How To Read Literature Like A Professor Essay

In Thomas Foster’s book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor,” readers learn how to look past the surface of a literary work to find a deeper or hidden meaning. Writers use devices, such as symbolism, imagery, foreshadowing, irony and allusion to reveal these meanings. If these are overlooked, important aspects of the story can be lost. One literary device that Foster emphasizes in his book is allusion. Every story has elements of another story, and Foster devotes Chapters Four through Seven explaining the meaning of allusion in works by Shakespeare, the Bible, and fairy tales.

Katniss is the protagonist of the novel. She is a tough, self-sufficient, extremely loyal girl whose childhood was cut short by responsibility. After her father died, her mother sank into a deep depression, so it was up to Katniss to feed the family. One evening, she was going through others' trash in desperation when Peeta Mellark purposefully burned bread from his family's bakery and gave it to her. She feels like she owes him for that action, because after that she realizes the forest will be how to feed her family. She and her friend Gale regularly hunt wild game and gather food, selling some and keeping some for their families. Katniss dearly loves her younger sister Prim, so much so that she volunteers to go to the Hunger Games in Prim's place. Though Katniss could very easily feel bitter towards her more sheltered sister, instead she is fiercely protective of her. During the Games, this protectiveness transfers to another young tribute named Rue who Katniss grows very close too and mentors as she were an older sister to Rue.

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 the book “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C. Foster, many elements are brought to the reader’s attention. Three of these elements, happen to connect with the novel, “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” written by Mark Haddon.

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster presents a guide to help readers further understand the novels they read. In chapter one, he claims that every trip is a quest, and every quest has five main components. Each journey consists of a “quester”, or a journeying character that lacks self-knowledge. This character has a desired destination and a stated purpose of going there. Throughout this journey, the character experiences challenges and obstacles, eventually learning something new about him or her self. Thus, we learn that a simple trip has a deeper meaning and purpose.

How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol or pattern.

-Every time a character sets out to do something it's a quest. The idea of a quest has evolved greatly, as literature has evolved.

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.

Analysis: Compare chapter 20 :How to Read Literature Like a Professor-“…So Does Season” to part four (chapter 1) of The Fountainhead.

As I was reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I was thinking about how much I have missed in the books I have read due to not knowing how to look for certain literary devices. Something as simple as not knowing how to read between the lines caused me to miss out on points the author was trying to make. Over the course of reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I have learned many ways to analyze literature that I did not know before.

From this chapter, In learned that the truth behind all quests is to find self-knowledge. Most of the time, the people on the quest are young and inexperienced, but by the end of their adventure, they’ve found their niche, and completed their mission. There is always a quester, a place to go, a reason to go, challenges and trials en route, and the real reason to go.

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.

-Flight is freedom. When a character has the ability to fly they are free from the burdens of everyday life.

“We had to save you because you're the Mockingjay, Katniss, says Plutarch. While you live, the revolution lives” (Collins). Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games is a complex character who epitomizes the archetype of a hero, however, she also shatters the mold by rebelling against the capital and endangering her whole family. She starts out as a hero to her family, especially her sister, and then becomes the symbol of strength to everyone. Katniss sacrifices herself by volunteering to join the Hunger Games in place of her sister, it is a game of survival where a boy and a girl from each district are forced to fight the other members of other districts to the death. By going out of her ordinary world and preparing to join a game where her life could be taken, she fits right into the archetype of a hero. Her bow and arrow, the weapon that only she can wield, will be the only things to help her survive. Despite these heroic qualities, Katniss makes an erroneous decision and blunder mistakes that shows the reader the flip side of Katniss.

The Hunger Games movie series is centered around the main character Katniss Everdeen. In Panem, the Capitol is over all districts and districts, four through twelve suffer from violence and poverty. Every year, two people, one male and one female are chosen as tributes to compete for their district in the annual hunger games. During the first movie, it is time for the seventy fourth annual Hunger Games District’s Twelve drawings for the names of the tributes of those who will compete. Katniss’ sister, Primrose, was chosen in the drawing, but Katniss volunteered as tribute in her sister’s place. The male tribute chosen was Peeta Mellark. Katniss and Peeta must fight against the other twenty-two tributes from the other eleven districts until only one tribute is standing. During the process of the games, there is clock time in which they must beat to be the last one standing. The tributes formed teams and interacted through focused and some unfocused interaction. The tributes build alliances with one another so that they could at least help each other. Throughout the process of the games, it is revealed that Peeta likes Katniss. While the games are ending, Peeta and Katniss are the last two standing, so they choose to eat poisoned berries; both eating the berries meant that neither one of them would win, but the Capitol decided to let them win together and this started the second revolution because those watching felt it was as an act of rebellion. This