Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as part of a friendly ghost story writing competition with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and friend Lord Byron when she was eighteen years old. The novel has prompted many melodramatic takeoffs in film and much critical interest. It is one of the earliest works of science fiction, and the scientific techniques described in it are shadowy at best, yet they represent adequately the scientific knowledge of the time. The books subtitle links it to the Prometheus myth, popular in the Romantic era. Both Percy Shelley and Lord Byron wrote Promethean poems. Prometheus, a Titan, stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, allowing them to thrive and create. Frankenstein's creature was brought to life through the “fire” of lightning. In both cases, the reader must wonder whether the powers given to humankind are blessings or curses. The novel questions what responsibility humankind has in the face of achievements that can have both good and bad results.

The spirit of Paradise Lost permeates Frankenstein throughout the novel. The monster says:

“The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God, and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone” (Shelley, 20). Frankensteins suffering clearly shows that he realizes too late that he miscalculated the destructive potential of his discovery.

The novel is filled with imagery of light and dark. Every scientist has his Holy Grail. The one goal in his lifetime which he strives for and pours years of hard work into. “No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.” (Shelley, 52)

One interesting stylistic device in the novel is the lack of a constant or reliable narrator: Robert Walton, Frankenstein, and the creature all tell their own stories. The reader thus is given different points of view from which to judge the story. Another point of interest is: “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.” (Shelley, 52)

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a tragic yet inspirational account of one man's self-sacrifice in a struggle against hypocrisy and oppression. Set on a ward of a mental hospital in Oregon, the novel depicts characters who could be found in many settings and a conflict between authoritarianism and individualism that is truly universal.

Ken Kesey tells the story through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a longtime patient who is uniquely knowledgeable about hospital routines and procedures and privy to staff secrets. As important ...