Ninth Grade English: Literature Overview for Core #2
“The Day of the Last Rock Fight” by Joseph Whitehill
• Setting: Manning Day School
• Main Characters:
– Ronnie Quiller: Narrator
– Peter Irish: Ronnie’s best friend, dated Angela Pine
– Gene Hanlon: bully
• Major Conflict: Ronnie trying to decide to tell the police that his best friend, Peter, killed Gene.
• Type of Conflict: Internal Conflict
• Plot Summary: Peter heard Gene was going out with his girlfriend. He over reacts and kills Gene
Hanlon. Ronnie witnesses it and can’t tell on his best friend. Peter eventually is caught and kills
himself. Ronnie can finally tell the story.
• Possible Theme: A person shouldn’t let their emotions get the best of them.
“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
• Setting: Ship Trap Island
• Main Characters:
– Rainsford : Hunted
– General Zaroff: Hunter (Humans)
– Ivan: General Zaroff’s bodyguard
• Major Conflict: Rainsford struggles to survive being hunted by Zaroff.
• Type of Conflict:
– Internal Conflict: Rainsford uses his mind to escape
– External Conflict: Man vs. Man
• Plot Summary: Rainsford goes from the hunter to the hunted. General Zaroff, a skilled hunter, enjoys
hunting humans. Rainsford uses his cleverness to elude Zaroff and kill him in the end.
• Possible Theme: In difficult situations, a person should use their mind instead of strength.
“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst
• Setting: 1918, the South
• Main Characters:
– Brother: Narrator
– Doodle: Weak heart, disabled
– Scarlet Ibis
• Major Conflict: Brother struggles with having a brother that is physically disabled
• Type of Conflict: Internal Conflict
• Plot Summary: Doodle is born with a weak heart. Brother pushes him to be normal (walk, swim, climb)
Brother pushes him too far and he dies. Doodle is compared to the Scarlet Ibis (bird) that is pushed
from its surrounding by a storm and it dies.
• Possible Theme: A person should accept another person for who they are.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
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Setting: Verona
Main Characters:
– Romeo: a Montague
– Juliet: a Capulet
– Tybalt: Juliet’s cousin, hot-headed
– Mercutio: Romeo’s best friend
– Benvolio: Romeo’s cousin, the peacemaker
– Nurse: Juliet’s servant, nanny
– Friar Lawrence: Priest
Major Conflict: Romeo is in love with Juliet who belongs to the family that his family is feuding with
(Montagues vs. Capulets).
Type of Conflict: External
Plot Summary: Romeo meets Juliet and they fall in love, not realizing their families are enemies. Friar
Lawrence quickly marries them the day after they meet. There is a fight; Tybalt kills Mercutio and
Romeo kills Tybalt. Romeo is banished and Juliet is devastated. She takes a potion to appear dead.
Romeo thinks she is really dead and buys a potion and kills himself. When Juliet awakens and finds
Romeo dead, she stabs herself with his dagger. The feud is ended through their deaths.
Possible Theme: When a person rushes through something, it can end up in failure.
Night by Elie Wiesel
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Setting: 1941–1945, during World War II, Sighet, Transylvania, Auschwitz, Birkenau
Main Characters:
– Eliezer
– Shlomo
– Moshe the Beadle
– Dr. Josef Mengele
– Idek
Major Conflict: Eliezer’s struggles with Nazi persecution, and with his own faith in God and in
humanity
Type of Conflict: External and Internal
Plot Summary: “Night,” a work by Elie Wiesel, recounts his experiences during World War II as he and
his father are being transferred to concentration camps in 1944-45. The young Jewish teen must come of
age at a time when he comes face to face with death, loss of humanity and loss of faith. Despite all of the
atrocities faced in this short book, Elie’s love for his father remains one of the core themes of a story
about the end of innocence.
Possible Themes: Eliezer’s struggle to maintain faith in a benevolent God; silence; inhumanity toward
other humans; the importance of father-son bond
The Wave by Todd Strasser
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Setting: fictional Gordon High School, 9 days
Main Characters:
– Laurie Saunders
– Ben Ross
– David Collins
– Robert Billings
– Christy Ross
– Amy Smith
Major Conflict: Laurie Saunders is the main voice of reason and protest against The Wave. While not
an actual person, The Wave is the main antagonist.
Type of Conflict: External and Internal
Plot Summary: At Gordon High School, history teacher Ben Ross is teaching his class about World War
II and the Holocaust. His students are upset by the footage of concentration camps and question why
the German people allowed this to happen, insisting they wouldn't be so easily duped. Ben Ross
considers this and plans an experiment: the next day, he starts to indoctrinate the class using the slogan
STRENGTH THROUGH DISCIPLINE. The class reacts well to this, embracing the sense of
empowerment it gives them, and they continue their newly disciplined behavior into a second day of
class, surprising Ross. He decides to take the experiment further and create a group, The Wave, adding
two more slogans - STRENGTH THROUGH COMMUNITY and STRENGTH THROUGH ACTION which leads to further rules of conduct and an organizational structure. In the following days, The
Wave quickly grows in popularity, but soon its dark side becomes apparent.
Possible Themes: Appeal of fascism; Mass media and its ability to mold opinions; absolute power
corrupts absolutely
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
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Setting: Molching (fictional) and Munich, Germany during WWII
Main Characters:
– Liesel
– Death
– Hans and Rosa Hubermann
– Max Vandenburg
– Ilsa Hermann
– Rudy Steiner
Major Conflict: Liesel vs. Society/Self/Death
Type of Conflict: External and Internal
Plot Summary: Liesel Meminger is a young girl who has been placed in foster care by her mother.
Liesel's brother dies en route to their new home, and this leaves Liesel traumatized, causing her to have
terrible nightmares in the middle of the night. Liesel's foster father begins teaching her to read on these
nights to distract her from her pain. Liesel learns to turn to books for comfort. When the war begins,
comfort becomes a rare state of mind, so Liesel finds ways to seek it out. Liesel begins to steal books in
her efforts to deal with the cruelty of the world around her.
Possible Theme: One can only come to terms with suffering after having experienced extreme versions
of both suffering and happiness.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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Setting: 1933–1935, fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama
Main Characters:
– Jean Louise “Scout” Finch
– Jeremy “Jem” Finch
– Atticus Finch
– Charles Baker “Dill “ Harris
– Arthur “Boo” Radley
– Tom Robinson
– Bob Ewell
– Mayella Ewell
Major Conflict: Dual—Boo Radley story vs. Tom Robinson story
Type of Conflict: External and Internal
Plot Summary: The childhood innocence with which Scout and Jem begin the novel is threatened by
numerous incidents that expose the evil side of human nature, most notably the guilty verdict in Tom
Robinson’s trial and the vengefulness of Bob Ewell. As the novel progresses, Scout and Jem struggle to
maintain faith in the human capacity for good in light of these recurring instances of human evil.
Possible Themes: The coexistence of good and evil; the importance of moral education; social class
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
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Setting: An indeterminate time more than one hundred years in the future, Panem, the country created
after the governments of North America collapsed
Main Characters:
– Katniss Everdeen
– Peeta Mellark
– Gale
– Haymitch Abernathy
– Effie Trinket
– Prim Everdeen
– President Snow
– Cinna
Major Conflict: Katniss must endure numerous deadly ordeals, navigate complex personal relationships,
and learn to control how others perceive her in order to survive the Hunger Games.
Type of Conflict: internal and external
Plot Summary: In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining
Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and
were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to
appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteenyear-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death
sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of
audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
Possible Themes: The inequality between rich and poor; suffering as entertainment; the importance of
appearances