DOCSLIB.ORG

High School Reading List

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
High School Reading List Suggested High School Summer Reading List 2021 Rationale for Summer Reading. The overarching goal of summer reading is to instill a love of reading and help you become a life-long learner. By engaging in summer reading, one is able to keep the mind engaged in intellectual pursuits. We have chosen to offer a summer reading list to provide ample opportunity and choice to read something that appeals to each individual reader. The minimum goal is to have everyone read at least one book over the summer. The choices are many and can meet the needs of any reading appetite. Choose something you enjoy; sports, travel, adventure, fantasy, mystery, whatever appeals to your own individual taste. But read at least one novel from the list and enjoy. Within the first two weeks of the school year, there will be some type of assessment that will incorporate your summer reading novel. Freshmen | Sophomore Backman, Fredrik Beartown Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451 Brown, Daniel James The Boys in the Boat Butler, Octavia Kindred Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage Cuehlo, Paulo The Alchemist Ellison, Ralph The Invisible Man Foer, Jonathan Safran Everything is Illuminated Foer, Jonathan Safran Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Fowler, Karen Joy We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time Hemingway, Ernest The Sun Also Rises Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God Kidd, Sue Monk The Secret Life of Bees Kidder, Tracy Strength in What Remains, A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness Knowles, Jonathan A Separate Peace Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird Lindhout, Amanda A House in the Sky: A Memoir London, Jack The Call of the Wild Mandel, Emily St. John Station Eleven McCarthy, Cormac The Road McCarthy, Cormac The Road Noah, Trevor Born a Crime Orwell, George 1984 Potok Chaim My Name is Ash Lev Potok Chaim The Chosen Reynolds, Jason All American Boys Shusterman, Neal Challenger Deep Skloot, Rebecca The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Stephenson, Bryan Just Mercy Stone, Nic Dear Martin Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club Thomas, Angie The Hate U Give Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit Vonnegut, Kurt Slaughterhouse Five Walls, Jeanette The Glass Castle Wiesel, Elie Night Junior/Senior Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart Adams, Douglas The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Alemeddine, Rabih The Hakawati, An Unnecessary Woman Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice Auster, Paul Man in the Dark Ba, Gabriel and Moon, Fabio Daytripper (graphic novel) Banks, Russell Rule of the Bone, Lost Memory of Skin Barbery, Muriel The Elegance of the Hedgehog Barnes, Julian Sense of an Ending, Arthur and George Barth, John Lost in the Funhouse Boyle, T.C. Tortilla Curtain Carey, Mike and Gross, Peter The Unwritten (graphic novel series) Chappell, Fred I Am One of You Forever, Brighten the Corner Where You Are Coupland, Douglas Generation X, Player One, Microserfs, The Gum Thief Danticat, Edwidge Breath, Eyes, Memory Danticat, Edwidge Claire of the Sea Light Danticat, Edwidge The Dew Breaker DeWitt, Patrick The Sisters Brothers Eggers, David You Shall Know Our Velocity Ellis, Bret Easton Less Than Zero Erpenbeck, Jenny The End of Days Fountain, Ben Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk Fowles, John The Collector Freeman, Jr., Castle Go with Me Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Heller, Joseph Catch 22 Heller, Peter The Dog Stars Hornby, Nick High Fidelity Huxley, Aldous Brave New World Hynes, James The Lecturer’s Tale Ishiguro, Kazuo An Artist of the Floating World Ishiguro, Kazuo Never Let Me Go Ishiguro, Kazuo The Buried Giant Ishiguro, Kazuo The Remains of the Day James, P.D. Children of Men Kennedy, William Ironweed Khalifa, Khaled Death Is Hard Work (National Book Award Translation Prize) Lee, Chang-Rae Native Speaker, On Such a Full Sea Lethem, Jonathan Motherless Brooklyn Malamud, Bernard The Natural, The Assistant Maxwell, William So Long, See You Tomorrow McCarthy, Cormac Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, The Road McInerney, Jay Brightness Falls Mitchell, David Cloud Atlas Moore, Graham The Sherlockian Morrison, Toni Song of Solomon Murakami, Haruki The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, A Wild Sheep Chase Nguyen, Viet Thanh The Sympathizer Orange, Tommy There There Orstavik, Hanne Love (PEN America Translation Prize) Orwell, George 1984 Petterson, Per Out Stealing Horses, I Curse the River of Time Robbins, Tom Skinny Legs and All, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates Russell, Mary Doria The Sparrow and Children of God (sequel to Sparrow) Russo, Richard Straight Man, Empire Falls Ryan, Donal The Spinning Heart Saramago, Jose Cain, Blindness, Seeing Sedaris, David Me Talk Pretty One Day Sharma, Akhil Family Life Shelly, Mary Wollstonecraft Frankenstein Stegner, Wallace Angle of Repose Thiong’o, Ngugi wa Wizard of the Crow Tokarczuk, Olga Primeval and Other Times, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead (Nobel Prize in Literature) Ugresic, Dubravka Baba Yaga Laid an Egg Wallace, Daniel The Watermelon King, Big Fish Wilde, Oscar The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray Woodrell, Daniel Winter’s Bone, Tomato Red, The Maid’s Version Zafon, Carlos Ruiz The Shadow of the Wind These sites provide additional suggestions: 50 Best Contemporary Novels under 200 Pages Best Translated Book Awards 2020 Finalists Most Frequently Cited Books on the AP English Literature Exam ENG470: World Literature Readings ENG471: AP English Literature Readings .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Kazuo Ishiguro Among 13 Contenders for 2021 Booker Prize
    12 Established 1961 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, July 28, 2021 Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad ‘Japan Pom Pom’ take part in a practice in Tokyo as the city hosts the Eighty-nine-year-old Fumie Takino (second right) joins members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. — AFP photos Pom”. Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom” stretch Members of the Japanese senior cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom”. Eighty-nine-year-old Fumie Takino (center) joins members of the Japanese senior before taking part in a practice in Tokyo. cheerleading squad “Japan Pom Pom”. heering is frowned upon at the They are currently rehearsing for Cheerleading is a fun way to stay fit Cvirus-postponed Olympics, but their 25th-anniversary show, which was for the “Japan Pom Pom” girls, who get training continues at a Tokyo postponed until next year because of together once a week for a rigorous gym for an energetic squad of cheer- the pandemic. Takino said it was once two-hour practice with almost no break. leaders whose average age is 70. To difficult to share her hobby with others, Masako Matsuoka, a 73-year-old mem- the beat of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It who didn’t see the appeal of senior ber of the squad, said the activity is her Off”, Fumie Takino, 89, twirled and cheerleading at first. “I couldn’t say I “ikigai”-Japanese for purpose in life. “It’s waved her pompoms as her fellow was doing cheerleading... I struggled a fun to do something different in your cheerleaders showed off their standing lot.” Their original sparkly costumes everyday life,” she explained.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unforgettable, Heartbreaking Story of the Unlikely Friendship Between A
    Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition: Summer Reading In keeping with the philosophy that each individual should be trained to the fullest realization of his/her capacities, the Advanced Placement English program enables interested students to realize their potential. AP Literature and Composition is designed to give the student experience in reading closely, thinking precisely, and writing analytically. Not only will we analyze craft and develop an appreciation of the beauty of language (celebrating how authors use words to create art), we will also use literature as a tool to analyze human nature and gain a deeper understanding of the world. We may not always have the opportunity to travel and discover exciting new places, and there are times in life when we struggle to find a reflection of ourselves in another, but literature allows us to connect, to discover, and to grow. To begin this exciting quest, I would like you to read The Kite Runner and a book of choice. I believe in the importance of creating both shared literary experiences and also providing choice, in seeking a curriculum that is meaningful, challenging, and relevant. It is my hope that we will push each other to reach our potential while being supportive and compassionate. I look forward to reading the many stories you will share and write in our course. I look forward to hearing your voice. Thank you for joining our AP Literature learning community. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini “The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 an International Refereed English E-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF)
    www.TLHjournal.comThe Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 An International Refereed English e-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF) Contemporary English Fiction and the works of Kazuo Ishiguro Bhawna Singh Research Scholar Lucknow University ABSTRACT The aim of this abstract is to study of memory in contemporary writings. Situating itself in the developing field of memory studies, this thesis is an attempt to go beyond the prolonged horizon of disturbing recollection that is commonly regarded as part of contemporary postcolonial and diasporic experience. it appears that, in the contemporary world the geographical mapping and remapping and its associated sense of dislocation and the crisis of identity have become an integral part of an everyday life of not only the post-colonial subjects, but also the post-apartheid ones. This inter-correlation between memory, identity, and displacement as an effect of colonization and migration lays conceptual background for my study of memory in the literary works of an contemporary writers, a Japanese-born British writer, Kazuo Ishiguro. This study is a scrutiny of some key issues in memory studies: the working of remembrance and forgetting, the materialization of memory, and the belongingness of material memory and personal identity. In order to restore the sense of place and identity to the displaced people, it may be necessary to critically engage in a study of embodied memory which is represented by the material place of memory - the brain and the body - and other objects of remembrance Vol. 1, Issue 4 (March 2016) Dr. Siddhartha Sharma Page 80 Editor-in-Chief www.TLHjournal.comThe Literary Herald ISSN: 2454-3365 An International Refereed English e-Journal Impact Factor: 2.24 (IIJIF) Contemporary English Fiction and the works of Kazuo Ishiguro Bhawna Singh Research Scholar Lucknow University In the eighteenth century the years after the forties observed a wonderful developing of a new literary genre.
    [Show full text]
  • Addition to Summer Letter
    May 2020 Dear Student, You are enrolled in Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition for the coming school year. Bowling Green High School has offered this course since 1983. I thought that I would tell you a little bit about the course and what will be expected of you. Please share this letter with your parents or guardians. A.P. Literature and Composition is a year-long class that is taught on a college freshman level. This means that we will read college level texts—often from college anthologies—and we will deal with other materials generally taught in college. You should be advised that some of these texts are sophisticated and contain mature themes and/or advanced levels of difficulty. In this class we will concentrate on refining reading, writing, and critical analysis skills, as well as personal reactions to literature. A.P. Literature is not a survey course or a history of literature course so instead of studying English and world literature chronologically, we will be studying a mix of classic and contemporary pieces of fiction from all eras and from diverse cultures. This gives us an opportunity to develop more than a superficial understanding of literary works and their ideas. Writing is at the heart of this A.P. course, so you will write often in journals, in both personal and researched essays, and in creative responses. You will need to revise your writing. I have found that even good students—like you—need to refine, mature, and improve their writing skills. You will have to work diligently at revising major essays.
    [Show full text]
  • A Too-Brief, Incomplete, Unalphabetized List of Must-Read
    A Too-Brief, Incomplete, Unalphabetized List of Must-Read that You Might Not Have Been Taught or Otherwise Made to Read Novels and Short Story Collections Written in the 20th and 21st Centuries Saul Bellow: Henderson the Rain King, Humboldt’s Gift, The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog Grace Paley: Collected Stories Flannery O’Conner: Collected Stories (especially the story from A Good Man is Hard to Find) Evan Connell: Mrs. Bridge, Mr. Bridge Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita, Pale Fire Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man Mary McCarthy: The Group, The Company She Keeps Nathanael West: Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust Eudora Welty: Collected Stories Tess Slesinger: The Unpossessed Dagoberto Gilb: The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuna Don DeLillo: End Zone, White Noise, Underworld Cormac McCarthy: Suttree, All the Pretty Horses, The Road, Blood Meridian Muriel Spark: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Memento Mori, The Comforters, Aiding and Abetting Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go, The Unconsoled Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God Donald Barthelme: Sixty Stories, Forty Stories Thomas Pynchon: V, Crying of Lot 49, Gravity’s Rainbow Padgett Powell: Edisto, Edisto Revisited, Aliens of Affection Barry Hannah: Airships Steven Millhauser: Edwin Mullhouse, Martin Dressler Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist Heidi Julavits: The Effects of Looking Backwards John Cheever: The Stories of John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle Judy Budnitz: Nice Big American Baby, Flying Leap Lee K. Abbott: Love is the Crooked Thing Angela Carter: The Company of
    [Show full text]
  • The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Honors a Distinguished Work of Fiction by an American Author, Preferably Dealing with American Life
    Pulitzer Prize Winners Named after Hungarian newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction honors a distinguished work of fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. Chosen from a selection of 800 titles by five letter juries since 1918, the award has become one of the most prestigious awards in America for fiction. Holdings found in the library are featured in red. 2017 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2016 The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 2014 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 2013: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 2012: No prize (no majority vote reached) 2011: A visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 2010:Tinkers by Paul Harding 2009:Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2008:The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 2007:The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2006:March by Geraldine Brooks 2005 Gilead: A Novel, by Marilynne Robinson 2004 The Known World by Edward Jones 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo 2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham 1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth 1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Stephan Milhauser 1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford 1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields 1994 The Shipping News by E. Anne Proulx 1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler 1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
    [Show full text]
  • Recommended Reading for AP Literature & Composition
    Recommended Reading for AP Literature & Composition Titles from Free Response Questions* Adapted from an original list by Norma J. Wilkerson. Works referred to on the AP Literature exams since 1971 (specific years in parentheses). A Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner (76, 00) Adam Bede by George Eliot (06) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (80, 82, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 05, 06, 07, 08) The Aeneid by Virgil (06) Agnes of God by John Pielmeier (00) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (97, 02, 03, 08) Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (00, 04, 08) All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (00, 02, 04, 07, 08) All My Sons by Arthur Miller (85, 90) All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (95, 96, 06, 07, 08) America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (95) An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (81, 82, 95, 03) The American by Henry James (05, 07) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (80, 91, 99, 03, 04, 06, 08) Another Country by James Baldwin (95) Antigone by Sophocles (79, 80, 90, 94, 99, 03, 05) Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare (80, 91) Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (94) Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer (76) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (78, 89, 90, 94, 01, 04, 06, 07) As You Like It by William Shakespeare (92 05. 06) Atonement by Ian McEwan (07) Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (02, 05) The Awakening by Kate Chopin (87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 02, 04, 07) B "The Bear" by William Faulkner (94, 06) Beloved by Toni Morrison (90, 99, 01, 03, 05, 07) A Bend in the River by V.
    [Show full text]
  • The Self-Contradictory Narrative of Mr Stevens
    The Self-Contradictory Narrative of Mr Stevens In Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day Kenny Johansson EN1C02 Literary Essay Department of Languages and Literatures University of Gothenburg June 2011 Supervisor: Ann Katrin Jonsson Examiner: Celia Aijmer-Rydsjö 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Mr Stevens 6 3. Miss Kenton 11 4. Lord Darlington 16 5. Conclusion 21 Works Cited 22 3 1. Introduction Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day is a tale about the English butler Mr Stevens, who during the prime of his life served Lord Darlington, a man labelled as a traitor to his country following the Second World War. Provided with his new employer’s Ford and a couple of days off from his work at Darlington Hall, Stevens starts a motoring trip around the English countryside. The purpose of the journey is to convince his previous co-worker Miss Kenton, and as shall be discussed in the course of this essay also the object of Stevens’ affections, to return to Darlington Hall. However, the places he visits and the people he encounters cause Stevens to begin to dwell on his past at Darlington Hall, which has been his only world for the largest part of his life. The story is told from a first person point of view, narrated by Stevens in the form of a diary in which he interweaves his recollections from the glory days of Darlington Hall in the 1920s and 1930s with his current thoughts and speculations on various encounters during his motoring trip in 1956.
    [Show full text]
  • DEI Reading List 2020
    Devon and Exeter Institution Reading Group Reading List and meeting dates for 2020 13th January A book of your choice from the DEI collection. Bring the book and your comments to the group. 10th February A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles He can't leave his hotel. You won't want to. From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility--a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel. In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel's doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humour, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count's endeavour to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose 9th March Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded-Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author, with publishers clamouring for her work.
    [Show full text]
  • Pulitzer Prize
    1946: no award given 1945: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey 1944: Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin 1943: Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair Pulitzer 1942: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow 1941: no award given 1940: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 1939: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Prize-Winning 1938: The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand 1937: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 1936: Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis Fiction 1935: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson 1934: Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller 1933: The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling 1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck 1931 : Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes 1930: Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge 1929: Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin 1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder 1927: Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield 1926: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (declined prize) 1925: So Big! by Edna Ferber 1924: The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson 1923: One of Ours by Willa Cather 1922: Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington 1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton 1920: no award given 1919: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington 1918: His Family by Ernest Poole Deer Park Public Library 44 Lake Avenue Deer Park, NY 11729 (631) 586-3000 2012: no award given 1980: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer 2011: Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 1979: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever 2010: Tinkers by Paul Harding 1978: Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson 2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 1977: No award given 2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 1976: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow 2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy 1975: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara 2006: March by Geraldine Brooks 1974: No award given 2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 1973: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty 2004: The Known World by Edward P.
    [Show full text]
  • Summer Reading List.Pages
    Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School High School Summer Reading List 2019 You may read any book by an author on the list. Underlined selections are only for 9th and 10th graders. FICTION Adams, Richard Watership Down – a popular modern classic Allende, Isabel Daughter of Fortune – by celebrated Chilean novelist Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice – no one writes better than Jane Austen does Bauer, Joan Hope Was Here – 2001 Newbery Honor Book Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre – Jane is one of the great heroes in English fiction. Bronte, Emily Wuthering Heights – unforgettable “Gothic” tale of love and revenge Buck, Pearl The Good Earth – acclaimed epic novel of life in pre-Communist China Carter, Forrest The Education of Little Tree – Native American life and wisdom Cather, Willa My Antonia – best-known novel by this Pulitzer Prize winner Chevalier, Tracy Girl with a Pearl Earring – “great read,” about Vermeer and one of his models Chopin, Kate The Awakening – considered a radical novel in its time, still challenging today Clarke, Pauline The Return of the Twelves – fantasy/science fiction featuring the Bronte children Conrad, Joseph Lord Jim – one of the great novels of English literature, exciting, challenging Conroy, Patrick Beach Music – absorbing, thought-provoking modern tale Cooper, James Fenimore Last of the Mohicans – classic story of colonial America Cooper, Susan The Dark is Rising – 1974 Newbery Honor Book (read the whole series!) Creech, Sharon Walk Two Moons – 1995 Newbery Medal winner !1 Cushman, Karen Catherine, Called Birdy – 1995 Newbery
    [Show full text]
  • 2 Abstract in the Essay —William Kennedy's Ironweed: Francis Phelan's Purgatorial Journey Back Home“ I Intend to Show Th
    Abstract In the essay “William Kennedy’s Ironweed: Francis Phelan’s Purgatorial Journey Back Home” I intend to show that William Kennedy has borrowed his narrative structure and symbolic language in the novel Ironweed from The Divine Comedy. I will also try to show how William Kennedy has used these allusions to enhance the imagery of Ironweed and the protagonist Francis Phelan’s wandering through the novel, and his return home. To accomplish this I will present a detailed comparative analysis of William Kennedy’s Ironweed and Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. I will begin by showing that Kennedy establishes the protagonist Francis Phelan as a Dante-like figure and a sinner who needs to go through purgatory to redeem himself. Moreover, Kennedy uses Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy’s landscape to enhance the imagery of a journey back home, and by showing that each chapter represents a different level on Mount Purgatory Kennedy makes Albany a symbol of the mountain itself. Details such as the mentioning of the seven deadly sins are also there to make the reader think of Dante and thereby reinforcing the image of The Divine Comedy’s landscape in Francis Phelan’s New York, Albany. I also demonstrate that Kennedy borrows his symbolic structure from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. For example, the intricate ending of Ironweed where several parallels can be drawn to Purgatory and Paradise reinforces the impression of Francis Phelan’s happiness, that is, a reader who is familiar with The Divine Comedy will appreciate and understand Francis Phelan’s happiness and the journey he has accomplished even more.
    [Show full text]