The one that stuck with me is The Cask of Amontillado.
me too but thats because i had to read it like 5 times to even understand what happened in the story
The Cask of Amontillado.
I remember reading it, and seeing it as a metaphor for killing off an aspect of yourself, like being a drunk, no matter how long or hard the process is, and hoping that it will never come back to haunt you.
The names are quite similar and I was trying to sober up at the time; I wasn’t going to admit to the grade 9 class the latter.
Montresor = Mon trésor is “my treasure”
Fortunato = the root word is “fortune”
The one that sticks out for me is On The Sidewalk Bleeding. Wasn’t even the most effed up thing we read in 9th grade, just had the most memorable name.
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Not in english, but we read Anne Frank’s Diary in grade 8, Andorra by Max Frisch in grade 9 or 10.
But the most disturbing was “Der Sandmann” in grade 11 and “Der gelbe Vogel” (originally “Alan and Naomi”) in grade 9.
- “Gentlemen, your verdict” by Michael Bruce - trolley problem on a submarine (attention: weird vertical formatting)
- “Just Lather, That’s All” by Hernando Téllez" - a barber during a civil war
The second one actually gave me half of a mental breakdown, but not because it was too violent for me.
One analysis that I read made the exact opposite conclusion that I made, and it showed me this: in the subject of English, two diametrically opposed points can both be equally correct! Nothing is fixed! Reality is mutable!Also The Lottery, The Veldt, Harrison Bergeron (which others have already mentioned)
The Veldt, by Ray Bradbury.
They didn’t make everyone read it though, just us “gifted/advanced” kids. It was one of several short stories that were in a special program book that I had to read.
I still think those kids were brats.
Edit: just looked it up and this was supposed to be 9th grade English??? We fucking had to read that as 5th graders.
I was in the “gifted/advanced” track too. Teachers saw this one of two ways. Half of them got the memo: you got extra interesting stuff to noodle through because we’re all under-stimulated in a typical class. The others decided to just double your homework load and call it a day. At least the teachers in the first group had some interesting takes on brain teasers and reading material.
And on that note: I must have thought about Flowers for Algernon every week since I read it. Since the 90’s. I’m tired, boss.
I also took the “fucked up stories for smart kids” class
This was the one. Every once in a while my brain just says “hey, remember that fucked up story where the kids had a smart room that became whatever they wanted and it spoiled them to the point they murdered their parents with lions? Wasn’t that fucked up? Let’s think about how fucked up it was for a while!”
It was 7th grade for me, but still, I can’t believe we read that as kids.
Oh I was gonna call out All Summer in a Day cause holy fuck Ray Bradbury has some issues with kids…
I mean he is right too but damn those stories stick with you. And also did that and basically all the ones you pointed out as a “gifted class”. Do you think they literally had just 1 syllabus for us weird kids for the whole nation to try and scare us back into line or what? Cause, seems like we all getting traumatized by stories of death and emotional torture at like 11 by the same stories.
Harrison Bergeron, in like 7th grade
I don’t remember the name of the short story, but I remember that it was about a town that abused someone they kept in a dungeon, and through their abuse they stayed unified. The teacher said it was a lesson in utilitarianism.
Maybe The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursala McGuin?
Definitely that one.
The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst
This one stuck with me way more than others on here. It horrified me as a middle schooler.
Harrison Bergeron
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce.
Came here to post this.
For me that is ‘The Dreams in the Witch House’, but that shit was 100% self inflicted.
“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" by Gabriel García Márquez would have been that, but it lost its impact because my generation associates the name Esteban with the silly bellhop from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The egg by Andy Weir
how about steinbecks the pearl
scarred for life from a 7th grade shortish story
