How To Read Literature Like A Professor Chapter Summary

The work habits of Turkey complement those of his colleague, Nippers. One works diligently while the other complains. The process is then reversed as soon as lunch is over. Bartleby’s introduction into the workplace disrupts this complementary system. Instead of eating, Bartleby feeds on documents and is “stationery”. It is not surprising that the narrator observes “he never went out to dinner”. Bartleby only ever eats alone, if he eats at all. The spicy food does not influence Bartleby’s mild nature and passivity, unlike all the other characters. The contrast between Bartleby’s self-denial and the materialism of the other characters, whose behavior is influenced by what they eat and drink, is made explicit. The word play with stationary and stationery and the numerous references to food create a kind of linguistic dyspepsia at this point in the story. This worsens as Bartleby repeats his refusal, “I would prefer not to”. The phrase is regurgitated and repeated throughout the text and calls to mind the impossibility of digestion and satisfaction for Bartleby. He refuses to be fed, except for what he feeds on

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

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an extremely renowned coming of age novel. It portrays life in the roaring 20’s, following the life of a young Amory Blaine. Amory faces obstacles from devastation by wealthy women to fighting in World War I and losing some of his closest friends. Reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster emphasized the main ideas throughout Amory’s life. The two main ideas that stood out in Fitzgerald’s book, was the quest taken by Amory Blaine and what Foster calls “baptisms” throughout the story.

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.

“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)

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.

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’.

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.

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

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.

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'

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

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.

A few days ago, a friend invited me and a five other people over to her house, as her parents wanted to cook us a home-cooked meal. The dining table had a total of six chairs, including the host’s. I noticed that the spacing between the chairs were relatively of close distance, showing how “Meals identify social boundaries surrounding familiarity with people, and these are articulated around ideas of people’s intimacy and distance” (Crowther 161). An elaborate plate of food was set out for each guest, as her parents had cooked us steak with roasted potatoes, grilled asparagus, corn, a piece of bread, as well as a dish of cream spaghetti. There was also sparkling water and regular water to drink along with the meal. For all of the guests, this meal was especially enjoyable because we were all students dorming in college, so we had not eaten a home-cooked meal in a long time. This can be reconnected to the topic of commensality, as “The sharing of food reinforces ties, forges new memories, and allows people to reflect on the importance of eating together” (Crowther 151).