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 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
