ShmoopTube

We were so moved by Angelina Jolie's overseas adoptions that we created a proposal to bring foreign-born children over by the thousands! Think abou...

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...

Brave New World is supposed be an exciting book about a negative utopia and the corrupt powers of authority. So where’s the big car chase? What's...

You’re one in a million, buddy. Er...actually, more like one meaningless speck in a sea of billions. Makes you feel kind of insignificant, right?...

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

This video summarizes the plot of Brave New World from the point of view of John (you know, the “savage”). It covers the escapism, social casts...

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.

What's the deal with "Nectar in a Sieve"? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

Whenever you start regretting the choices you've made in your life, just review Oedipus' story, and you'll start feeling a heck of a lot better.

Well, if this book doesn't make you want to tape over your laptop camera, we don't know what will.

By the end of this video, you will be brainwashed. There's nothing you can do about it; we just wanted to let you know. We like to think we're bigg...

Three scantily clad young girls enter a store. No, this isn’t your grandfather about to tell an inappropriate joke. And no, you’re not watching...

Why did the editor give Chapter 21 of A Clockwork Orange the axe? Was it because he wanted to leave the reader hanging? Or did he realize Americans...

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...

How's Julius Caesar doing after that whole "assassination" thing? Well, he's taking it one day at a time.

This video summarizes the Shakespearean play Macbeth. Two major forces are at play in the story: witches’ prophecies and Macbeth’s demanding wi...

It can never hurt to have a few spare duchesses lying around the house.

We may not always agree with the government, but at least they aren't pigs. We mean that literally. Whether or not you think they're pigs in a figu...

Good thing this guy never wrote a parenting book.

Prepare for total tragedy.

Who's really the crazy one in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

Pious Aeneas goes from minor character in the Trojan War to founder of Rome, the city that conquered the world, meetin' ladies and experiencing major duty-induced guilt trips along the way. We wonder what Virgil could have done for Robin, Batman's perpetual sidekick...

Pious Aeneas strikes again. This time, with more destiny and hand-to-hand combat! (Of course, since we're talking about Aeneas, he's still harping about that whole duty thing.)

Think of this video as a how-to guide for not getting lobotomized. Practical? Maybe not. Entertaining? Um...

Did you hear the one about the guy who killed his dad and married his mom? Yeah, that’s not a joke, it’s Oedipus’ life. This video summarizes the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King as Oedipus investigates who murdered the old king (spoiler alert: he did). The moral of the story? Don’t investigate something you don’t want to know the answer to and believe the blind fortune teller Teiresias—he’s probably right.

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 the Rings trilogy revolves around that one ring. Will the ring bring darkness or light, precious?

This video provides a summary of the dystopian novel Divergent. It covers Beatrice Prior’s path from discovering she is Divergent (doesn’t fit neatly into one of the categories of her society) to reinventing herself as Tris in Dauntless, the brave faction, to stopping Erudite from making the Dauntless into Abnegation-killers. Plus, there’s some crazy challenges—what else can you expect from the faction that values bravery?

We get it: Jennifer Lawrence is awesome. We think so, too. That being said, we wouldn't actually want to see her killing other kids in a bloodthirsty sociopolitical spectacle, so what makes things different in Panem?

Imagine a world in which all literature was dystopian. Okay, so we may be getting to that point, 1984 and V for Vendetta helped start it all.

We totally understand loving your country, but don't murder your best friend over it. That's a bit over the top. Stick to flying flags and singing national anthems, please.

It's not your everyday teenager that volunteers to enter a fight to the death, but then again not every teenager has a cool name like "Katniss Everdeen" either. Clearly she was destined for greatness.

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 all the chained up natives and fog and heads on poles? The horror, the horror!