The Razor's Edge Study Guide

Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel or play and, or considering Barthes’ observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole.

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.

I. Write one important quote from each chapter with the page number and explain its significance to the plot of the novel. Think about why that quote was particularly significant within the plot and to the main characters.

2004 (Form A): Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes’ Observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Trace three of the following threads through the novel. In two paragraphs for each explain the various literary effects of each of the threads and how each is related to the theme. Use quotations from the novel to support each analysis.

During the 1800s and 1900s, authors styles of writing were very different than it is today. Their language and use of words was written in a way that impacted the readers very differently than today. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” were all read and watched to compare and contrast the similarities and differences. Three literary components stood out when comparing and contrasting, including character, setting, and plot. These three stories, written by Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Katherine Anne Porter, can be compared to their corresponding movies, through the three literary components of character, setting, and plot.

Understanding the perspective of someone other than yourself is an important lesson for a young reader, as well as incorporating cross-curricular learning in one lesson for peak instructional efficiency. In an article titled “Why and How I Teach With Historical Fiction”, by author, Tarry Lindquist, she expresses the significant role that historical fiction literature has for young adult readers and students. This genre introduces readers to more serious topics and situations, that include both fact, such as actual events, but also fiction, such as characters and incidents that are not real but could have very well happened. This article applies to the novel “The Birchbark House,” by Louise Erdrich as well as “Salt to the Sea” by Ruta Sepetys.

In the literary guide, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster discusses the methods by which an English professor reads and analyzes literature from all genres and time periods. He references literary works from famous authors, including Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, as well as several religious texts in order to provide examples of major properties that occur frequently in literature. Two of these elements: the idea of characters resembling or sharing characteristics with Christ, as well as Baptismal rebirth appear in George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, respectively.

Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2010.

There are different forms and examples of exemplary and classic literature which have been deemed as significant works that are highly esteemed worldwide. These examples of literature would awe the world with how much literary skill they entailed when they were composed and written: attention to details as to formation of characters, the most crafty of plots, the most eloquent speeches and lines, the most astounding of twists of scenes, and most of all, the most universal and meaningful of themes. The theme of any literary work is what makes it great as it should be able to encompass the immense diversity of the world and as it would be able to transcend the boundaries of religion, age, race, gender, etc. Two examples of this great and

The scalpel is the surgeon’s quintessential tool because it is designed to cut precisely, swiftly and cleanly. The handles are made from rods of stainless steel while the sterile, single-use blades are made from either carbon or stainless steel which arrives at the factory in the form of coiled strips.

Title of Work, Author’s Name, Date of Publication, & Genre (novel is NOT a genre) – must have all four elements for credit (8pts)

A comparison of the ways in which Fitzgerald and Bronte present their heroes. (2742 words)

When comparing two classic pieces of literature such as The Scarlet Letter and A Lesson Before Dying, readers should not just take each book at face value and analyze plots and characters, but rather give a more in depth look into what the author writes between the lines. In both of these selected novels parallels can be seen during a cross-text analysis. Example will include, the role of woman, the influence and expectation of the community, and the intention and perceived ‘success’ of the penal system. These topics force the reader to dig deeper into each text and get that better understanding of what the author is trying to portray in “between the lines” so to speak.

This is the most important part of this essay, because it not only underlines the scenery in which all characters inter actuate with the others. It does something more subtle, but almost equally crucial: it tells us where they are, but also where they come from and where they want to land. So, we can think about this section as the main one of the essay, where the major themes will interpose and melt in each books examples. In addition to that, we will see how the treatment of this themes differ between the books. Mixing all these questions in a sole section may look a bit chaotic, but it allows the multiple themes to flow naturally in a broader picture.