Honors American Literature Reading List
2010-2011
Required Readings:
James, Henry Washington Square
Glaspell, Susan Trifles
Suggested Reading:
Cooper, James Fenimore Last of the Mohicans
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
The House of Seven Gables
James, Henry Portrait of a Lady
Faulkner, William Light in August
The Sound and the Fury
Hemingway, Ernest For Whom the Bell Tolls
A Farewell to Arms
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt
Main Street
Cather, Willa My Antonia
Steinbeck, John Of Mice and Men
The Grapes of Wrath
McCullers, Carson A Member of the Wedding
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Wharton, Edith Ethan Frome
Wilder, Thornton The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Arnow, Harriette The Dollmaker
Melville, Herman Moby Dick
London, Jack White Fang
Richter, Conrad The Trees
The Fields
The Town
Herbert, Frank Dune
Warren, Robert Penn All the King’s Men
Kantor, McKinley Andersonville
Agee, James A Death in the Family
Fitzgerald, F. Scott Tender Is the Night
Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club
Hersey, John A Bell for Adano
Michener, James Hawaii
Trifles is very brief (only one act); therefore, instead of purchasing the drama, you may access it on the web (www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/trifles.htm).
The essay and the test for the two required readings are the assignments for the first day of school. There are no acceptable excuses for late work. Manage your time and do not wait until the last minute. I do not want to hear that your printer would not work or that your printer ran out of ink or that you do not have a computer and, therefore, had to wait for your best friend to finish his/her report before you could type yours.
The essay and any succeeding reports during the year are to be typed in Times New Roman 12. After the summer essay is graded and returned, all successive writing assignments will be placed in the same folder and will be turned in at the end of the school year. If you would like to keep a personal copy, please be sure to save to a flash drive.
Remember that the two required assignments are due on the first day of school. There are no acceptable excuses for late work, for you have over two months to complete the assignment. If the two assignments are not ready the firs day, be prepared to be placed in the Survey of American Literature class.
Essay requirements: at least five paragraphs (including an introduction and a conclusion) of at least five sentences each
Essay topic: Describe your impression of Catherine Sloper at the beginning of Washington Square. In what ways did this impression change by the time you reached the end of the novel? To what extent do you attribute this to Catherine’s having changed in the course of the novel? To your knowing her better? To her knowing herself better?
Test: Trifles
Novel Report Form (to be used during the school year)
1. Authorial background (include reasons for writing the book)
2. Literary period (refer to other writers of the same period; how does the author relate?
Is the author typical or atypical of the period?)
3. Setting (Is the setting significant? How? Is it merely a backdrop for the action? Why?)
4. Character (Describe and analyze using literary terms: direct/indirect characterization,
external conflict, internal conflict, fat, round, stereotypical.)
5. Theme (Use examples from the novel to demonstrate how the theme is evident through
the plot and characters.)
6. Unique literary devices used by the author (symbolism, allusions, flashbacks,
epiphany, motif, etc.)
The reports and essays are to be written in paragraph form. Research is required for #’s 1, 2, and 6. Research will necessitate the inclusion of in-text citations and a Works Cited page. MLA style is required.
Please give yourself a July or second week in August deadline and stick to it. You won’t feel so pressured, and you will more than likely do a better job on the assignment.