ShmoopTube

Have you ever pretended to be super happy for your BFF when they win an award when, really, you just wanted to rip it out of their undeserving, ung...

Ayn (rhymes with "mine," ironically enough) Rand penned this cult classic over 50 years ago, but it still resonates with today's audiences. Our que...

This video discusses the major ideas of the satirical American war novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The horror of war meets…absurdity and humor?...

Everyone has that happy-go-lucky friend. The one who skips through life with a smile and believes everybody has a beautiful soul. We're guessing th...

In Julie of the Wolves, a girl is thrown into the wild, far away from civilization. Find out how she fares by watching this video.

Kaffir Boy is the story of a young South African tennis player living under the restrictions of apartheid. He ends up going the self-preservation r...

Life of Pi tells the story of a boy and a tiger trapped on a lifeboat for 227 days... or does it?

Are humans civilized, or are we just savages waiting to come out? William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies tackles that question.

In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout is really, really not interested in learning about the so-called requirements of her gender. Even though she realize...

Anyone who has ever bought anything from IKEA knows this to be true.

Having a fancy title has always been on our to-do list, but somehow being Lord of the Flies doesn't sound all that glamorous.

Under what circumstances should people be allowed to lie? Is Annemarie's situation dire enough? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

We know we say this for all of his stories, but here's Edgar Allan Poe at his creepiest. Well, if you don’t include that time you went into the b...

All Okonkwo was asking for was a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Granted, swinging your machete around may not be the nicest way to ask, but still. The guy d...

Monster isn't about the kind of monsters that hide under your bed. These ones are way worse.

Sorry, guys: this novel doesn't follow the dramatic life events of pumpkin pie, nor does it explore what it truly means to be the mathematical cons...

One video to rule them all. One video to find them. One video to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. Or something like that. The Lord of...

This video provides a summary of the dystopian novel Divergent. It covers Beatrice Prior’s path from discovering she is Divergent (doesn’t fit...

What happens when Charles Marlow journeys up the Congo River? Who is Mr. Kurtz—is he really amazing or just a crazy weirdo? And what’s up with...

Is Boo Radley the quintessential creep? Or, is he just isolated and misunderstood, hiding himself away to avoid people's judgment? You decide. He j...