Jared Spoonhour Advanced Placement Literature Mrs. Thrush 2nd Semester ½ “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas Foster chapter notes: Chapter 1 The Quest • Quester – the person on the journey • A destination traveled to • A purpose for traveling there • Challenges occur during the journey • The reason for the person to go on the quest is implicit, the stated reason for traveling is never the actual reason for the journey • Always comes down to – Self – knowledge Chapter 2 Acts of Communion • Emphasizes sharing and peace • Communion scenes and passages are not always set up or established along a biblical or holy basis • Communion situations show how well characters are getting along • Communion allows the characters to attempt to overcome internal battles • In these scenes the goal is to get the reader to empathize with the characters Chapter 3 Vampirism • People are often attracted to danger • Vampires leave their mark and take away an individual’s innocence • Often contrasts between young and old occur in vampire or ghost based novels • Symbolic of people exploiting each other, denying someone else’s needs due to their own desires • We are vampires, in one way or another we take away someone else’s force Chapter 4 Now, Where have I Seen Her Before • Many stories are not completely original • Many times novels have been comprised from ideals and writings taken from other works and pieces • Intertextuality is the connection between different pieces of
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
1. In chapter eleven of his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster examines violence in literature, and particularly the way violence functions on multiple levels. Foster identifies two different kinds of violence in literature, and discusses how those two different kinds create different literal and literary meanings. By examining Foster's categories of violence in more detail, one can see how violence in literature serves as an important link between the internal events of a story and the story itself.
These scenes are stitched together in a way that is meant to bring nuance to the story, but instead was hard to interpret and confusing. It was sometimes hard to know which characters were being referred to and where each stood chronologically with relation to the others. For example, two of the plot lines had characters with the same surname. In this case, it would have been helpful for the separate groups to have been further differentiated and identified. For these reasons, I believe that if the author was trying to convey some sort of complex plot, she did not succeed in this
The chapter begins with the author, Thomas C. Foster, describing a hypothetical situation about a sixteen year old boy that he calls “Kip”. Foster continues on, outlining Kip’s journey to the A&P; Kip suffers through various trials such as an encounter with a German shepherd and seeing his dream girl with his nemesis. When the girl, Karen, sees Kip, she repeatedly laughs while Kip buys a loaf of bread. He then decides to lie about his age and join the military, regardless of the consequences. After concluding the hypothetical situation, Foster declares that Kip’s entire trip to the store was a quest. Foster refutes any possible dissenters by introducing an analogy comparing different aspects of the Kip’s journey to a “real quest”; he
Another reason there is no wholly original work is because of the many archetypes that many different books have in common.
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.
The performances in this film make you feel like these characters, even though they have no redeeming social qualities at all. It is hard to not feel a certain amount of sympathy for the main characters as they go from the victimizers to the victims.
When someone thinks of a quest, they usually think of a prince saving a princess, slaying a dragon, or going after the holy grail; However, a quest can happen to anyone. The real reason for a quest never involves the stated reason. In fact, more often than not, the quester fails at the stated task.
Not only do the roles of the characters compel a reader, they also illustrate the
In chapter 25 of Foster’s novel, he states that books were written in a time period and that period affected how the book was written. A person that wrote a book during the civil war does not have the same perspective of a 2015 teenager. Foster explains that the reader must enter the perspective of the author and how the book is written. The perspective must fit in with the history of the story. It also must understand that the book may have been written against the society of the world at the time or the culture it was written in. As readers, Foster tells us that we must recognize the values of what is written in the story. However, he also tells us that as readers we do not have to accept and follow the values that the stories represent,
This connects the reader to the story. This connects to the reader and helps the reader relate to the fight between the couple. The author uses dialogue because it helps the reader establish the tension and fury between the two characters. The text states “ What would you like to do? Get the button back and push it? Murder someone “(108). This textual evidence illustrates how the dialogue was worded helped the reader establish how the characters were feeling at this moment. The text states “ Why are you getting so upset? It's only talk.”(108) This evidence portrays the frustration between the characters and how this creates a divide between the characters. In conclusion, the dialogue helps the reader establish the tone and helps the reader understand the story better.
This scene is significant to illustrate how both characters are formed by their social constructs while wanting different intentions.
Christians have been celebrating the Lord’s Supper for almost two thousand years. In this paper I will refer to the Lord’s Supper as an ordinance of the church. “An ordinance is an outward rite prescribed by Christ to be performed by His Church.” There are quite a few varying interpretations among the different churches on how the Lord’s Supper is to be practiced. I Corinthians 11:23-34 provides Christians with the scriptural meaning and reasons for observing the Lord’s Supper, also known as communion. Many consider the Lord’s Supper of little or no value and some consider the ordinance as more of a ritual. In some modern churches, preaching the Word is emphasized the most and communion is only observed once a month or
That is important in order to create contrast. Seeing how Miss Havisham was so helpless, we developed feelings of sympathy toward her. But when you flash forward to her pleading for forgiveness at Pip’s feet for the things she has done, we develop feelings of hate and disappointment. It is hard to comprehend how someone we felt so bad for could have such cause to do evil to her sympathizers. These feelings were brought through by the power of setting. Within the setting, you create the characters. Then, you start having feeling for those characters, and form opinions about
The second requirement of taking communion in a worthy manner is important because taking part in communion greedily brings judgement upon oneself. This is seen in 1 Corinthians verse 29 when it says “For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink