Great novels featuring complex ethical dilemmas?

[EKS]

We are looking at prolonged school closures here, so I'm looking to beef up the homeschool part of our days, and I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for awesome novels that feature complex ethical dilemmas and that read aloud well?  This would be for an 18yo male, if that makes a difference.

[Miss Tick]

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, i read it to myself, though, not out loud.

I highly recommend All Systems Red by Martha Wells - if you all like sci-fi and action. The protagonist is a cyborg(?) with a past whose current job is to protect humans, despite not liking them. There are a few ethical issues that arise, although the novella does not focus on one as a main theme. I wasn't reading it for that, though, could have flown right over my head. Off the top of my head I remember touching on lying, computer hacking, and the rights status of beings that are difficult to categorize (pet? slave? coworker?)

Edited March 12, 2020 by SusanC
killed a few kittens with that first attempt

[mlktwins]

Definitely the book One Second After .  We did as a read aloud.  Eye opening book actually!

ETA:  Mine were 13, but this is definitely not a book for youngers.  AT ALL!

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by mlktwins

[EKS]

13 hours ago, square_25 said:

What are some books he likes? 

Good question.  He's been reading nonfiction these past few years.  His most recent favorite book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  Back when he read more fiction, I remember him liking House Rules (Picoult),  Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend (Dicks), and Racing in the Rain (Stein).

[Lori D.]

Just finished Ender's Game with my high school co-op class (ages 14-18) and they really dug into discussing it. Easy to read but lots of meat to chew on -- the last 4 chapters especially get in to some very interesting stuff, like who was morally responsible for genocide and wartime ethics; forgiveness for atrocities; and manipulation/control through online discussion boards. I would be happy to share the 3 lessons I created to go with the book (which have a lot of discussion prompt questions), in exchange for some feedback about how the lessons worked/didn't work... 😉 

Edited March 13, 2020 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

Also, Shakespeare has some great moral dilemmas in his plays -- especially: Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear.

[mlktwins]

I'm going to have to buy some of these books -- LOL.  Not using the library for awhile!!!

[Lori D.]

ETA more ideas:

And a few more "classics" with ethics:
- To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
- The Jungle (Sinclair) -- based on real events; immigrant workers and Chicago meat-packing industry at the turn of the century
- The Invisible Man (Wells) -- ethics and choices based on scientific discovery -- "medium easy" to read aloud
- The Island of Dr. Moreau (Wells) -- genetic manipulation, and what makes us human -- "harder" to read aloud

A few fast/easy YA reads:
- The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff) -- questions/ethics of censorship
- The Hate U Give (Thomas); Dear Martin (Stone); All American Boys (Reynolds & Kiely) -- moral questions in the black lives matter movement

I keep circling back to this thread. What is tripping me up is the "read aloud well" -- what about some really well-read (performed?) audiobook versions? That might expand you to some of the really LONG great classics with moral/ethical issues like:
- Crime and Punishment,
- A Tale of Two Cities,
- Lord of the Rings trilogy
- etc.

Also, what about some biographies, or fictionalized real life stories of people that involve moral/ethical decisions -- things like The Hiding Place, Black Like Me, and more recent works that I can't think of at the moment, lol.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Lori D.

[readinmom]

Seconding Never Let Me Go

What about Of Mice and Men?  Euthanasia...both animal and human dilemmas.