Essay Prompts for Summer Reading:
1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom’s Cabin became so popular during the author’s lifetime that when Stowe met President
Lincoln in 1862, he is said to have exclaimed, "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that
started this great war!" What do you think the President meant by this, and how could this novel have
contributed to polarizing the nation? Cite specific examples from the novel to support your position.
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Although Mark Twain warns us that anyone caught trying to analyze his novel will “be shot,” it is obvious
that, through the self-reliant Huck Finn, Twain speaks on several moral issues. Write an essay that
analyzes one of Mark Twain’s lessons about humanity. Cite specific examples from the novel to support
your position.
3. Black Boy Richard Wright
This novel is, for the most part, autobiographical. After having read about the violence and oppression
in the Jim Crow South, how does Richard Wright’s environment shape who he becomes? Use specific
examples from the novel to support your position.
4. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Describe what you believe to be the novel’s main theme. Then identify symbols Steinbeck uses
throughout the novel to help evoke that theme and show how these symbols help the reader
understand Steinbeck’s message.
5. East of Eden John Steinbeck
During the naming of the twins, Lee, Sam, and Adam have a long conversation about a sentence from
Genesis, disagreeing over whether God has said an act is ordered or predetermined. Lee continues to
think about this conversation and enlists the help of a group of Chinese philosophers to come to a
conclusion: that God has given humans choice by saying that they may (the Hebrew word for "may,"
timshel, becomes a key trope in the novel), that people can choose for themselves. What is Steinbeck
trying to say about guilt and forgiveness? About family inheritance versus free will? Think of instances
where this distinction is important in the novel.
6. The Awakening Kate Chopin
Often in literature the conflict between the quest for independence and societal conformity arises. In a
well-written essay, discuss how Chopin creates this struggle in The Awakening. Cite specific examples
from the novel to support your position.
7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey
Kesey states that One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest helps the reader to "question reality" by "tearing
away the fabric of what we've been told is reality and showing us something that is far more real."
Do you agree with Kesey's analysis of his book? Select a scene or two that does or does not
effectively accomplish this.
8. The Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
How does the division between how the narrator perceives himself and how others perceive him relate
to the motifs of blindness and invisibility? Consider the role of racial stereotypes in the novel. Use
specific evidence from the novel to support your position.
9. Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
Salinger weaves a variety of symbols into The Catcher in the Rye, including (but not limited to) the red
hunting hat, the ducks in Central Park, and Allie’s mitt. Select and analyze one symbol that Salinger uses
in the book. Explain how Salinger develops this object as a symbol throughout the story. Discuss the
symbol’s meaning and significance and explore its contributions to the overall message of the novel.
10. The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
Why are male and female relationships complicated in this book? What are the major problems that
keep people in relationships from being happy? (Think about why Brett and Jake can never be happy, or
why Cohn and Frances could never be happy.) Cite specific examples from the novel to support your
position.