Analysis Of How To Read Literature Like A Professor By Thomas Foster

The motivation for the quest is implicit- the stated reason for going on the journey is

In the twelfth chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster provides various information on how to identify symbols throughout literature. The chapter stressed the individuality of identifying symbols, Foster mentions multiple times that “every reader’s experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will emphasize various elements to different degrees” (110). After learning this and also having read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, one thing that stood out was that the main character, Oskar, only has and only wears white clothes. Not only does Oskar often reference his various white clothes, including the white scarf that Grandma knitted

Authors tend to get very political in between the lines of their stories. In “How to Read Literature Like a Professor,” by Thomas C. Foster, there is a chapter that discusses about how almost every author gets political with their writing. “Nearly all writing is political on some level.” (“How to Read Literature Like a Professor” 118.) “Animal Farm,” “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave,” and “Nature” are some examples that’ll be used to prove this point.

“Sometimes the really scary bloodsuckers are entirely human” (Foster 18). In How To Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster argues that vampires in literature are not always actual vampires, but can be figurative as well: “Using other people to get what we want. Placing our desires above the needs of others...as long as people act toward their fellows in exploitative and selfish ways, the vampire will be” (Foster 22). In essence, Foster illustrates that the act of using others to attain one’s personal goal is analogous to a vampire sucking the blood out of it’s victim. Foer’s protagonist in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar, also shows these vampiric tendencies in his goal of learning about his father’s key. “‘Actually, I’m diabetic

Foster discusses the idea that when two characters eat together, that moment acts as a bonding experience and causes the characters to come together. I had never noticed the significance of a meal between characters before. After reading this chapter, I can think of so many moments in stories when the characters share a meal together to form friendships or come to a peace. In one of my favorite novels, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Picoult writes that “Emma Alexis- who was one of the cool, beautiful girls…she rolled her wheelchair right beside Justin. She’d asked him if she could have half of his donut” (367). Splitting the donut between one of the popular girls and one of the quieter, nerdier boys was a representation of the deformation of the high school social classes. After reading this chapter, I could recall the significance of meals together in so many novels and movies but I never noticed this pattern before.

Every character that travels down a path, that encounters obstacles on their journey, that makes sacrificial decisions faces each of these components as they undertake a life-altering quest. Often times the hero ventures out to save someone or solve a problem, but in fact, their true journey is a search for self-knowledge. Through every obstacle and road-block along the way, the character discovers more about themselves and their true identity. Though they may have journeyed across great lands to accomplish their mission, the thing they were searching for was inside of them all along; the journey and challenges only helped to reveal their real character. As explained in Thomas C. Foster’s literary criticism, How to Read Literature Like a Professor,

In the skillful novel, "How To Read Literature Like A Professor" by Thomas C. Foster, there is neither a protagonist nor antagonist. As a whole, the novel gives insights on how to pick up signs of symbolism, irony, and many other hidden details that are buried within the words of literature. Foster refers to many classis novels by classic authors to demonstrate the use of logic in writing. The novel is extremely educational, leaving many insightful questions and interpretations to the reader's opinion.

In the book, How To Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster, the author, talks about diseases in literature and how they are never what they seem to be. The symptoms and the side effects all mean something more than the disease- or at least they do in literary diseases. He also states that there are 3 key elements to know if a disease or fever is significant to the plot and the character. First of all, the patient is usually very picturesque in the sense that their body and appearance shows their deterioration. Secondly, the patient does not know the whereabouts of their disease and would not know he or she acquired it - a mystery factor. Lastly, there is always symbolism about the character’s lifestyle and their actions that is shown through the disease. Overall, Foster claims that literary diseases almost always have a deeper meaning than what they seem to be or cause

In The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, sixteen-year-old, track star Jessica was traveling to a meet and the bus crashed. Her teammate Lucy, died in the accident. Jessica was rushed to the hospital and doctors had to amputate her leg. Jessica and her parents were very upset, running was a huge part of her life. She had a long and tough recovery ahead of her, she became depressed knowing she would never be able to move like she used to. She visited a prosthetist named Hank, who created a prosthetic leg for her. When Jessica returned to school, her friend Fiona, Coach Kyro and the entire track team, welcomed her back with a party during lunch. They also got Jessica’s story on the news and had fundraisers

At the beginning of the book. A 16 year old runner girl Jessica gets in to a horrific car accident and gets her right foot amputated. After a few chapters into the book. Jessica’s leg still hurts but the pain in her leg is nothing compared to the one in her heart. Eventually Jessica goes back home and returns to her school. where she suffers to do her everyday live activities.

Literature affects and reflects our lives, literature can make ones respective towards reading more powerful. Literature is what makes reading meaningful. They take us on an experience which we may or not experience in our lives. The message through the novel always makes a person’s outcome. As a result, we would make a personal connection. We may choose to see this personal connection and the experience through reading a novel. Making connections with a character in the novel is always leading us in a path where we are more aware of the importance of literature.

Despite living in an age full of technology and devices, words persistently dominate our world, with each carrying its own meaning. When strung together, these words can combine into an inspiring masterpiece of great literary works. Found bountifully in today’s society, literature acts as the messenger for truth and knowledge. It conveys the human story and explores the insuperable mind, creating lasting impacts in its readers. Consequently, from a young age, books taught, comforted, and guided me, ultimately to influence who I now am. English language and literature continue to impact my daily life.

Many would argue that to read a novel is a difficult and complex art. For one to fully understand a story, one must acquire pre-requisite skills to take all that they can, from what the author has given. This is undeniably true, as both Virginia Woolf, in “How Should One Read a Book?”, and James Wood in “The Limits of Not Quite” prove, that reading to its potential requires an open mind, the independence of the reader to ignore the critiques of others, while having the ability to make his or her own.

Literature, a body of written works, is something that I sometimes find myself leisurely immersing in. It allows for the limitations of my own ordinary situations to be seized momentarily whilst I let mind be free and my own imagination wander. The pursuit of self-discovery is present within many forms of literature and can be told through plots and central characters. I often discover new societal universal longings that arise from the novels pages which encourages me to reflect on my own sense of self. The unique interpretations and individual thoughts made by readers allows for a diverse range of reactions to literature. It allows for the words on a page to transform from still words, into a journey of personal growth, where

It always seems that literature is hard to read: you know the writers have deeper meanings behind the stories they create, but what you read is mostly the simple plots that the characters play. Of course the writers utilize many techniques in their novels, but most of them are diluted into the hundreds of pages of the book, hidden around every corner of the words. Realizing this, Professor Foster writes How To Read Literature Like A Professor to teach how to interpret some of the aspects to understand the literature works. In this book, he explains how readers should treat the characters, symbolism, allusion, environment description, political implication, and other techniques that appear in novels. Those aspects usually appear in every literature book. One Hundred Years of Solitude and A Prayer for Owen Meany exemplify those aspects mentioned in Foster’s book. Interpreting these two novels by following how Foster teaches in his book, readers will be able to read literature in a new level and view.