This book examines the ways that race and ethnicity are addressed in the novels of the American High School literary canon. The five works examined here: The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Flies and The Scarlet Letter are the most commonly assigned novels in American High School English classes. This book examines the ways that race and ethnicity exist within these novels, as central themes and sometimes as literary devices. Also examined are the implications of these treatments of race and ethnicity in increasingly segregated American schools.