Summer Reading
Gifted English Humanities: World Literature
Overview: Choose two titles from the following list to read during your free time this summer. You will
write a literary analysis essay for each of the books you select, which is why it is important that you own
copies of the texts. Construct a dialectical journal for each of the two texts you select. Use Amazon or some
other resource to research the books and choose two that appeal to your sensibilities as a reader.
Africa
 Cry the Beloved Country- Alan Paton
(South Africa)
 The Plague OR The Stranger- Albert
Camus (Algeria)
 No Longer at Ease- Chinua Achebe
(Nigeria)
 Burger’s Daughter- Nadine Gordimer
(South Africa)
 The Power of One – Bryce Courtenay
(South Africa)
Middle East
 Midaq Alley OR Palace Walk- Naguib
Mahfouz (Egypt)
 Snow OR My Name is Red- Orham Pamuk
(Turkey)
 The Kite Runner OR A Thousand Splendid
Suns – Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
France
 Madame Bovary- Gustave Flaubert
 Pere Goirot- Honore de Balzac
 Les Miserables OR Hunchback of Notre
Dame- Victor Hugo
 Candide- Voltaire
 Cyrano de Bergerac- Rostand
Germany
 Death in Venice- Thomas Mann
 Sorrows of Young Werther- Goethe
 Tin Drum- Gunter Grass
 The Trial OR The Castle- Franz Kafka
 The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
Scandinavia
 Hunger – Knut Hamsun (Norway)
 Independent People – Halldor Laxness
(Iceland)
India
 A House for Mr. Biswas- VS Naipaul
(Trinidadian)
 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
 The Guide - R.K. Narayan
 Nectar in a Sieve - Kamala Markandaya
 Baumgartner’s Bombay OR Fasting,
Feasting- Anita Desai
 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
South America
 Labryinthes- Borges (Argentina)
 Love in a Time of Cholera - Marquez
(Columbia)
 Wide Sargasso Sea- Jean Rhys (Dominica)
 Krik? Krak? – Edwidge Danticat (Haiti)
 Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
(Mexico)
Japan
 Snow Country- Kawabata
 Hiroshima- John Hersey
 Temple of the Golden Pavilion- Yukio
Mishima
Russia
 One Day in the Life of Ivan DenisovichAleksandr Solzhenitsyn
 Dead Souls- Gogol
 Fathers and Sons- Turgenev
 Notes from the Underground OR Crime and
Punishment- Dostoevsky
 Dr. Zhivago- Boris Pasternak
 The Death of Ivan Ilyich and other storiesLeo Tolstoy
China
 Waiting- Ha Jin
 Balzac and the Little Chinese SeamstressSijie Dai
DIALECTICAL JOURNAL
OVERVIEW:
The dialectical journal is a double-entry note taking system. It helps one to read critically and encourages the
habit of reflective questioning. It is a place to record and explore ideas using writing as a tool for learning. Keep
at least 10 entries for each text, making a total of 20. The left column is used to record passages from the text.
Be sure to place the page number in parentheses to cite each passage. The right column is used for reflecting on
the passages you recorded in the left column. Make sure your entries span the entire book. Your dialectical
journal may be typed or hand-written.
CHOOSING PASSAGES FROM THE TEXT:
Look for quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought provoking or puzzling. For example, you might record:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Effective and/or creative use of stylistic or literary devices
Passages that remind you of your own life or something you’ve seen before
Structural shifts or turns in the plot
A passage that makes you realize something you hadn’t seen before
Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs.
Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary
Events you find surprising or confusing
Passages that illustrate a particular character or setting
RESPONDING TO THE TEXT:
You can respond to the text in a variety of ways. The most important thing to remember is that your
observations should be specific and detailed.
Basic Responses
o Raise questions about the beliefs and values implied in the text
o Give your personal reactions to the passage
o Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s)
o Tell what it reminds you of from your own experiences
o Write about what it makes you think or feel
o Agree or disagree with a character or the author
Higher Level Responses
o Analyze the text for use of literary devices (tone, structure, style, imagery)
o Make connections between different characters or events in the text
o Make connections to a different text (or film, song, etc…)
o Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s)
o Consider an event or description from the perspective of a different character
o Analyze a passage and its relationship to the story as a whole
Sample dialectical journal entry from The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Passages from the text
Comments & Questions
―they carried like freight
trains; they carried it on their
backs and shoulders-and for all
the ambiguities of Vietnam, all
the mysteries and unknowns,
there was at least the single
abiding certainty that they
would never be at a loss for
things to carry‖ (18).
O’Brien chooses to end the first section of the novel with this sentence. He
provides excellent visual details of what each solider in Vietnam would carry for
day-to-day fighting. He makes you feel the physical weight of what soldiers have
to carry for simple survival. When you combine the emotional weight of loved
ones at home, the fear of death, and the responsibility for the men you fight with,
with this physical weight, you start to understand what soldiers in Vietnam dealt
with every day. This quote sums up the confusion that the men felt about the
reasons they were fighting the war, and how they clung to the only certainty—
things they had to carry—in a confusing world where normal rules were suspended.
Summer Essay
Directions: In addition to your dialectical journals, you must write an essay of no less than 500 words
about one of the texts and turn it in no later than the second day of school. Choose from one of the
following six prompts. Be sure to cite the text to support your argument. Each body paragraph should
include at least one textual citation. Ex: (Tolstoy 49). Essays should be typed, double spaced in Times
New Roman size 12 font. Be sure to stay focused on analyzing the literature throughout your essay. Do
not merely summarize the plot. Include the following first page heading:
Name
Gifted English 10
Summer Reading Option #
Novel Title
Date
Prompts:
1. An individual's struggle toward understanding and awareness is a traditional subject for the
novelist. In an essay, apply this statement to one of the novels you read this summer. Compare
the protagonist as we see him/her in an early scene with the protagonist as we see him in a
scene near the end of the novel. Discuss the techniques that the author uses to reveal the new
understanding and awareness that the protagonist has achieved.
2. Frequently in novels, an important character violates the laws, conventions, or rules of conduct
of his/her society. In presenting such characters and actions, the author's purpose may be (1) to
arouse our sympathy for the character who is violating the rules of society; (2) to divide our
interest sharply between sympathy for the character and desire to support the principles of
society; (3) to arouse our "satiric mirth" at the character who is violating the principles of
society; or (4) to laugh with the character at the conventions that are being violated. Identify an
important character who goes against the grain of his/her society and analyze how this relates
to the author’s purpose(s).
3. In retrospect, the reader often discovers that the first chapter of a novel introduces some of the
major themes of the work. Write an essay in which you analyze how the first chapter sets forth
a major theme of the work. While the first chapter will be the focus of your analysis, you may
also need to raise examples from later in the novel to support your reasoning.
4. An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In an essay, discuss the
ending of the novel. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately
concludes the work. Go beyond simply expressing your opinion as to whether you liked or
disliked the ending. Consider whether the ending effectively accomplishes the author’s
intended purpose.
5. Select an important character who is a villain. Then, analyze the nature of the character's
villainy. It is not sufficient just to prove that a particular character is a villain. Rather, you
should explore how the character’s villainy enhances the meaning of the work.
6. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions.
Identify the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then
analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader's or audience's views.