67 pages • 2 hours read
Shantel TessierThe Ritual: A Dark College Romance
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
The Ritual is billed as a college romance, but its characters rarely attend classes or engage in campus life. How does the idea of college function in the novel?
Explore one of the explicit scenes. How does sex motivate the plot in The Ritual and in erotic romance more broadly?
Consider the novel’s depiction of power. What constitutes power for a man? For a woman?
Characters often speak of the Lords as a monolithic power. Does this lead the Lords to take on the role of a character? If not, consider what other formal element the Lords collectively resemble. Are they a plot device? A symbol?
Look at the Epilogues to analyze whether the novel’s ending is optimistic or pessimistic about self-determination for those in the Lords’ orbit.
Discuss one of the parental figures in the novel to analyze the extent to which Blakely and Ryat are treated as coming-of-age characters versus competent, powerful adults.
Choose one of the examples of religious iconography in the text. What is its significance? How does it develop the novel’s presentation of morality?
Blakely routinely argues that she wants self-determination. Does she ever achieve this? Argue how the novel asserts or undermines her control over her own life.
What matters more to the text, the threat of violence or the violence itself? Look at one scene of violence and one where violence is threatened but not physically committed to explore how the Lords use fear as an element of control.
