The Awakening -Kate Chopin

Characters:	Edna Pontellier
		Robert Lebrun
		Adele Ratignolle
		Leonce Pontellier
		Mademoiselle Reisz
		Dr. Mandelet
		Alcee Arobin

Motifs:		nature- painful (childbirth)
		marriage- smothering
		motherhood- burden
		freedom-  beyond social confines
		water and sea- pure freedom
		nudity- freedom
		female sexuality
		suicide
		guilt
		morality
		communication
		solitude
		impressionism
_________________________

Beloved -Toni Morrison

Characters:	Sethe
		Denver
		Beloved
		Paul D
		Baby Suggs
		Stamp Paid

Motifs:		infanticide
		slavery
		reconciliation with the past
		dehumanization of blacks
		community
		motherly love
		magic/ghosts, the supernatural
		cruelty
		birth and death
		water- seen as life giving
		racism
		jealousy
		rememory/disremember
		self-love
_________________________

Candide - Voltaire

Characters:	Candide
		Dr. Pangloss
		Lady Cunegonde
		Cacambo
		Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh
		Martin
		Signor Pococurante
		James the Anabaptist
		Senor Don FernandoÉ
		
Motifs:		senseless violence
		rape
		attacks royalty and tradition
		suffering
		attacks philosophy (belief in reality)
_________________________

The Crucible -Arthur Miller

Characters:	John Proctor
		Elizabeth Proctor
		Abigail Williams
		Mary Warren
		Reverend John Hale
		Reverend Samuel Parris
		Tituba
		Betty 
		Thomas Putnam
		Deputy Govenor Danforth
		Giles Corey
		Rebecca Nurse

Motifs:		allegory of the McCarthy hearings
		symbolic nature of the title
		adultery
		disintegration of friendships
		greed and vengeance
		power of manipulation
		moral dilemmas
		theocracy
		withholding the truth
		fear
		abuse of power
		hysteria
_________________________

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Characters:	Nick Caraway
		Jay Gatsby
		Tom and Daisy Buchanan
		Jordan Baker

Motifs:		wealth vs. happiness
		human relationships/attractions
		American idealism
		social structures
		hope and renewal (green light)
		responsibility vs. carelessness
		love
		spiritual desolation of society (ash heap)
		jealousy
_________________________

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark -William Shakespeare

Characters:	Hamlet
		Gertrude
		Claudius
		Polonius
		Ophelia
		Laertes
		Horatio
		Ghost
		Reynaldo
		Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
		Marcellus
		Bernardo

Motifs:		betrayal
		revenge
		family
		loyalty
		power
		love
		poison

In the Lake of the Woods -Tim O'Brien

Characters:	John Wade
		Kathy Wade
		Tony Carbo
		Elenor  and Mr. Wade
		Claude and Ruth Rasmussen
		PFC. Weatherby
		Thinbill Calley
		Carrot Lady
		Harmon

Motifs:		power
		isolation
		affects of war
		truth
		family
		the flies
		magic
		hot water
_________________________

Medea - Euripedes

Characters:	Medea
		Jason
		Chorus
		Nurse

Motifs:		revenge
		jealousy
		greed
		loyalty
		passion
_________________________

Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

Characters:	Gregor Samsa
		Grete Samsa
		Mr. and Mrs. Samsa
		maids
		borders
		Gregor's boss

Motifs:		alienation
		rejection
		compassion
		isolation
		relationships
		maturation
		independence
		feelings of inadequacy and guilt
_________________________

Oedipus Rex -Sophocles

Characters:	Priest
		Oedipus king of Themes
		Creon, brother of Iocasta
		Chorus of elders
		Teiresias, a blind prophet
		Iocasta, wife to Oedipus
		herdsman

Motifs:		uncertainty of human destiny
		role of fate
		excessive power and pride
		search for the final truth
		incest
		infanticide
_________________________

Pigs in Heaven - Barbara Kingsolver

Characters:	Turtle
		Taylor
		Annawake
		Alice
		Lucky Buster
		Jax
		Cash Stillwater

Motifs:		tribal rights
		adoption
_________________________

The Scarlet Letter -Nathaniel Hawthorne

Characters:	Hester Pryne
		Roger Chillingsworth
		Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale
		Pearl
		Governor Bellingham
		John Wilson
		Mistress Hibbins

Motifs:		obsession with sin
		good vs. evil
		morality
		scaffold
		river/forest
_________________________

Slaughterhouse 5 -Kurt Vonnegut

Characters:	Billy Pilgrim
		The Tralfamadorians
		Roland Weary
		Edgar Derby
		Kilgore Trout
		Valencia (Billy's wife)
		Barbara (Billy's daughter)
		Robert (Billy's son, the Green Beret)
		Bernard V. O'Hare
		British Prisoners
		Eliot Rosewater
		Peter Lazzaro

Motifs:		anti-war
		war fought by children; Children's Crusade
		importance of money
		children caring for parents
		limitation on the human mind
		war being thought of as a game