I would ordinarily write on something political, since that's my main focus in life. However, since we're working on a short week around here because there is a holiday, I thought this would be a perfect time to use my secondary area of focus: English/Literature.

We're about halfway through the summer, so there isn't too much time left for reading, but have you been doing any at all? As college students, I understand that there isn't much time in our days to read, but there are a few books I think everyone, especially college students, should read at least once in their lifetime. This latter half of our summer would be the perfect time to do it!

Each of these are novels are certainly great books, but the reason I've compiled this list is because every one of these has a message greater than the story itself. That's what makes each of these books so timeless; the messages they try to tell us are universal and will never not be pertinent. Each of these books hold a lesson I think every college student should learn before we graduate.

So, without further ado, here is the five books that I believe every young adult should read.

1) The Great Gatsby, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is a novel depicting life during the time period known as "the Roaring Twenties." The main character, Nick Carraway, moves to New York after serving in World War I with hopes of getting into the bond business. Very quickly, Nick finds himself pulled into the lives of rich aristocrats whose lives revolve around using their wealth and prestige to get anything they want. Long Island is very much divided into classes, with the rich citizens living in either West Egg or East Egg and the working poor living between the eggs in an area known as the Valley of Ashes. The better events for the rich characters happen in one of the eggs, and almost all of the negative events are caused by the rich characters, but take down people who live in the Valley of Ashes.

This story involves the rich using their wealth to manipulate others to get what they want and the poor taking the downfall for the actions of the rich. This is certainly something that is still pertinent today. Our society is at a point where the middle class is slowly disappearing, and the wealth gap is wider than it ever has been.

Another relevant theme for the story is the ever-watching eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg. Dr. Eckelburg is an oculist (we call them ophthalmologists now) who sold glasses long before the story actually takes place. He had placed an advertisement billboard in the Valley of Ashes, but when the story takes place, the billboard is falling apart. The somewhat eerie part is that the eyes that were the graphic for his ad are perfectly intact and pointed right at the spot where all of the negative events take place. This is one of my favorite allegories of all time; no matter what happened in the Valley of Ashes, the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckelburg saw everything, even when people lied to cover themselves up.

All in all, it's a great book, and I would suggest, if your high school English classes failed you, you read this book.

2) Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

This story is one of the boldest political statements I've ever encountered. In Brave New World, the world has taken a dark turn where a global government, the World State, seeks to remove all strong emotions, desires, and human relationships from society. This is done by forcing all people into one of five castes by altering fetuses and implementing conditioning. Each of the castes are represented by a Greek letter, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alphas are programmed to be the most intellectually and aesthetically gifted of the society, and are born to rule. Epsilons are born to be dimwitted and perform hard labor to support the other four classes. The other three classes fill the gaps, with the better jobs going to the ones closer to Alpha and the not-so-wonderful jobs going to the ones closer to Epsilon.

Huxley wanted us to fully understand what could happen if we let the government begin to control our lives. This story involves a protagonist by the name of Bernard Marx, who hates the caste system setup, and his struggle to fit in as an Alpha shows us the horrors of the World State's system. I think every college student should read this story because it is an excellent reminder of how important our personal freedoms are. While I hope this story is outlandish enough to never happen, it should be enough motivation to push us all to stand up for our freedom when people try to limit it.

3) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

This book. Guys, this book is something special. This book is about a fireman named Guy Montag. The sounds somewhat normal, but firemen in this book don't fight fires. They instead fight WITH fire. Literature is deemed evil because of the conflicting themes and complexity that books hold. People started becoming offended over the content of books, which lead to authors eventually all sounding the same. Over time, the society grew to hate higher-level thinking, and they prefer to interact with each other exculsively on superficial levels. Because of this, firemen had their mission changed to full-time book burners. Montag's mentality about these things begins to change when he gets a call to burn some books that an older lady kept hidden. When he arrives to do the job, the old lady asks him to burn her with her books. After that fire, a character who challenged Montag's way of life dies and Montag decides that there might actually be something to literature. He begins studying literature and slowly becomes disgusted with the shallow lives he and the rest of society are living. Montag decides to reconnect with a retired English teacher he knows to help him study and to bring literature back to society.

I can't even begin to describe how important this book is to me as an English major. This one book shows how horrible censorship can actually be. While it censorship certainly has a place, if it is abused, our very society could be changed in a heavily negative way. I mean, if you get right down to it, I can already start to see some of Bradbury's fictional society in our society today.

If you've never read this one, I highly suggest it. I almost can't even put it into words how badly you need to read Fahrenheit 451.

4) Room, Emma Donoghue

This book is one of my favorites because of its near-perfection from a literary standpoint. Room is the story of a small boy named Jack who lives in Room with his mother. Jack tells us about how he's lived in Room all of his life and how he's never been outside of Room. Room is literally Jack's world. Now, for Ma, Jack's mom, Room is a prison. Room has been her torture for the past seven years. Jack and Ma are being kept in Room by a man Jack knows as Old Nick. At night, Jack sleeps in a wardrobe so that Old Nick doesn't have to see him when Old Nick visits.

This is a story of parental love, transition, and mental strain that truly stayed with me long after finishing it. Room brings a sense of humanity to real-life situations that we couldn't ordinarily experience without being personally involved. Emma put us in the shoes of Jack so that we could experience every bout of fear, confusion, anger that he experiences. Like I said before, this book is near-perfection in a literary sense, and it certainly warrants a need for everyone to read it. If you don't have a sense of empathy after reading Room, then I question whether or not you're human.

5) 1984, George Orwell

1984 is another political statement given literary form. This book even hits on the same themes that Brave New World hits on. However, in my opinion, 1984 is much better.

1984 begins with Winston Smith, a lower-ranking member of the Party, a group of people who rule over Oceania. Everywhere that Smith goes, the Party is watching him through "telescreens," and everywhere Smith looks, there are images of "Big Brother," the omniscient leader of the Party. The Party is in control of every single aspect of life in Oceania. Specifically, the Party wants to eliminate what they've dubbed "thoughtcrime," which is a type of code for thoughts which could lead to political rebellion. Smith has a journal where he writes down all of his thoughtcrimes because he is disgusted with how the Party prohibits free thought, all forms of sex, and anything that could be defined as an expression of individuality. He works in the "Ministry of Truth" where historical records are altered to fit the Party's political agenda, and it is there that a co-worker takes an interest in Smith. This co-worker, Julia, gives Smith a note saying that she loves him and they begin to have an affair. Julia and the affair they have takes Smith on a mental and physical journey where he learns more about this Party and grows in his desire to overthrow it.

I've avoided true spoilers for this entire article, and I will continue to do so, but the true message of this book come in its climax and exposition. The true power and will of the government are both exposed, and they shape the rest of the story.

Again, much like Brave New World, 1984 gives us an even more powerful and haunting reminder of what can happen if the government seizes too much of our freedom. This story also shows us how corrupt the human race can be. Much like I said earlier with Brave New World, I certainly hope this story is way too far-fetched to actually become our reality, but it should act as motivation to stand up for our rights when the government tries to take them away.