Formal Literary Canons
By: Jonathan Hester
To Kill A Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird is important to read because of the lessons it teaches us about how we should treat people and why we shouldn't judge people. Atticus Finch teaches us that we can't really judge people until we have experienced what they have experienced. I think now a days we judge people based on their looks and never really give them a chance. From the teachings of Atticus Finch we learn people can't be judged based on their skin color or how they look such as Boo Radley.
Invisible Man
Invisible Man is an important book to read in today's classroom because it applies to some of the students that read it. The student who never is heard and has no real friends. Invisible man speaks to this student because the main character parallels the student who is isolated with very little socially going on. Invisible Man also teaches lessons on how to try and get higher in jobs and in life by always smiling and saying yes.
Frankenstein
Frankenstein is important to read because it allows you to view examples of both allusions and writing using romanticism. Frankenstein shows us why we shouldn't mess with what nature has already done. With all of the advances in science it is an important book to be used as a precaution. As we find ways to escape death Frankenstein warns that coming back from the dead isn't a way to escape death.
Macbeth
Macbeth is an important read to everybody because it shows how a lust for power can corrupt even the best men. Macbeth is a seemingly good man at the beginning of the story, but after finding about how he would rise to power he becomes corrupt, killing anyone who stands in his way to the throne. Because of what Macbeth has done he stands alone in a fight against everyone he drove away.
Lord of The Flies
Lord of The Flies is important to read because of the what it teaches us about humans how how they will act. With supervision such as a parent or the law a person will behave and not do bad, but once we revert back to our primal state we lose the respect for that authority and sort into groups of bad savages and savages that don't need to break the rules.
Grapes of Wrath
I think that Grapes of Wrath is an important book to read because it shows us that we have to make sacrifices to help others and ourselves. This is especially important in today's world because people are all about how they can help themselves. If we were all like Ma Joad or Rose of Sharon the world would be a better place.
1984
1984 is an important read because it can be seen as a warning to not simply trust everything you hear. The government of Oceania is always lying to their citizens to make the government look better, control the power, and control what the citizens know. This book is relevent because it warns of something that is now going on in our own country.
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is an important book to read because it shows us how society expects us to stay in our own box. We aren't supposed to leave the box society has put us in. "Rich girls don't marry poor boys..." This is a famous quote from The Great Gatsby, now this applies to even more boxes. Whites girls don't marry black boys, christian girls don't marry Jewish boys, or rich boys don't marry poor boys. This one line keeps the book even though it is set in the 1920's relevant even today.
The Crucible
The Crucible is important to read because it reveals to us the human nature to try and get rid of those we don't like through any means necessary. Lying is okay if it helps us to complete our own personal agendas, this is one way the human brain rationalizes lying is its okay to lie if it helps us. The Crucible enforces the idea that humans are out for themselves first, then others second.
The Odyssey
The Odyssey is important to our culture because it shows us to always stay true to what we have been taught. As peer pressure and pressure from society looms over us The Odyssey shows us to always try and stay on the straight and narrow. Ill fate awaits those with ill intentions. The Odyssey also has a huge cultural impact through movies, allusions, and even songs.