Reading Response Criticism

-As readers we come across many details in literature that hole significance, however the common reader usually misses the deeper

Frye now deals with the respective claims of the reader and writer, the producer and consumer of literature. “We need two powers in literature,” he says, “a power to create and a power to understand” (p. 104). Both writer and reader need to understand literary convention.

In the beginning of the story, Oskar hears a series of voicemails from his father just minutes before he died in one of the Twin Towers. Oskar struggles with this because he is the only one that ever heard the voicemails, and it allows him to know the truth about what happened to his father before his mother and grandmother know. Oskar’s mother rushes home

Students often find themselves lost and intimidated by their professor’s experience when analysing literature. In “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster, Foster attempts give students the tools they need in order to begin learning how to read literature. Each chapter covers a unique concept students can begin look for in their reading. The book details what certain events or settings could mean and how they may relate to similar events in other literature.

Characters What factual details do you notice about the character? (Occupation, Attitude, Description, etc) What obstacles does the character face? Physical, Mental, and Emotional Explain how this obstacle is or is not a human rights issue. How does the character respond to each obstacle and what is the effect of that response? Include a quotation with the page that shows the obstacle.

The understanding of the literacy for the reader is important so they become aware of the relationship between language and power. The reader must be able to evaluate what they had read and reflect on what they’ve learned from it. As for the awareness of the rhetorical situation for the the composer of the writing is important as well so they are able to to write in a manner that is unique to them and is also an effective way of conveying their message to their audience.

reader to look into Oskar’s mind and understand what he has gone through. He includes pictures

In the book written by Wes Moore, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, One Fates" Moore states, “When we're young, it sometimes seems as if the world doesn't exist outside our city, our block, our house, our room. We make decisions based on what we see in that limited world and follow the only models available." (Moore 178) Why is it when we are young we see everything easy and not hard?

evaluating the text by means of a rhetorical analysis, we as readers can fully appreciate the

As one of the narrators, Oskar’s grandfather tells his story of his lost identity through flashbacks of the past. His identity tragically transforms from a loving husband and a father to be to a father and grandfather that is nowhere to be found when his madly in love wife is killed along with his unborn child. As a result of his trauma, he gradually lose his identity of this loving husband, father to be and stops talking with his mouth but with his gestures, notes and the two words “YES” and “NO” tattooed in his hands. “If

Oskar, a young soul, is living in, what seems to him, a life alone; his father, his best friend, passed away in the terrorist attack of 9/11/01. He decides to travel his city and find the answers to his problems on his own, yet the answers he’s looking for are closer than what appears. Jonathan Foer’s message to the audience is this; pay attention to your past experiences because the answers to your future journeys may lie within your past. Foer utilizes the descriptions of Oskar’s adventurous and inventive character to further our understanding of his journey throughout New York City. Foer also includes depictions from Oskar’s everyday life, such as pictures of the object he holds dear to him and visualizations of what he is

Reader response criticism, a branch under the emphasis

Reader-response theory identifies the reader as an affective agent who imparts real exist-ence and life to the work, completing its meaning through interpretation. Reader- response criti-cism argues that literature should be viewed as art in which each reader creates his or her own-most likely unique, text-related performance. I am using Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish’s takes on Reader Response for my study.

"It is almost unimportant whether a work finds an understanding audience. One has to do it because one believes that it is the right thing to do. We are not only here to please, we cannot help challenging the spectator.”

With the new reader/writer roles also comes a change in the idea of what literature actually represents. Bolters states that literature is traditionally viewed as merely a reflection of the author’s world. The new participatory role of the reader therefore changes what the reading represents because the written work becomes its own independent world, constantly moving and changing depending on what path the reader wants to take (Bolter 169).