Introduction: How’d He Do That? Mastering literature is an art that can only be perfected with lots of practice and understanding memory, symbol, and pattern; this only enhances the reading and provokes the reader to analyze the text in a more productive way. Once you become a more avid reader you will be privileged to make comparisons, connections, and your own conclusion from the literary work you’re reading with certain aspects of many different literary works you’ve read along the way. Not only does this bring depth into the work for your better understanding of the “big idea” but also makes it a more enjoyable read. “Whenever I read a new work, I spin the mental Rolodex looking for correspondences and corollaries—where have I seen his …show more content…
This was my perspective on the book the back when I didn’t know any better but as I grew as a reader I realized that Aslan is an apt symbol of Jesus Christ himself. All the evidence pointed towards him as a clear match. This interpretation doesn’t necessarily apply to the religious kind but it does help to have some religious literacy. Once you realize that Aslan is the abstract symbol of Jesus Christ you can perceive him as a leader, magnificent, holy, highly admired and loved by many. As expected, in the book Aslan is killed on the Stone Table (think back to Jesus Christ’s death on the crucifix) by the White Witch who is the epitome of evil (think back to the people who sent Jesus Christ to his crucifixion). Utilizing memory, symbol, and pattern in this reading made the book more enjoyable and relatable. Without a doubt I appreciated every little thing that occurred with Aslan after this realization, in the rest of the series. Chapter 1 -- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) The five aspects of the Quest are: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there. “The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge.” (Foster pg. 3) Essentially this is a formula that many great writers utilize in their books to
The five aspects of the QUEST are a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there. I believe these aspects have been shown in the popular movie Shrek. Shrek fulfills the title of a quester because he is an ogre living alone in a swamp until one day Lord Farquaad takes away his home. The destination for Shrek and his partner Donkey is the Dragon’s Castle to rescue Princess Fiona. The stated reason to travel there is that if Shrek is capable of rescuing Princess Fiona and bringing her back to Lord Farquaad, he would be allowed to return to his swamp and move on with his lonely life. There are many challenges throughout Shrek’s journey. When Shrek and Donkey arrive at the large
-As readers we come across many details in literature that hole significance, however the common reader usually misses the deeper
Thomas C. Foster in ‘How to Read Literature like a Professor’, references the different literary devices that authors use in literature, in order to enhance the reader’s ability to critically analyze literature from any time period. Foster expands the reader’s understanding of literature by exploring the profound impact of symbols and common themes on literature.
The five aspects of the QUEST are a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges en route, and a real reason to go there. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the quester is Atticus Finch who is a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. He has to go to court to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. The challenges he encounters is the town’s racist white community who wants to have Tom killed without a trial. Atticus’s reason to defend Tom is more than just defending an innocent man in court. He wants to defend Tom because it is the right thing to do; finding
How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster is a book that explains there is more to literature than just a few words on a paper or a few pages in a book. Thomas Foster’s book portrays a relatable message to a wide based audience. This book is relatable for two reasons, the way it is written and the examples it uses. The book is written in a conversational manner, as if the reader was in a group discussion about books and writing. As for the examples, they are informative, descriptive, relative, and entertaining.
Literature is affected by memory, symbols, and patterns though the connections made between the reader and the novels. By understanding the symbols and patterns of a novel, the reader can better connect to the story being told. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is obsessed with looking at a green light. Realizing that the green light symbolizes Gatsby’s longing for Daisy, the reader can better acknowledge the greater theme of the story. Symbols and patterns provide better interpretation of a story to the reader.
The five aspects of the quest are the quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials on the way, and the real reason to go there. When I read The Secret Life Of the Bees the quester was Lily, she was looking to go to Tiburon to find out more information about her mother and the past. On her journey she runs away from her father, falls in love, and becomes a part of a family. The real reason behind her journey is to get away from her father and feel connected with a family.
What goes through your mind when you read? Do you read deliberately, looking for certain aspects, or do you read as a blank slate? When reading, professors expect a deliberateness that will help you to uncover meanings that are not readily apparent. Thomas C. Foster in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” expands on this concept. He endeavors to instruct his readers in the way he believes they should read, in order to get the most out of each book. He concedes that, “When lay readers encounter a fictive text, they focus, as they should, on the story and the characters” but to truly read like a professor you must also divert a portion of your attention on
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.
* Quest consists of 5 things: A quester, place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there.
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.
A Quest consists of five elements: 1. a quester, so to speak, or the person who is on a quest. 2. a place to go. 3. a stated reason to actually go there. 4. challenges and trials on the way. 5. a real reason to go there.
Understanding great works of literature can be fairly difficult without the knowledge of analyzing them. How
Analyzing literature is one of the most important steps to understanding the author’s purpose for writing a novel. When students analyze literature or write an analytical essay, they often mistake it as summarizing the plot of the book. However, analyzing literature is more in depth than just summarizing because many key aspects go into finding the hidden messages of a book. When students summarize the plot of a book, they are often missing many literary devices, such as metaphors, foreshadowing, and imagery.
The five aspects of a quest are ( A.) a quester, ( B.) a place to go, ( C.) a started reason to go there, ( D.) challenges and trials en route, ( E.) and a real reason to do there. “Once you figure out quest, the rest is easy”. The started goal fades away throughout the story line and a new one is created. In the movie The Wizard of Oz the ( A.) Quester is a young, naive Dorothy, who is from Kansas. Dorothy is caught in a tornado and lands in the Land of Oz. ( B.) A Place To Go: When Dorothy arrives in Oz she finds out the only person the can get her back home is The Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz, who lives in the Emerald City, and the only way to get there is to follow the Yellow Brick Road. ( C.) As Stated Reason To Go There: Dorothy wants