Groundbreaking
This 1997 film about a massive ocean liner that “sinks on its maiden voyage” became a cultural phenomenon with teens yelling “I’m king of the world!” and recreating the “flying” scene at the bow — instantly making its groundbreaking CGI, sweeping romance, and tragic ending a pop-culture touchstone still parodied everywhere.
Titanic
This bestselling modern YA book series (and its Disney+ adaptation) follows a modern-day teenager who discovers he is the son of Poseidon and must navigate a secret world of gods, monsters, and quests straight out of ancient Greek myths like the Minotaur, Medusa, and the Lightning Bolt of Zeus.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (or The Lightning Thief)
This 1776 document, primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson, famously declares that “all men are created equal” and lists grievances against King George III, justifying the American colonies’ break from Britain.
The Declaration of Independence
This young girl’s wartime diary, written while hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam, has become one of the most widely read and translated nonfiction books in the world, often assigned in schools as a firsthand account of the Holocaust.
The Diary of a Young Girl (or Anne Frank’s Diary)
This English playwright is referenced in Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” where the singer sings about being “Romeo” throwing pebbles and her daddy saying “stay away from Juliet.”
William Shakespeare
This groundbreaking 1960 horror film by Alfred Hitchcock features an iconic shower scene with screeching violins and a silhouette attacker that has been endlessly parodied in everything from The Simpsons and Scary Movie to commercials and TV sketches — making its shocking twist and cinematic techniques cultural shorthand for “sudden terror.”
Psycho
This ancient Anglo-Saxon epic, preserved in a single manuscript from around the year 1000, tells the story of a Scandinavian hero who battles the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon.
Beowulf
In this famous 1941 address to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his vision of “Four Essential Human Freedoms” — including freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear — explicitly building on the protections guaranteed in America’s foundational list of individual rights.
The Bill of Rights
This inspiring autobiography details the early life of a woman who became deaf and blind as a toddler, yet learned to communicate through the tireless teaching of Anne Sullivan — a story of overcoming unimaginable obstacles that has been adapted into plays like films (The Miracle Worker).
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
In the series, Wednesday, starring Jenna Ortega as a macabre teenager. The quirky boarding school is named Nevermore Academy — a direct nod to the famous refrain in a classic poem by this author.
Edgar Allen Poe
This groundbreaking 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix introduced the concept of a simulated reality controlled by machines — a movie that is itself constantly alluded to in later works through red pills, “there is no spoon,” and “I know kung fu” memes.
What famous book did the movie's premise allude to?
George Orwell's 1984
In a classic Treehouse of Horror Halloween episode of this long-running animated sitcom, the Simpson family acquires a cursed object that grants three wishes — each one twisting in horrific, unintended ways exactly like this original short story by W.W. Jacobs.
The Monkey's Paw
Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech, which begins “Four score and seven years ago,” was recited in its entirety by Johnny Cash on his 1972 album America — a powerful cultural tribute that helped keep its ideals of liberty and equality alive in popular music.
Gettysburg Address
This 1994 historical novel by Julia Alvarez fictionalizes the true story of the Mirabal sisters (known as “Las Mariposas”), who courageously opposed the brutal dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic—their resistance and tragic fate have become symbols of courage and are now commemorated annually on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
In the Time of the Butterflies
This Scottish author sent readers sailing with Long John Silver and a map marked with an X.
Robert Louis Stevenson
This groundbreaking 1893 Expressionist painting by Edvard Munch, showing a figure clutching its head in anguish against a swirling orange sky, became the ultimate visual shorthand for panic and existential dread, inspiring countless references in cartoons, horror films, and even the famous poster for Home Alone.
The Scream
In this iconic early 20th-century novella, a traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to discover he has been transformed into a giant insect — a surreal story that has become shorthand in pop culture for feelings of alienation, guilt, and sudden life upheaval.
The Metamorphosis (by Franz Kafka)
Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and signed by 100 people at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, this document modeled after the Declaration of Independence boldly states that “all men and women are created equal” and lists grievances against the denial of women’s rights, launching the organized women’s suffrage movement in America.
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
This 1969 autobiography by Maya Angelou recounts her childhood in the segregated South, including experiences of racism, trauma, and her love of literature — a coming-of-age memoir that became a landmark work in American literature and is frequently assigned in high schools for its powerful themes of resilience and identity.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
This Russian playwright and short story writer is so famous for his principle of dramatic economy that screenwriters and storytellers still say “If a gun appears in the first act, it must fire by the third” — a rule universally known by his name.
Anton Chekhov
This 1941 film by Orson Welles, famous for its innovative deep-focus cinematography, nonlinear storytelling, and dramatic use of shadows and angles, is repeatedly alluded to in later movies, TV shows, and literature through lines like “Rosebud” and shots of a lonely tycoon in his vast empty mansion — often called the greatest film ever made for revolutionizing cinematic technique.
Citizen Kane
In the dim glow of the streetlamp a thin boy with patched trousers stood shivering as the well-fed merchant in his warm greatcoat hurried past without a glance, his heavy purse clinking merrily; yet even as the church bells tolled solemnly overhead, the boy’s eyes still held a quiet spark of hope that some unexpected turn of kindness might yet lift him from the cold stones into warmer rooms and brighter days.
What prose style is this?
Dickensian
Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech opens with the phrase “Five score years ago,” directly echoing the opening of this famous speech while referring to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as a “promissory note” that America has defaulted on for its Melanite citizens.
Gettysburg Address
This groundbreaking 1962 book by Rachel Carson exposed the dangers of synthetic pesticides like DDT, sparking the modern environmental movement and leading to major policy changes, including the creation of the EPA.
Silent Spring
This American author’s most famous short story features a small town that holds an annual ritual called “the lottery,” where the “winner” is stoned to death by the community — a chilling parable about blind tradition that is still widely taught and referenced whenever people discuss mob mentality or harmful customs.
Shirley Jackson