War of the Worlds

The novel War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells, would best fit the free response prompt revolving around how violence relates to a character or theme. Throughout the entire book, aliens are killing human beings left and right, leaving nothing but ruins in their wake. The book presented humans as vulnerable and weak compared to the alien species that was invading Earth, installing a sense of helplessness in humanity due to the inevitable massacre that was slowly approaching. The theme of War of the Worlds seems to be development. The aliens were what the human race could become, intelligent beings that were also the bringers of death and destruction. With this theme, you can assume H.G. Wells wanted humanity to see what we could become and try to change our ways so we don't destroy each other and the world around us, to save ourselves from our self induced violence.

Of Mice and Men

The book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, would be a great novel to use for the free response essay prompt that revolves around the conflict between a character and society. The novel revolves around the lives of two men: Lennie Small, a mentally challenged and super strong man and George Milton, the brains, who looks after Lennie. Lennie is constantly getting in trouble because of his handicap and George is always there to get him out of harms way. This book can relate to the prompt because society cannot understand Lennie's condition and they are always jumping to the conclusion that he intentionally is out to cause harm, when he does not know any better. Thus meeting the criteria of the prompt and making it usuable for the free response essay.