Literature Circles

Literature Circles Book Choices – Literary Criticisms from random people!

Ever since its publication in 1951, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has served as a firestorm for controversy and debate. Critics have argued the moral issues raised by the book and the context in which it is presented. Some have argued that Salinger's tale of the human condition is fascinating and enlightening, yet incredibly depressing. The psychological battles of the novel's main character, Holden Caulfield, serve as the basis for critical argument. Caulfield's self-destruction over a period of days forces one to contemplate society's attitude toward the human condition. Salinger's portrayal of Holden, which includes incidents of depression, nervous breakdown, impulsive spending, sexual exploration, vulgarity, and other erratic behavior, have all attributed to the controversial nature of the novel. JD SalingerCatcher in Rye

Alice Walker’s masterpiece, a powerful novel of courage in the face of oppression • Celie has grown up in rural Georgia, navigating a childhood of ceaseless abuse. Not only is she poor and despised by the society around her, she’s badly treated by her family. As a teenager she begins writing letters directly to God in an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear. Her letters span twenty years and record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment through the guiding light of a few strong women and her own implacable will to find harmony with herself and her home. The Color Purple’s deeply inspirational narrative, coupled with Walker’s prodigious talent as a stylist and storyteller, have made the novel a contemporary classic of American letters. Alice WalkerThe Color Purple

In “The Road” a boy and his father lurch across the cold, wretched, wet, corpse-strewn, ashen landscape of a post-apocalyptic world. The imagery is brutal even by Cormac McCarthy’s high standards for despair. This parable is also trenchant and terrifying, written with stripped-down urgency and fueled by the force of a universal nightmare. “The Road” would be pure misery if not for its stunning, savage beauty. Cormac McCarthyThe Road

Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel structured around the two parallel love stories of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff and the young Catherine Linton and HaretonEarnshaw. Catherine and Heathcliff share a love so deep that the two souls seem to have intertwined into one. Even after Catherine Earnshaw's death, she still possesses the twisted heart of Heathcliff while her daughter, young Catherine, must look beyond the prison that holds Haretoncapture and see the true man within. The themes of love and death are carefully entwined throughout the theme of Bronte's novel. The threads of never-ending love are woven throughout "Wuthering Heights". Although twisted, the plot proves that if love is intense and true. Emily BronteWuthering Heights

In 1984, Winston Smith, the protagonist, lives in a world where the government attempts to control the bodies and minds of the civilians. He and Julia, a woman he meets about mid-novel, together hold to the belief that the party can never take away their love for each other, and hatred towards the omnipotent government. Many readers of Orwell's novel are angered by the ending because it shows how easily one can let the government manipulate and control minds which undermines their ability to think for themselves. However, this point is necessary to the work because it is the final contribution to Orwell's message of the dangers of a totalitarianism authority. George Orwell1984

In this Sci-fi futuristic novel (1932), Huxley introduces the idea of the utopian society, achieved through technological advancement in biology and chemistry, such as cloning and the use of controlled substances. In his novel, the government succeeds in attaining stability using extreme forms of control, such as sleep teaching, known as conditioning, antidepressant drugs – soma and a strict social caste system. Aldous HuxleyBrave New World

Jane Austen is one of the great masters of the English language, and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is her great masterpiece, a sharp and witty comedy of manners played out in early 19th Century English society, a world in which men held virtually all the power and women were required to negotiate mine-fields of social status, respectability, wealth, love, and sex in order to marry both to their own liking and to the advantage of their family. And such is particularly the case of the Bennetts, a family of daughters whose father's estate is entailed to a distant relative, for upon Mr. Bennett's death they will lose home, land, income, everything. But are the Bennett daughters up to playing a winning hand in this high-stakes matrimonial game without forfeiting their own personal integrity? Jane AustenPride and Prejudice

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie Smith • One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature. Zora Neal HurstonTheir Eyes Were Watching God

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