Introduction to Literature and Composition 1 Honors

Instructor: Michael Thornton

October 27, 2009

Antihero Novel Assignment

Over the next several months – through the end of this semester and into the Spring Semester – the class will be looking at the hero in literature and the arts. After the poetry unit, we will begin with an introduction to the antihero, followed by a unit on epic poetry, which features a variety of epic heroes. Students can choose one of the following novels to read – this will serve as your major assignment of homework during the second quarter of Fall Semester.

For your independent reading report, you will be required to write a three-page paper on how the protagonist of the novel can be described as an antihero.

The novels listed cover a wide variety of subjects and reading levels. It is important that you choose one that you can understand and write about – I would suggest you peruse a number of them before making a choice. Do not choose a book that you have read before – there are too many fine choices that will expand your horizons!

Details about the literary analysis and its due date will be supplied later, but expect that this paper will be due the beginning of December, 2008.

Antihero Novel List

· The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols

· Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

· The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

· Ordinary People by Judith Guest

· Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut

· The World According to Garp by John Irving

· One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

· Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

· The Color Purple by Alice Walker

· Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

· Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

· American Gods by Neil Gaiman

· Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

· Herzog by Saul Bellow

· A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

· A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

· Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

· Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

· The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

· Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

· The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

· A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle