Dr Rieger Say Yes Analysis

Literature; it has compelled us, entertained us, educated us, and drove us to madness. It has served as life instruction, by using the characters as the lesson plan. It is sometimes blunt, sometimes ugly, and in Truman Capote’s case, is so gruesome that we do not dare forget it.

This course has helped me with my inquiry and analyzing skills when working with literary work. When reading I would ask superficial questions: “Why did that happen?”, “Why are the curtain blue?”, “What

Another big point in Prose’s essay is the assignments associated with high school literature. She argues that teachers make students write around the books and not about the books they read. “No wonder students are rarely asked to consider what was actually written by these hopeless racists and sociopaths. Instead, they’re told to write around the book, or, better yet, write their own books,” (430). The assignments that teachers give these days are nto about the book or the story itself. They usually ask the student to rewrite the ending, or ask what the student would do if they were in the same situation as the character. Prose argues that high school students are seen as having the same experience as some of the characters they read about, such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. “And is it any wonder that

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

When taking English Composition 2 I have learned various things that I can carry through with me throughout the rest of my academic and social life. The class English Composition 2 touched on the components of character, setting, short story, drama, and poetry. With each section and a lecture on each section I have taken away a piece away from each section, one thing that is for sure I will never read literature the same after this class. When talking about character we looked into the story Gorilla My Love and how the story is told through the eyes of a young black girl named Hazel. Concluding from this section of the class I learned that if the characters were to be different characters the story would change as whole. When looking deeper into the concept of setting as a class we had the opportunity to learn how to depict where the setting is, and learn how the setting can make a difference in any type of literature. For the concept of short stories as a student I looked deeper into the story of 20/20. After, a struggle on the topic of short stories I learned the different compontes that go into and are used in making a short story. For an example, the story 20/20 uses the model Freytag’s Pyramid to tell the story line. The component of Drama happened to be my favorite component of the class. I

Beautiful imagery laced amidst a wondrous storyline, accompanied by memorable and lovable characters are all elements pertaining to enjoyable works of fiction. Tales that keep one up late into the night forever reading just “one more page” forever propelling the intrinsic imagination for a novel enthusiast. Yet, at times there are deeper meanings hidden between the lines. Symbols, analogies, and latent parallels all connecting to real life events and situations being portrayed by the author. Using literary theory can bring a more profound understanding of the reading material at hand, as well as unique insight as to what the author was feeling or intending to portray at the time of writing.

Literature is such a beautiful thing because it does not give us an answer to it's questions. There are so many iffy spots that leave us to develop our own thoughts and feelings toward the piece of work. This is an interesting factor because at many times it affects us in a different way and can develop us as an individual. When reading a piece of literature, one person can interpret it in different ways than another person reading the same piece of work. I remember analyzing poems with my English class in the previous years and when we were asked to interpret it, we all had different answers. Sometimes what I got out of the poem didn’t even go close to the direction that my classmate

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster is an all-encompassing guide to literature. Thomas C. Foster sets outs to explain how seemingly each detail in a story has some sort of symbolic meaning that may not be easily noticed at first glance. These symbolic meanings can range from the more potent symbolism of the weather to the obscure deeper meaning of a supernatural creature in a story’s plot. As I was reading this book, I was amazed and somewhat taken aback to how much other works of literature are used as examples to validate Foster’s explanations. Well-known novels like Animal Farm, Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet, biblical stories, and Greek myths are referred to. It was immediately apparent that the author was very

Despite what several students think, analyzing literature is not summarizing the text nor the plot of a story. Yet, not many educators, so far, have discussed literary analysis thorough enough for students to understand. Thus, this results in an unpleasant score on their homeworks and class assignments, and leading to ignorance. Similar to critical thinking, analyzing literature means to closely focus on parts of the story, like the: plot, characters, settings, and events, to view how the author combines them to create a meaning or theme. Certain techniques are used to discover the author’s meaning and purpose of his or her writing.

From start to finish, English this year had been unlike any other I had. From start to finish, each and every book had a deeper meaning than I, before, could possibly resolve from the text. The exposure I had to this deeper level of thinking forever changed the way I see literature. Less about “what” than “why”, Literature distinguishes a meaningful story from another. While what makes a book “good” is different for everyone, what makes a story meaningful is what it teaches. Each book I read this year had a story and logic behind it. Every story was real enough to have actually happened because the plot points are supported with real speculation backed up by the nature of humanity. I, personally, have never gone as deep into literature as I have this year, giving me a new appreciation for the genius behind the speculation these books present.

English Literature has enabled me to expand my capacity for independent thought, reflection and judgement through constantly reviewing and redrafting my coursework intensely. Studying “The Great Gatsby” allowed me to formulate my own view about the novel and about how 1920s America, optimism of the Roaring Twenties, and the period of The Jazz Age dissolved into the bleakness of the Great Depression. This has also allowed me to be more aware of my quality of work and time management, and has enabled me to broaden my vocabulary and ability to use critical terminology

We read How to Read Literature like a professor over the summer. This book wasn’t anything like the other two required readings; instead, it provided me with a glimpse into the thought process and mind of a Literature Major. The reading was informative and provided me with a plethora of new ways of helping analyze books and stories. Compared to what I knew before, this new accumulation of knowledge provided me with much more freedom while reading other books. Though there were many chapters which presented a new concept/idea to analyzing a story, the concepts that caught my eye were the symbolism of certain objects or events, the borrowing of ideas from older stories (intertextuality), and the meaning of weather and the seasons.

Literature is susceptible to misconception. At times, the presentation of content, enticing details, and storyline take away from the morals and ideas being presented in a piece of text. Most times, as a result of focusing on the distracting elements of a novel, audiences fail to recognize the deeper meaning or purpose of why the author choses to include certain sections of a novel. A book’s intention is to accurately express an author’s thoughts, but, many times, the delivery of unfamiliar content results in fear and a lack of understanding from the reader.

Throughout the many years I’ve attended classes, I’ve always been taught to find the purpose of the writing or the theme of the literature. Much like Francine Prose,whose aptly named, I disagree with this method of thought and teaching. Breaking down complicated works of art to an easy-to-understand sentence takes away from the author’s intent.

I agree that the lecture's representation of the differences between literature and popular writing is harsh. To me, literature deals with moral issues and life's dilemma, and this is shown through the popular movie the Titanic. Although on the surface it may seem like a piece of popular writing, but it shows characteristics of literature as well. The Titanic has an original plot, realistic characters, and like most pieces of literature, does not have a happy ending.