Story Descriptions - Midterm 2025 English

Upon the Burning of Our House – Anne Bradstreet

Poem about her house burning down; she accepts God’s will and values heaven over earthly possessions.

To My Dear and Loving Husband – Anne Bradstreet

Poem expressing deep Puritan love for her husband; their love is worth more than gold or riches.

The Crucible – Arthur Miller

Play about the Salem witch trials; explores mass hysteria, integrity, and false accusations, especially through John and Elizabeth Proctor.

Young Goodman Brown – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Story of an innocent man who loses faith after a forest encounter with the devil and seeing the hypocrisy of his townspeople.

The Minister’s Black Veil – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Reverend Hooper wears a veil symbolizing hidden sin, which isolates him from society.

The Devil and Tom Walker – Washington Irving

Greedy man sells his soul to the devil for wealth and suffers moral and spiritual consequences.

The Purloined Letter – Edgar Allan Poe

Detective story where C. Auguste Dupin finds a stolen letter hidden in plain sight using logic.

The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe

Gothic tale where a decaying mansion mirrors Roderick Usher’s mental collapse.

The Masque of the Red Death – Edgar Allan Poe

Prince Prospero’s attempt to escape a plague fails, proving death is unavoidable.

Our Town – Thornton Wilder

Play narrated by the Stage Manager; focuses on ordinary life, time, and the importance of appreciating everyday moments.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – Frederick Douglass

Autobiography detailing Douglass’s journey from enslavement to freedom, emphasizing literacy as power.

The Old Man at the Bridge – Ernest Hemingway

Story about a weary refugee more worried about his animals than his own safety during the Spanish Civil War.

The Lottery – Shirley Jackson

Village ritual ends in violent sacrifice, criticizing blind tradition and conformity.

The Luck of Roaring Camp – Bret Harte

Rough miners are morally transformed by caring for an orphaned baby.

Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Dystopian satire where enforced “equality” destroys individual talent and freedom.

The Life You Save May Be Your Own – Flannery O’Connor

A con man manipulates a mother and daughter for a car; grotesque moral lesson about selfishness.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge – Ambrose Bierce

A man imagines escaping execution, but it is revealed to be a hallucination before death.

A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner

Emily Grierson clings to the past; story ends with a dark secret revealing extreme denial and decay.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place – Ernest Hemingway

Older waiter understands the old man’s existential emptiness (“nada”) and values the café as refuge.