How To Read Literature Like A Professor Chapter Summary

In chapter 5 of Thomas Foster’s How to Read Novels Like a Professor, the concept of a writer's voice is explored. Foster refers to the voice as being in a way the author's identity. The words they choose and the order in which they say them determine how the writer is viewed. Their voice is a part of them and gives a personality that can be seen throughout the novel. It is according to Foster, what makes novels worth reading.

The recognition of patterns makes it much easier to read complicated literature because recognizing patterns will help you relate two or more pieces of literature together, therefore making it easier to understand and analyze the literature you are focused on. Patterns in literature can help the reader understand plots, settings, themes, and other literary elements. I greatly appreciated the novel, Brave New World because of how different the society in the novel was from the one I live in. Using the Signposts from Notice and Note, I was able to see contrast and contradictions that enhanced my understanding of the book. I noticed how I was expecting Bernard, in Brave New World to be just like everybody else in the novel but instead he was a “normal person” that felt normal human emotions, such as the longing for love, that the other characters just did not feel. He also felt isolated and alone. Bernard thinks in a way we were not expecting. Patterns such as this helped me, the reader, to better understand literary elements.

Chapter 14 is about how almost everything, in some form, is a Christ figure. The chapter gives a list to relate characters to. The list is 1. crucified, wounds in the hands, feet, side, and head 2. in agony 3. self-sacrificing 4. good with children 5.good with loaves, fishes, water, wine 6. thirty-three years of age when last seen 7. employed as a carpenter 8. known to use humble modes of transportation, feet or donkeys preferred 9. believed to have walked on water 10. often portrayed with arms outstretched 11.

In Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Food is everywhere. Food not only plays a large part in furthering the plot, it also gives the characters a time to express how they feel both directly and indirectly. In this play, there are three main events where food furthers the plot.

“When you got to the table you couldn 't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn 't really anything the matter with them, -- that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better.” (Twain, 1)

First, it is important to understand the meaning behind the act of communion in literature. Thomas C Foster, a professor of English at the University of Michigan, states that, “Whenever people eat or drink together, its communion.” ( How to read literature like a professor, pg.8) The Novel, To

Feta and Eggplant Meatballs is a delicious meal to serve during the summertime. This twist on an average meatball serves the right flavor to satisfy any guest at a dinner party. During Mr. Pontellier’s stay at Grand Isle during the summer, this meal would be perfectly fresh as the eggplants and feta would be fresh and ready to cook for any main feast that the Pontellier’s and friends may have wanted to eat. Although this meal does not hold significance to Edna’s relationship, it contributes to the gender roles of society that while men may farm and provide the essential ingredients used in cooking meals, the women ultimately are the ones that have to do the cooking and baking. Many meals in literature are told to be more than just a meal, and

In “The Hobbit” by J.R.R Tolkien, there is a dinner where all the characters are introduced. In the book, ‘How to Read Literature Like a Professor’ Thomas C. Foster says That whenever people eat and drink together it is an act of communion. Communion can mean many things like; a hidden meaning of desire and lust for a more intimate feel, or just a friendly gathering to show unity and friendship, and the dinner can be tied together with ‘The Last Supper’.

In “The Hobbit” by J.R.R Tolkien, there is a dinner where all the characters are introduced. In the book, ‘How to Read Literature Like a Professor’ Thomas C. Foster says That whenever people eat and drink together it is an act of communion. Communion can mean many things like; a hidden meaning of desire and lust for a more intimate feel, or just a friendly gathering to show unity and friendship, and many more.

Yoshimoto utilizes communion and meal scenes to display characters' feelings toward each other by using weather and details in the setting to give the characters’ relationships and emotions more depth. Throughout the novella Kitchen, by Yoshimoto, examples of Yoshimoto employing this tactic are woven into almost every meal. For instance, during the scene where Mikage makes breakfast for Eriko and Yuichi when they first started living together, another example is when Mikage travels through the cold and rain to bring katsudon noodles to Yuichi and lastly this tactic can be seen when Mikage and Yuichi are eating an oversized feast together after Eriko had died. Yoshimoto uses meal scenes like these as a great way to express characters'

Explication: In Kitchen, the gift of food is a symbol of love from one character to another. After Eriko’s death, Mikage plans and prepares a grand professional dinner of all of Yuichi’s favorite foods to comfort him (54). The cooking atmosphere builds a “warm, safe place” for “just the two of [them]” (62). Yoshimoto illustrates the healing quality of food to console an aching character during times of difficulty and grief. The gift of food acts to mend a broken heart in a demonstration of love, conveying the theme of affection taking many forms.

But besides the satisfying effect of fictional food, Hansel and Gretel already hints at a more negative approach to food. The siblings are tempted by the witch’s house consisting of bread and sweets. Especially evangelical discourses demanded dieting to resist the temptation of sins like gluttony or sloth (Labbe 94). Also the required dining etiquette of the increasing middle class, as well as the partly lethal food alterations of nineteenth century England, led to a rising number of didactic tales about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ food (ibid. 93). According to Daniel, the detailed and stimulating descriptions of food in children’s literature are a meant to seduce the child reader to “swallow the bitter pill of

Throughout the novel, the person who physically serves Jane a plate of food is seen as a character that she (Jane) looks up to. In Gateshead, Bessie is the one person who sympathises with Jane, sings her songs and tells her stories. Bessie takes on the role of the mother/god like figure to the neglected child that had not felt acceptance from her blood relations. While food provides comfort to the body and soul, the provider of the food becomes the mother-like/god-like figure of the situation. Food and those associated with serving food to the physically starved become the ‘saviours’; the figures that most religious people aspire to be. Thus, food and the nourishment that it provides is connected to several other religious concepts like god’s grace, spiritual kindness and happiness. This indicates that the nourishment of the body is needed for the enlightenment of the

The novel Great Expectations shows perfect examples of the grandeur of food in Victorian England, but also the lack of it. Also, it shows the social aspect surrounding food. In the book, Mrs.

Food provides nutrition for humans, but food has more needs than one. As Anderson says, “Venues such as cafés, coffee shops, coffee houses, cafeterias, bars, neighborhood restaurants, and other eateries are vital to social life,” food is essential in building up human relationships (Anderson 125). As a social necessity, food exerts itself as more than an excuse to initiate casual talk. In the films, Tampopo and Eat Drink Man Woman, food operates as a medium to preserve human relationships by the consumption and the physical exchange of food. Despite the two films’ different urban settings, food perpetuates parental, romantic, and student-teacher relationships. Food recalls memories of current and past relationships, and these memories