Exploring imprisonment, confinement and the urge for freedom, this poem vividly illustrates inequality. Comparing the life of a caged and a free bird, the speaker investigates the caged bird’s captivity, oppression and hope for liberation. It can be read as a metaphor portraying unequal treatment and discrimination against African-Americans during the civil rights era. When […]
The speaker of the poem states that while a summer’s day fades away, the beauty of the addressee will not, as it is preserved in the lines of the sonnet.
This empowering poem by award-winning author Maya Angelou explores sexism, oppression, resilience and racism. Using a call and response technique, Angelou tells the story of a black woman fighting for equality and the right to self-expression by speaking up. The confident, female voice condemns harassment and inequalities against people of colour and loudly recalls that […]
An autobiographical novel on racial segregation, identity, and hypocrisy. The white journalist J. H. Griffin retells the story of a remarkable experiment: In 1959 at the height of racial tensions, he uses a dermatological drug that darkens his skin – so he could pass as an African American. Griffin embarks on a six weeks’ journey […]
A dystopian novel on social inequality, manipulative tendencies in the media and autocratic governments. In the trilogy’s first part, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, which is part of a post-apocalyptic society controlled by a brutal regime. On the Day of Reaping each district offers two teenagers as ‘tributes’ to participate in the Hunger […]
A story about religion, struggle for survival and the relativity of truth. Yann Martel’s Life of Pi follows a young man who survives a shipwreck in a lifeboat with a large Bengal tiger – resisting hunger, thirst, fear and loneliness for 227 days. Growing up in India as a son of a zookeeper, “Pi” Patel studies […]
A young adult novel on corruption of power, violence and history repeating itself. After a documentary fails to make his students understand how fascism works, Ben Ross, a high school teacher, decides to conduct a social teaching experiment. Applying concepts of fascism to his group of students works more effectively than expected – Ben notices […]
A teenage-detective novel on high school culture, identity conflicts, bullying and peer pressure. Hannah has committed suicide. Shortly after, her classmate Clay receives a package with a set of audio tapes. While Clay works his way through the tapes, the reasons for what happened to Hannah are revealed and he begins to see life at […]
A detective story through the eyes of a teenage narrator – about abilities and disabilities, changes and challenges. Christopher is a 15-year old boy, on the autistic spectrum, who lives with his father in Swindon, England. After he discovers the body of his neighbour’s dog that was killed with a garden fork, he starts to […]
This Victorian Christmas tale follows Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly, bitter gentleman who despises the festive season and everything other people love about it. One Christmas Eve three ghosts visit him. With the intention to change his perspective, they show Mr Scrooge the Christmas Eves of the past, the present and the future – and thereby […]
This young adult fiction is the debut novel from the magical realist Harry Potter series. Harry is an orphan, living with his aunt and uncle and their son Dudley. He finds out that he is no ordinary boy at all, when on his 11th birthday he receives an invitation to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft […]
A short story about nationality, citizenship, artificial boundaries and cultural identity. “Borders” was published in T. King’s collection of short stories One Good Story, That One (1993). A boy with his mother – both of Blackfeet origin (first nations = indigenous people of North America) – are on the way from Canada to the US to visit […]
Prototypical modernist short story on class issues, wealth and self-reflexion with complex metaphors and imagery. The Sheridan family is preparing a party in the garden of their mansion, when the news arrives that Mr. Scott, their neighbor, died in an accident. Laura, the daughter of the Sheridans’, wants to cancel the party – but her […]
A witty, lighthearted short story about vanity, desire and competition that satirized the manners of the Edwardian upper class. Mrs. Packletide, an English aristocrat of the Edwardian era, wants to demonstrate her superiority to her social competitor Mrs. Bimberton and therefore plans to hunt a tiger. With the help of an entire village and a […]
A light-hearted short story about a ghost who hasn’t slept for 300 years and desperately fails to be scary at all. The US-American Otis family moves into Canterville Chase, a haunted house in England. Soon after their arrival, a ghost of an English nobleman named Sir Simon de Centerville reveals himself and tries his best […]