Animal Farm is a novel written by George Orwell that serves as an allegory personifying the events between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Stalinist era through the eyes of the oppressed. The novel was written in a satirical format, as Orwell was one of the biggest critics of Stalin as well as communism.  The novel opens with a group of animals’ discontent with their current lifestyle on the farm in which they live. As the animals complain about their working conditions, they are encouraged by an old boar by the name of Old Major to fight for a […]

A Lesson Before Dying is a novel by Ernest J. Gaines that follows the lives of two African-American men during the 1950s in the fictional town of Bayonne, Louisiana. The main characters are Grant Wiggins, a school teacher, and Jefferson, a young man who is set to be executed for his involvement in a murder. The most prominent theme of the novel is redemption in death. The novel heavily references the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and there are  multiple similarities between Christ the man and Jefferson the prisoner. The novel is one that influences the reader to question their own […]