ANNOTATED READING LIST

(ARL)
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
LITERATURE

Submitted by: GROUP 3

Beowulf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

The Dream of the Rood -------------------------------------------------------------- 3

Sonnet 104 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

The Man Who Would Be King ----------------------------------------------------- 5

Early Periods of American Literature ----------------------------------------------------- 6

Maid of Mist -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7

Princess Scargo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 8

Later Periods in American Literature ----------------------------------------------------- 9

Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment -----------------------------------------------------10

Tom Sawyer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

Grapes of Wrath -----------------------------------------------------------------------12

1
Title: Beowulf
Genre: Epic

Author: Unknown

Description: Beowulf, an
epic created in the Old
English Literature period,
tells a story of the hero
named Beowulf. The
setting of the epic
spreads over Denmark
and then some areas of
Geatland. The storyline
shows a Danish King, Hrothgar, enjoying great feasts in his Heorot, a mead-hall,
when a plague strikes his subjects. It is a horrible monster or demon, Grendel.
However, a young Geatish prince, Beowulf, happens to hear about this demon
and reaches Hrothgar to offer his help to compensate for the assistance that he
offered to his father when he was seeking refuge. Beowulf successfully kills
Grendel. However, this only leads to the climax of the epic where Grendel's
mother arrives to avenge his death. Even so, Beowulf kills Grendel's mother. As
king, Beowulf fights, kills the dragon.

Theme: Beowulf shows the heroic code of living and dying with honor that has
been prevalent during the Anglo-Saxon age. The character of Beowulf shows
that bravery, courage, and battling the demons and dragons win praise from
the subjects and royals. When Beowulf expresses his desire to battle Grendel and
settles the scores, he wins popularity in Denmark, and more so when he kills his
mother too. The same goes when he dies in the last battle against the dragon.
Thus he follows the heroic code and sets another example of bravery, chivalry,
courage, and sacrifice.

2
 Title: The Dream of
the Rood
Author: Cynewulf
Genre: Poetry
Description:
The Dream of the
Rood,” in which the
cross speaks of itself as
Christ’s loyal thane and yet the instrument of his death. This tragic paradox
echoes a recurring theme of secular poetry and at the same time movingly
expresses the religious paradoxes of Christ’s triumph in death and humankind’s
redemption from sin. The Dream of the Rood, Old English lyric, the earliest dream
poem and one of the finest religious poems in the English language, once, but
no longer, attributed to Caedmon or Cynewulf. In a dream the unknown poet
beholds a beautiful tree—the rood, or cross, on which Christ died. The rood tells
him its own story. Forced to be the instrument of the saviour’s death, it describes
how it suffered the nail wounds, spear shafts, and insults along with Christ to fulfill
God’s will. Once blood-stained and horrible, it is now the resplendent sign of
mankind’s redemption. The poem was originally known only in fragmentary form
from some 8th-century runic inscriptions on the Ruthwell Cross, now standing in
the parish church of Ruthwell, now Dumfries District, Dumfries and Galloway
Region, Scot. The complete version became known with the discovery of the
10th-century Vercelli Book in northern Italy in 1822.
Theme: The Dream of the Rood is the representation of the Crucifixion as a
battle. Although heroic verse and imagery were commonly used in Anglo-Saxon
poetry, many scholars assert that the heroic treatment of the theme of the
Crucifixion is unique for Christian poetry, like, The Dream of the Rood.

3
 Title: Sonnet 104: To me,

fair friend, you never can be

old

Genre: Sonnet

Author: William Shakespeare

Description: The poem talks

about the speaker’s

appreciation of his/her friend

who is throughout the text

complimented on his beauty.

He seems not to have aged

the whole time the speaker has known him. Over the last three years, he has

remained just as fresh and green as when they first met. But, the speaker

acknowledges towards the end, he knows this can’t be the case. All people's

age and time move so slowly that he just can’t see it.

Theme: This particular poem speaks on themes of age, beauty, and the future.

He describes a person he loves with an unending beauty. It depicts how the

speaker truly loves that person. It expresses the love one person has for another

by showing how the beauty of the beloved doesn’t change in the eyes of the

lover. He shows time passing through the seasons and the years, everything

changes except for the beauty of the beloved.

4
 Title: The Man Who Would
Be King
Genre: Adventure Fiction
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Description: In The Man Who
Would Be King, Peachey and
Daniel are con men and like
to create adventures and
situations. They first meet the
narrator when they lie to him
and tell him that they are
writers at the same
newspaper he is. He busts
them. Then the narrator and
the 2 men become sort of
friends. The 2 con men tell him
that they plan to find a small town and become the kings of the town. Then the
2 men go off on some adventures. They return periodically and one time they
find a small town. Through fighting and some religious stuff, they get crowned
kings and gods of the town. The savages think that these Englishmen are gods.
Then Daniel arranges to get married to one of the natives. On his wedding day
she bites him and draws blood. When the natives see that he is bleeding they
find out he is not a god (gods don't bleed because they are immortal). So, they
chop Daniel's head off and crucify Peachey. Peachey survives, and brings
Daniel's head back and tells the narrator his story.
Theme: The theme of the story " the man who would be king", undergirds the
social theme of British imperialism and the separation between two different
kinds of reality—the “realistic” realm of the journalist who deals with the
everyday world of “real kings” and the fantastic, make-believe world of Dravot
and Peachey, who create their own fantasy and then live in it. It also conveys a
theme of ambition as Daniel Dravot has a boundless ambition in life. And also,
racism as the British of Kipling’s world believe themselves to be racially superior
to the people they have colonized, and they use this prejudiced ideology to
justify their rule.
5
EARLY PERIODS OF AMERICAN
LITERATURE

6
 Title: Maid of the Mist
Genre: Legend
Author: Tanya Anderson
Description: As the legend of the Maid of the Mist goes, the tribes living along
the Niagara River would often send canoes filled with gifts such as fruits, flowers
and game over the Falls in order to please the Thunder God Hinum and his two
sons that live behind the Falls. It was then, that after a period of hardship and
desecration that the tribes would choose one of their most beautiful Maidens to
be sent along with the other offerings to be sacrificed in order to appease the
thunder gods.
Theme: The theme of the legend was the intervention of gods and care for
people. The intervention of gods can change the destiny of the people by
helping them away from danger. Lelawala also shows great care for her people
by saving them from the giant snake with Heno.
7
 Title: Princess Scargo
Genre: Folktale
Author: Unknown
Description:
Legend has it that Princess Scargo, a Native American, received a hollow
pumpkin containing three fish from a suitor. She placed the fish in a puddle,
hoping to keep them safe, but the puddle dried up. Not wanting his daughter to
be upset, her father ordered a basin to be dug to save her precious fish. Before
the autumn rains could fill the basin, Princess Scargo found out that her suitor
was killed in battle and her tears filled the basin in Dennis, MA, forming what is
now known as Scargo Lake.

Theme: The theme of the story is about heroism. This is a touching story about a
young Native American girl who gives up a precious birthday gift to save her
village. This enchanting adaptation, based on a popular Native American
legend, embodies the true spirit of selflessness.

8
LATER PERIODS OF AMERICAN
LITERATURE

9
Title: Dr.
Heidegger’s
Experiment
Genre:
fiction, short
story
Author:
Nathaniel
Hawthorne
Description:
The story is
about Dr.
Heidegger
who claims
to have
been sent water from the Fountain of Youth, and invites four elderly friends to
participate in an experiment. The water wondrously causes the old rose to
bloom again when it is dropped into it. Dr. Heidegger's friends drink the water
and their youth is restored, they begin acting as fatuously as they did in their
prime. Because of their fight with each other miraculous water is lost. This causes
them to return to their original old age.

Theme: The theme of the story focuses on age and wisdom. Dr. Heidegger's
experiment tests the assumption behind a common human wish. If a person
could return to their lost youth, they would have the wisdom to avoid their past
mistakes. They wish to taste the water, hoping it will restore their youth and give
them an opportunity to live life again, free from the mistakes they made when
they were young. However, they waste the chances given to them for they still
prioritized their pleasures.

10
 Title: Tom Sawyer
Genre: Novel

Author: Mark Twain

Description: In the Mississippi River

town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, an

imaginative and mischievous boy

named Tom Sawyer lives with his

Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid.

Tom is made to whitewash the

fence as punishment for missing

school on Friday and getting his

clothes dirty in a fight. He regularly

skips school and chores in order to

play pirates, robbers, and other

adventure games with his friends.

Because of that they witnessed a murder. This leads Tom and Huck to discover

Injun Joe's treasure. The two have become a celebrated pair in St. Petersburg as

a result of their adventures, heroism, and newfound wealth.

Theme: Friendship, imagination, truth, and lying are the themes. Camaraderie:

The friendship between Tom, Joe, and Huck allows them to construct their own

adventurous world. Their faith in one another enables them to overcome

challenges and have fun wherever they go.

11
Title: The Grapes of Wrath
Author:John Steinbeck
Genre: Novel
Description: The Grapes of
Wrath is an
American realist novel
written by John
Steinbeck and published in
1939. The book won
the National Book Award
and Pulitzer Prize for fiction,
and it was cited
prominently when
Steinbeck was awarded
the Nobel Prize in 1962. The
story takes place from the
set during the Great
Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant
farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship,
agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out
of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are
trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California along with thousands
of other "Okies" seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future.

Theme: The theme of the story evokes the harshness of the Great Depression
and arouses sympathy for the struggles of migrant farmworkers. It also depicts
the multiplying effects of selfishness and altruism which talks about self-interest
and altruism that the author emphasizes to the story. And the saving power of
family and fellowship is also the theme of the story wherein the Joads are joined
by blood, the text argues that it is not their genetics but their loyalty and
commitment to one another that establishes their true kinship.
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