Crash Course AP Literature

Beloved by Toni
Morrison,
published 1987

Genre: novel (historical fiction)

Setting: 1873, with flashbacks to the early 1850s, Cincinnati, Ohio, Kentucky,

and Alfred, Georgia

Main characters: Sethe, Denver, and Paul D., Beloved, Baby Suggs

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Sethe escapes from slavery, but kills her older

daughter to keep her from being taken back to the South by her old master. A

mysterious figure appears at Sethe’s home, calling herself by the name on the

dead daughter’s tombstone.

Tags: supernatural, oppressive effects of slavery

The Color Purple
by Alice Walker,
published 1982

Genre: novel (epistolary)

Setting: rural Georgia, 1910-1940

Main characters: Celie, Shug, Nettie

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Celie is verbally, physically, and sexually abused

by several different men, lowering her self esteem; she is a child woman with

no voice, and no one to turn to. The story is told through a series of letters in

Celie’s voice.

Tags: racism, sexism, self discovery

The Crucible by
Arthur Miller

Genre: play

Setting: Salem, Massachusetts

Main characters: John and Elizabeth Proctor, Thomas and Ann Putnam,

Reverend Parris, Abigail Williams, and Reverend John Hale

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Abigail Williams leads a group of young girls who

accuse local men and women of witchcraft partly to cover up their “sinful”

nocturnal activities in the forest. John Proctor, who has committed adultery

with Abigail Williams, tries to combat the hysteria.

Tags: intolerance, greed, sin and forgiveness, tragedy, McCarthy Hearings

(Red Scare)

Note: Miller’s play is based on real characters in the Salem Witch Trials

Genre: novel

Setting: 1940s, Ndotsheni and Johannesburg, South Africa

Main characters: Stephen Kumalo, James Jarvis, Theophilus Msimangu,

Absalom Kumalo, Arthur Jarvis