Steve Wiegenstein


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slant of light - teacher's guide



course/thematic unit suggestions



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Engelbrecht – Villafane ©2013 


A variety of elements within Slant of Light can be emphasized and used in a course or unit requiring a reading list. Upper level high school instructors may wish to use it as a choice novel. While it is impossible to list every possible text that could be used within every possible topic, the following sections provide ideas and related novels to aid instructors in their planning.

Related Readings for a Unit on Utopian/Dystopian Societies

Slant of Light lends itself to the study of Utopian/Dystopian literature. It is unique in that, while Daybreak is supposed to be a Utopian society, readers can question whether or not it possesses dystopian characteristics. For thematic reading and writing courses, here is a list of additional books that fall within the Utopian/Dystopian genre.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin

Note: This is a very short story that works very well as an introduction to Utopian and Dystopian literature. It is accessible to a wide range of students.

Utopia by Sir Thomas More

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Anthem by Ayn Rand Note: The Ayn Rand Institute offers free classroom sets to instructors and supports an essay competition for high school students. For additional information, instructors can visit: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ari

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

Note: High School instructors can use Slant of Light as a choice novel alongside books such as

Louis Lowry’s The Giver, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, and David Stahler’s True Sight.

Related Readings for Course on Idealists

The major characters within Slant of Light and the following novels provide an examination of the relationship between one’s ideals and one’s reality.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

Related Readings for Course on Strong Female Protagonists

Charlotte is a unique female character in her intelligence and strength, but also in her realistic humanity. Slant of Light contributes to the literary history of female protagonists in literature and would enhance a course that examines various portrayals of women.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Emma by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf



steve wiegenstein



From rural Missouri to the rest of the world.