion. The father Anse has problems with his family and the fact that Addie had an affair, and although Addie is dead she too has several chapter were she is talking about her life before when things were good. Once the family reaches Jefferson, they bury Addie. Once Addie’s last request was accomplished the story ends with Mr. Bundren, Anse, approaching the children with shocking news of their new mother. He states, “Meet Mrs. Bundren.”

1. Mr. Bundren never forgot about the affair Addie had, and Dewey Dell was the only female chacter in the story who refused to do chores. Do you think Mr. Bundren got a new wife for revenge on Addie for having an affair, or do you believe that Mr. Bundren thought the family needed a mother to take care of the children and housework?
2. If someone that hurt you in your life had a dying request would you fulfill it even though you never forgave them? Why or why not?

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities takes place in London and Paris and takes place before and after the French Revolution. The first book takes place in 1775. Jarvis Lorry, an employee of Tellson's Bank, is travelling from England to France to bring Dr. Alexandre Manette to London. He meets 17 year old Lucie Manette and reveals to her that her father, Dr. Manette, is not dead, as she had been told; instead, he was a prisoner in the Bastille for 18 years. They travel to meet him where Monsieur Defarge, who was once his servant, is taking care of him. At first he does not recognize his daughter, but then realizes it is her. Five years later they are both witnessed to a trial accusing Charles Darnay for being a spy. He was acquitted when a witness said he would be able to recognize Darnay anywhere cannot tell him apart from a person present in court, Sydney Carton, who looks almost identical to him. In Paris, Marquis St. Evemionde, Darnay's Uncle, runs over and kills a little boy, and throws a coin to the father to compensate for his loss. Darnay meets with his uncle and is disgusted with the family name tells him he is keeeeping the name Darnay to not be associated with them. Darnay gets Dr. Manette's persmission to marry Lucie, but Cartson confesses his love to Lucie as well. Darnay is imprisoned for emigrating and is tried a year and three months later. Madame Defarge has charges against him and reveals who he truely is. She reveals that Darnay's father and uncle imprisoned Dr. Manette because he was going to reaveal their secret. Darnay's Uncle had become infatuated with a girl, whom he kidnapped and raped, then killed her husband. Before he dies, the brother of the raped peasant had hidden the last member of the family, his younger sister. Darnay is sentenced to death. Carton wanders into the Defarge's wine shop, where he overhears Madame Defarge talking about her plans to have the rest of the Darnay family condemned; Lucie and her daughter. He discovers that Madame Defarge is the surviving sister of the peasant family. Cartson visits Darnay in prison the next day and drugs him. He stitches clothes with Darnay and has decided to be executed in his place. Darnay's family and Lorry flee to Paris and France. The novel concludes with the guillotining of Sydney Carton.

1. Would you rather grow up thinking that your father is dead or know that he is in prison and you will probably never get a chance to see him?

2. Carton dies in place of Darnay because of his love for Lucie, if you had the chance would die in place of someone to help the one you love or die in place of the one you love?

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange, written by Anthony Burgess, takes place in a futuristic city governed by a repressive, totalitarian super-State. In this society, ordinary citizens have fallen into a stupor of compliance, blind to the angsty youth they are creating. The protagonist of the story is Alex, a fifteen-year-old boy who narrates in a teenage slang called nadsat. Alex leads a small gang of teenage criminals, Dim, Pete, and Georgie, through the streets, robbing, beating men, and raping women.

Alex begins his narrative from the Korova, a local bar that laces milk with drugs, where the boys sit around drinking. When Alex and his gang leave the bar, they go on a crime spree that involves mugging, robbery, a gang fight, auto theft, breaking and entering, and rape. The boys travel to the countryside with their stolen car, break into a cottage and beat up the man inside before raping his wife while making him watch. They then head back to the Korova, there, the team gets into quite a row and Alex is chained there and left for the police.

Alex is sentenced to fourteen years in prison. At first, prison is difficult for him. The guards are merciless and oppressive, and several of the other prisoners want to rape him. After a few years, though, prison life becomes easier. He befriends the prison chaplain, who notices Alex’s interest in the Bible. The chaplain lets Alex read in the chapel while listening to classical music, and Alex pores over the Old Testament, delighting in the sex, drinking, and fighting he finds in its pages.

One day, after fighting with and killing a cellmate, Alex is selected as the first candidate for an experimental treatment called Ludovico’s Technique, a form of brainwashing that incorporates associative learning. After being injected with a substance that makes him dreadfully sick, the doctors force Alex to watch exceedingly violent movies. In this way, Alex comes to associate violence with the nausea and headaches he experiences from the shot. The process takes two weeks to complete, after which the mere thought of violence has the power to make Alex ill. As an unintended consequence of the treatment, Alex can no longer enjoy classical music, which he has always associated with violence. This side effect doesn’t bother the State, which considers Alex’s successful treatment a victory for law and order and plans to implement it on a large scale.

After two years in prison, Alex is released, a harmless human being incapable of vicious acts. Soon, however, Alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his earlier victims begin to take revenge on him. His old friend Dim and an old enemy named Billyboy are both police officers now, and they take the opportunity to settle old scores. They drive him to a field in the country, beat him, and leave him in the rain. Looking for charity, Alex wanders to a nearby cottage and knocks on the door, begging for help. The man living there lets him in and gives him food and a room for the night. Alex recognizes him from two years ago as the man whose wife he raped, but the man does not recognize Alex, who wore a mask that night. Alex learns later in the night that the man’s wife died of shock shortly after being raped.

This man, F. Alexander, is a political dissident. When he hears Alex’s story, he thinks he can use Alex to incite public outrage against the State. He and three of his colleagues develop a plan for Alex to make several public appearances. Alex, however, is tired of being exploited for other people’s schemes. He berates the men in nadsat, which arouses the suspicion of F. Alexander, who still remembers the strange language spoken by the teenagers who raped his wife. Based on F. Alexander’s suspicion, the men change their plans. They lock Alex in an apartment and blast classical music through the wall, hoping to drive Alex to suicide so they can blame the government.
Alex does, in fact, hurl himself out of an attic window, but the fall doesn’t kill him. While he lies in the hospital, unconscious, a political struggle ensues, but the current administration survives. State doctors undo Ludovico’s Technique and restore Alex’s old vicious self in exchange for Alex’s endorsement. Back to normal, Alex assembles a new gang and engages in the same behavior as he did before prison, but he soon begins to tire of a life of violence. After running into his old friend Pete, who is now married and living a normal life, Alex decides that such a life is what he wants for himself. His final thoughts are of his future son.

What theme or themes do you believe Burgess was trying to convey?

Do you think the doctors "fixing" Alex was morally right, even if he no longer was violent?

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in the theocratic-totalitarian state that used to be the United States. Handmaids are women that are assigned to live with a commander and his wife. The Handmaids are forced to carry out two jobs: shopping and having meaningless sex with the commanders. After all of the chemical spills in the United States, fertility rates decreased, so handmaids are only used for having children. If they do not have children, then they are sent away to either clean up the chemical spills or be killed. Handmaid’s names consist of the word “of” followed by the commander’s name to show who each handmaid belongs to. The main character’s name is Offred- Of Fred.

Before the theocratic-militaristic group took over the United States, Offred lived a normal life. She had a relationship with a previously married man named Luke, and together they had a kid. Offred often remembers her mom and best friend, Moira, as being strong and independent women. Her mom was a single mom and feminist activist, while Moira was an independent lesbian woman. About four years after Luke and Offred's marriage, pollution and chemical spills start to lower fertility rates. Around this time, the military group assassinated the President and all of congress, and declared that the constitution would be suspended temporarily while they tried to reorganize and “fix” the government. This new government slowly started to take more and more rights away from women, like not allowing women to have access to their own money or hold jobs. Offred and Luke decide to quietly run away to Canada with their daughter, but right before the border, they are caught and separated. Offred has not seen Luke or her child since then but often thinks about them in her new life.

After Offred was captured, she was sent to the Red-Center to be taught all of Gilead’s views on how women should live their lives and how they should interact with men. Shortly after she is taken to the Red-Center, her friend Moira is brought in. Moira can’t stand being confined and told what to do so she escapes by attacking one of the women in charge (one of the Aunts), and taking her clothes so no one will recognize her as she walked out the front door. After her time at the Red-Center, Offred is sent to live with the commander and his wife Serena Joy. Serena doesn’t like Offred because she knows she will have to have sex with her husband. Although Offred is uncomfortable in her new life, she knows she must adapt to survive. She is allowed out of the house once a week to go on short shopping trips with her shopping partner Ofglen, and no matter what the weather is like, the handmaids must wear long red dresses that covers the entire body and a white hat that covers the face. Offred and Ofglen are not allowed to talk to each other on their trips except for using the “proper” pre-approved greetings. One day, Offred gets a mysterious message from the commander’s chauffeur Nick. Nick tells her that the commander wants to have a secret meeting with Offred. Offred knows how dangerous this is, because if she gets caught, she could be sent away to the colonies and work as an “Unwoman” and clean up the chemical spills. Despite this possibility, Offred goes to meet with the commander, and when she gets to his office, he asks her to play Scrabble with him. Even playing Scrabble is against the law because women are not even allowed to read. After she leaves, he asks her to kiss him and she does. Once every week, Offred goes to the commander’s office to play Scrabble with him and then gives him a kiss at the end of each night.

One day, Serena Joy asks Offred to have sex with Nick because she thinks the commander is infertile. She tells Offred to pretend that the baby is the commander’s child. Offred agrees to have sex with Nick later that night. That night, Offred is summoned to the commander’s office, where he asks Offred to go to an underground strip club with him. When the two get to the club, Offred sees Moira working there. Moira tells her that the club is where the commanders go after work to have sex with the women working there. Offred ends up going into a room with the commander at the club and having sex with him. When Offred gets home she meets with Nick and they also have sex. Nick and Offred agree to meet whenever they can to have sex, but Serena catches the two together and I won't reveal the end of the story so anyone who wants to read the book can. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense stories because little bits of the story are given at a time so you have to piece it together yourself.

1. Why do you think the author chose to make Gilead in the future, and do you think it's possible that Gilead could ever really happen in the United States?

2. How would you feel if you were forced to live this kind of life (being forced to have sex with men you didn't know and having no real freedoms)?

3. Do you think it's possible to make a "perfect society"?

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

In Charles Dickens Oliver Twist, Oliver is a boy raised in an orphanage in the Victorian age with no known background at all. As he grows up he is soon taken to a work factory but is soon tried to be sold into another profession after a outrage at a factory during a meal when he says, " Please sir, I want some more" (Dickens 12). Some of the people that show up to take him off his hands is a chimney sweeper but knowing of how chimney sweepers were back then, Oliver is scared to death and pleads to stay. However he is soon taken by a coffin maker in which he founds out his new family resents and hates him. He runs away eventually traveling towards London where he meets The Artful Dodger (aka Jack Dawkins). Artful introduces Oliver to Fagin's also called The Jew who turns young parent less children into thieves and robbers for his own personal greed. Outraged by the moral standards of Fagin's and the actions of the children during a day when Jack robs a man, Oliver is soon wrongfully accused as the theif. As his dilemma continues Mr. Brownlow who accused him takes him in due to a fever and Oliver has never known such kindness to him before seeing as everyone treats him like dirt due to him being an orphan. One day Oliver is asked to take books back to the store and is trusted with this task even though Mr. Brownlow's friend warns him he wont come back. Oliver on his way is soon captured by Fagin's and Sikes leaving Mr. Brownlow who took him in betrayed thinking Oliver left him. As Oliver is Captured he wonders if he will ever see Mr. Brownlow again.

1.If you did not know your own background would you try to find out what it was or would you leave it be.

2. Based on Society back then how were children treated back then and how is it different to how society treats them today.

"Falconer" by John Cheever

The story begins with a man by the name of Ezekiel Farragut who has been sent to Falconer, a one hundred year old prison for the murder of his brother. He is (or at least used to be) a college professor but nothing more then a criminal with no name, only a prison number and a small 8x8 foot cell he must share. The book continues with the day to day life in the prison where the prisoners are treated like animals with injustice and violence. The story also tells of Ezekiel's married life before his sentencing, which was stressed, unfaithful and mentally violent which also leads to the main theme i have come to accept for this book, when people are treated like animals, they will eventually become animals. In prison, Ezekiel lied, cheated, and acted very primal as a result of his surroundings while his social life as well has his love life out of prison forced built up anxiety and esteem issues that lead to the act of him killing his brother with a fire poker over just a disagreement. The book ends with Ezekiel successfully escaping from the prison in a body bag that was intended for his recently deceased cell mate.

1- Do you believe that if people are treated like animals, they will eventually let their surroundings be all they know?

2- Can you relate this to any story that you have heard or experienced first hand?

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut takes place during the WW2 period and a few years after. Billy Prilgrim is a soldier in the war and witnesses te devastating bombing massacre of Dresden, a "safe city" that only housed POWs(Prisoners of War) and civilians, by the U.S. Slaughterhouse 5 is a war satire and a psychological thriller as well. Chalk full of flashbacks, extraterrestrial abductions, death, satire, death, mysteries, death, millions of symbols, and more death. Billy 'travels' to Tralfamadore, a planet where these alien type creatures see everything at once, and only focus on the good things, and ignore the bad. Tralfamadore symbolizes a government that does terrible things like start wars, impose many taxes, and take away rights, that tells its' citizens not to focus on the bad things the government might do, but try to find happiness in the things that they do provide. Billy falls infatuated with that ideal and tries to spread the word of the Tralfamadorians to everyone else. Obviously, others react by calling him crazy and by pointing fingers and laughing. Billy eventually gets assassinated by Paul Lorrenzo, another soldier in the war who was a car thief and that committed many crimes and was just an all around bad person. Most of the soldiers Billy encounters in the war seem to take pride in war. They take pride in looting from who they have killed, they take pride in killing many enemy soldiers, and they also take pride in supporting their country, which in fact sent them there in the first place and took them away from their peaceful lives. Many of the war veterans have trouble coming back into society without massive violence. Some go crazy, and others commit murders and get thrown into jail. Billy just uses 'time travel' to escape the bad, aka WW2, and replaces his current situations with happy ones. Whatever happens, though, bad things always seem to happen to Billy, and he keeps on ignoring them. Billy only follows what the Tralfamorians have taught him when they abducted him and put him in a display on their planet so that he could be observed. Billy also takes advice from his favorite author, Killgore Trout. Trout's books are about propaganda and the cruel effects of what can happen if others follow what the government tells them to do and do not keep their own beliefs. The only place to find Trout's books are in the back corners of pornography shops. This shows that they are just tossed aside for the needs of those who are out of the war. Pornography is one of the many escapes to the fictional world where people can follow their dreams instead of following their heads.

1. If you knew that your government was unfair to you, would you stand up and say something? What problems might you encounter with going against everyone else? Why would you want to start problems instead of leaving it alone/Why would you want to leave it alone and not try to help your country grow and realize what's wrong?

2. What does war really do for people? Why does war happen? What can be done to prevent war and ensure that things like this don't happen? If you had gone to war and came back with a psychological trauma or disease, how would that affect you and would you try to be like you were before? In other words, would you try to hold the same job, talk to the same people, be as outgoing as you were etc, even with your disability?

The Handmaid's Tale

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the United States of America. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples that have trouble conceiving. Offred serves the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy. Offred is not the narrator's real name. Handmaid names consist of the word "of" followed by the name of the Handmaid's Commander. Every month, Offred must have impersonal, wordless sex with the Commander while Serena sits behind her holding her hands. Offred's freedom, like the freedom of all women, is completely restricted. She can leave the house only on shopping trips, the door to her room cannot be completely shut, reading is forbidden, and the Eyes, Gilead's secret police force, watch her every public move. As Offred tells the story of her daily life, she often slips into flashbacks, that tell the events leading up to the beginning of the novel. Before Gilead, Offred married a man named Luke, and they had a daughter together. She often talked about her mother, who was a single mother and a feminist activist, and her best friend Moira, who was very independent. The founders of Gilead began their rise to power in a time when pollution and chemical spills led to declining fertility rates. Using the military, they assassinated the president and the members of Congress. They claimed they were taking power temporarily. They soon suspended the Constitution, and cracked down on women's rights, forbidding women to hold property, have jobs, and even have their own money. Offred and Luke took their daughter and attempted to flee accross the boarder into Canada, but they were caught and separated from one another, and Offred hasn't seen them since. After her capture, Offred was sent to the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, called the Red Center by the Handmaids. At the center, women were prepared for becoming Handmaids. Aunt Lydia supervised the women, giving speeches stressing Gilead's beliefs that women should be subservient to mean and solely concerned with bearing children. Moria is brought to the Red Center, but she escapes, and Offred does not know what becomes of her. Once assigned to the Commanders house, Offred's life settles into a restictive routine. She takes shopping trips with Ofglen, another Handmaid, and they visit the Wall outside what used to be Harvard University, where the bodies of rebels hang. She must visit the doctor frequently to be checked for disease and other complications, and she must endure the "Ceremony" every month. One day when she is visiting the doctor, he offers to have sex with her to get her pregnant, suggesting that her Commander is probably infertile. She refuses, because the doctor makes her uneasy, and his proposition is too risky. After a Ceremony, the Commander sends his gardener and chauffer, Nick, to ask Offred to come see him in his study the following night. She begins visiting him regulary. They play Scrabble (which is forbidden), and he lets her look at old magazines like Vogue. At the end of these secret meetings, he asks her to kiss him. After some time had gone by without Offred becoming pregnant, Serena suggests that Offred should secretly have sex with Nick and pass the child off as the Commander's. Serena promises to bring Offred a picture of her daughter if she sleeps with Nick. The same night that Offred is supposed to sleep with Nick, the Commander secretly takes her out to a club called Jezebel's, where the Commanders mingle with prostitutes. Offred sees Moira working there. The two women meet in a bathroom, and Offred learns that Moira was captured just before she crossed the border. She chose life in Jezebel's over being sent to the Colonies, where most political prisoners and dangerous people are sent. After that night at Jezebel's Offred says that she never sees Moira again. Soon after Offred returns from Jezebel's, late at night, Serena arrives and tells Offred to go to Nick's room. Offred and Nick have sex. Soon they begin to sleep together frequently, without anyone's knowledge. One day, during one of their shopping trips, Ofglen reveals to Offred that she is a member of "Mayday," an underground organization dedicated to overthrowing Gilead. Offred becomes so caught up in her affair with Nick that she ignores Ofglen's requests that she gather information from the Commander for Mayday. Soon after this, Offred goes out shopping, and a new Ofglen meets her. This new woman is not part of Mayday, and she tells Offred that the old Ofglen hung herself when she saw the Eyes coming for her. At home, Serena has found out about Offred's trip to Jezebel's, and she sends her to her room, promising punishment. What will happen to Offred? You'll have to read to find out the ending. =]

1) The Republic of Gilead is a totalitarian and theocratic state that replaced the United States of America and it's democracy. Do you think this could ever happen in real life?

2) Handmaids lived a very unhappy life. Many commited suicide or tried to escape. Some just went along with it. What would you do if you were in Offred's situation? Would you commit suicide, try to escape, join Mayday, or just go along with it?

1984 by George Orwell

Written in 1949, the novel takes place in 1984 and presents an imaginary future. The state is called Oceania and is ruled by The Party, who control every aspect of life, including people's thoughts. Winston Smith is a 39 year old man living in London who secretly hates The Party, and wants to rebel against Big Brother, the dictator. He starts keeping a diary of his rebellious thoughts, knowing that he will soon be caught by the Thought Police and most likely killed. Winston then becomes fascinated by "proles", or the lowest social class of Ocieania who aren't under 24 hour surveillance. He befriends a prole shop owner, Mr. Charrington, who reminisces about life before Big Brother. He eventually starts a relationship with a girl at work when she secretly slips him a note saying "I love you". Winston and Julia sneak around, meeting in discreet places such as a clearing in the woods, and begin to rent the room above Mr. Charrington's shop as a private place for the two of them. O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, finds an excuse to give Winston and Julia his home address and meet with them. He eventually enlists them in the Brotherhood, a secret organization dedicated to fight Big Brother. Winston is thrilled that he is not alone and goes to the room above Mr. Charrington's shop where he gets arrested by the Thought Police and discovers Mr. Charrington is really a Thought Police agent. He is taken to the Ministry of Love where he learns O'Brien is an orthodox government agent and deliberately tricked him. O'Brien tortures and brainwashes him until he fully believes in the Party and its ideals. In the end, Winston has submitted completely and all feelings are destroyed, including the ones he had for Julia.

1. Do you think there are any similarites with our society and the society in the novel?

2. Do you think that anything or anybody can really control people's thoughts or beliefs?

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary is a novel set in the mid 1800's in France. It focuses on Emma Bovary's unhappy life. The novel begins with Charles Bovary going to school for the first time. He does not fit in with the other children and is not anything special. He blends into the backround and gets his work done but not in an extraordinary way just average. He goes to school to become a doctor at his parent's urging and passes the test late after failing it once and only passes the second time because his mother helps him. He goes on to marry Heloise because she is supposed to have money but she ends up with nothing and he lives a few unhappy years with her. Monsieur Bovary then begins to treat Roualt, an old farmer, and falls in love with his daughter, Emma. He does not act on it beyond visiting often. His wife begins to suspect him and Mrs Bovary Sr then visits with the news that Heloise has no money and Heloise has a stroke and dies.

After the funeral, Charles begins to court Emma and they eventually marry. They have a huge, lavish wedding, and as soon as they are married and settling in to their new lives Emma begins to regret her decision. She soon realizes Charles is only an ordinary middle class frenchman and begins to resent him for it. She ignores her duties as his wife and falls into a depression. Charles decides she needs new surroundings to help her and they decide to move to another small town close by. Soon before they move Emma discovers she is pregnant. She is hoping for a boy because she wants a strong child who can fend for himself unlike her apathetic husband. She has the baby after they move and it ends up being a girl, who they name Berthe. The name is suggested by their neighbor and new friend Homais. Another person they meet in their new home is Leon. The more time they spend with Homais and Leon the more it is apparent that he has feelings for Emma. She sees him as an escape from her average life and begins to fantasize about how happy she would be with him but neither of them act on it. Soon Leon realizes he is being suffocated by being so close to her but not being able to love her and he moves to Paris.

Next Emma meets Rodolphe, who quickly sweeps her off her feet. He takes her riding in the woods and writes her love letters. Charles is completely oblivious to the affair and even buys Emma a horse and encourages her to ride with Rodolphe. Her meetings with him become weekly and soon begin to suffocate Rodolphe. Meanwhile her husband tries to perform a surgery to fix a local's club foot and fails miserably and ends up taking the man's whole leg off. This makes Emma hate him even more and she tries to get Rodolophe to run away with her. The night before they are supposed to leave he writes her a letter explaining why he can't. He claims she would not be happy and he doesn't deserve to take her from her husband when in reality he doesn't love her enough. Throughout this whole time Emma has been decorating the house as if she is royalty and buying clothes to impress Rodolphe and has built up a debt with the shopkeeper. The heartbreak of Rodolphe and stress of living with Charles becomes too much and she lays in bed for a month. Charles spends the whole time taking care of her and believes her to be seriously ill. He decides that she needs a distraction and takes her to the opera in Paris.

While at the opera they run into Leon who takes them out to dinner. He convinces her to stay in Paris one day and let Charles return alone. While she is there alone Leon professes his love for her and they begin their affair. She tells Charles that she is taking weekly piano lessons in the city and goes to meet up with Leon. The frequent trips and hotel push her further into debt. After a few months Leon begins to be suffocated by her consuming love and decides he wants to be married with a legitimate relationship and breaks it off with Emma. Soon after this Emma is required to pay off her debts. If she does not pay them in 24 hours she will be required to give her furniture and all her belongings to her debtors. Emma begs everyone she knows for a loan including Leon and Rodolphe. They both seem to want to help but do not have the money. Emma believes that they are saying no because they do not love her and falls into a delirium and ends up injesting arsenic.

She goes home and lays down to sleep and the poison begins to take affect. Charles begins to panic and calls Homais who gives her a drug to make her vomit. He claims that if she empties her stomach the arsenic will be gone but the drug only makes her worse. She soon dies and Charles becomes a mad man who does nothing but wallow in his grief. He refuses to sell anything of hers and falls into such debt that he cannot clothe his own child and ends up killing himself. This leaves the daughter who lives with a poor aunt and works in a cotton mill.

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you think this could have been prevented?

2. What would make you act the way Emma did?

3. Do you think Emma was selfish or clinically depressed?

4. What is the purpose of this story?

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, is a novel about a young troubled boy named Oliver Twist. After Oliver was born in a warehouse in the 1830's, his mother dies shortly after on the streets. Because of this, Oliver is sent to a poor orphanage until the age of nine. He struggled greatly with being bullied by the other orphans, and eventually gets kicked out of the orphanage because the bullies pushed him to ask for more food from the "parish beadle," Mr. Bumble. Oliver struggled to stay in a stable, safe home, until a man named Fagin took him in. He sheltered many young boys that helped him pick-pocket random people on the streets. Because Oliver was too afraid to run away, he agreed to pick-pocket people for Fagin, along with some other boys. On their first mission, Oliver runs off because he is too afraid to actually steal from another person. A man named Mr. Brownlow, who had been pick-pocketed by some of the boys Oliver was with, took Oliver in and nursed him to safety. This did not last long, because two of Fagin's accomplices captured Oliver and brought him back to Fagin. Then, Oliver was pressured into doing committing burglary and gets shot. At an all time low, Oliver is taken in by the woman who lives in the home, named Mrs. Maylie. Her niece Rose lives there as well. Oliver lives with them for a perfect summer together. It only gets better from there when Oliver discovers a man named Monks is his half-brother. Their wealthy father had an affair with Oliver's mother (Agnes Fleming), so now Oliver gets his share of their family's inheritance money. He also finds out that Mrs. Maylie's daughter, Rose, is his Aunt (His mother's younger sister). Fagin is also hanged for all his wrong-doings. In the end, Mr. Brownlow, who sheltered Oliver earlier in the novel, adopts him and they live happily ever after in the countryside with the Maylie's.

Discussion Questions:

1. Oliver Twist was under a lot of peer pressure his entire life. How does peer pressure appear in our modern society today?

2. How would you react if you found out you had a half-brother or sister you never knew about?

3. Some novels and movies have a happy ending, and some do not. Oliver Twist on the other hand had a very happy ending. Do you think we all have a happy ending in life? Do we have the potential to make happy endings for ourselves? Do you think fate has something to do with it?