How to Read Literature Like a Professor

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.

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.

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.

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.

Imagine being in the year 1989 and reluctantly having to attend a highly prestigious school with you and your family's reputation on the line. For Todd Anderson that’s exactly what happened to him when he attended St. Andrew's School in the movie Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir. We watch the main character Todd face many challenges that eventually led to him learning something new about himself. In the novel How to Read Literature like a Professor the author Thomas C. Foster goes in depth to explain how to analyze literature and many of his topics are presented in Dead Poets Society during Todd’s journey at St.Andrew's.

A literature piece that best shows flight symbolizing escape/freedom is Peter Pan. When he flies, it represents him escaping from growing up and what his parents expect from him. He gets away from the world when he flies; he can just be young and avoid growing up. Thinking back to when Peter Pan guides John, Wendy, and Michael, all of the kids chose to fly away and be independent. They

Out of all themes in Danticat’s “Krik? Krak!” flight has been used in nearly every section in her novel. Flight in her book was associated with fire, blood, hope, freedom, and religion. Heat rises therefore if you can control it you can fly to hope and freedom. Flight and fire are commonly together, this relation can be found in 1937 having wings of fire, the relation is strongest in “A Wall of Fire Rising”.

Symbolically: freedom, escape, the flight of the imagination, spirituality, return home, largeness of spirit, love, flying was a temptation of God

The generalization for vampires has been displayed in films and literature for hundreds of years. The stereotypical versions of vampires are that they have long fangs, sleep in coffins during the day, and suck the blood out of humans. Both novels contradict those stereotypes in different ways. To understand the diversity of the vampires described in both novels, one must examine the characteristics that the vampires display and the meaning and purpose behind them. David D. Gilmore’s book “Monsters” analyzes monsters and other mythical creatures. Gilmore describes why humanity invented the idea of

Icarus was so excited to be able to fly. He would rise to a height and quickly fly straight down. Then pull up and rise again. He kept doing it, each time daring greater heights. Then he forgot his father’s warning and flew far into the sky.

In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet A on her chest, because of the sin, adultery, she committed. This letter separates Hester from the rest of the Puritans in the town, and causes her much loneliness and suffering. In the beginning of the book, the Puritans are disgusted by Hester, and shun her. As the book goes on, however, the townspeople slowly begin to let Hester into society, and use her as an example of how suffering and good deeds can lead to salvation. Hester’s view of herself does not change, and it shows that society is not the only source of her suffering. Hester’s suffering and lack of suffering from the town reflect on the nature of the Puritans, and reveal how even the strictest of societies can show compassion in certain circumstances.

Chapter 15 summary: Many humans have fantasized of flying, normally flying represent freedom and others thing that a person can imagine. Although human cant actually fly they can dream of it, but if human can fly then they are not humans. Authors uses themes of flying to show freedom.

Velazquez emphasizes this theme when he writes that he will fly high but not too high because “trying to pass the limits, /Will make [him] a dead bird, /Losing the meaning of life” (Velazquez 16-18). These lines tell you that you need to balance all aspects of life because if you let greed overcome you, you will soar too high and fall. It is important to know your limits and not pass them because if you do, it will be the cause of your failure. This works the way eating does, if too much food is eaten, it will be thrown up because there is a limit to the amount of food that fits in a stomach. When exceeding limits, one might get injured in a physical, mental, or spiritual way; this affects many activities during daily life. In lines 22-24 of Ovid’s myth “Daedalus and Icarus”, Daedalus warns his son “to travel/ the middle course” because if he flies “too low/ the waves may weigh down [the] wings” and if he flies “too high the fires will scorch [his] wings.” When flying, Icarus is filled with excitement and he soars high into the heavens, forgetting his father’s warning; he falls and is swallowed by the sea. Aiming for the middle course means to be balanced. One should not be greedy and want everything, nor should they be fearful and avoid everything. Feelings cannot be changed but they can be balanced. Putting maximum effort is great and not exceeding the limit to what you can

It is conceivable to see such discourses about appropriate and improper sexuality in the portrayal of vampires in old stories and in writing. These creatures generally symbolize transgressive sexuality. The sucking of blood suggests pictures of arbitrary and lustful sex and the vampirization of people infers moral and biological contamination.[2]Generally, vampires have exemplified the dread of subversion of the social tenets, representing in this sense examples of conduct to be evaded. However, in the meantime, vampires have been raising the want of individuals who personally ache for freedom (particularly sexual) and

Perhaps one of the very reasons people like vampires so much is because of the relative connection they share. Looking past their shadowy complexion, pointed teeth, and stealth-like movements, vampires are a lot like us humans. In Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire Louis and Lestat posses more human like qualities such as the Seven Deadly Sins of pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth rather than gothic elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom.