The Well Educated Mind Summary

The Educated Imagination discusses major ideas that answer the question “what good is the study of literature?”. Frye does so by discussing concepts such as the desire of humans to connect to nature, the conformity to conventions and deviation from reality in literature, and the ideal manner in which literature should be taught. Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination proposes the idea that through the consumption of literature, the individual is able to develop an imagination which allows him to connect to society from an educated perspective.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

The history or reading and writing has changed over the years. Throughout the years, I have had exposure to a different array of reading material. From Shakespeare and biblical passages, to modern technical abstracts and editorial opinions it is clear that reading and writing has been changed by society through the course of time. Much of this change is attributed to the evolution of culture, religion, professional and social classes, ethnicity and politics. We are in the midst of this change today and much of the way we write stems from the passages we read. In order to have a voice in society we need to be attuned to society. The purpose of this paper is that the author wants the reader to think about reading and writing because there

Schools often require reading materials containing unfamiliar subjects to students. Recognizing that there is significance for critical understanding of the text itself as well as the act of reading, this explains why many students today struggle with reading material that is not relevant to their lifestyle. Freire portrays that by the statement, "reading the world precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world" (Freire 286). A person should read their world, and then interpret it. They can then use their existential experience of the world to connect to what they are reading in print, and better understand it.

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

In Sven Birkerts writing, “The Owl Has Flown,” Birkerts puts forth something to think about for any modern day reader. Birkerts believes that over the years the methodology of reading has changed as the technology has advanced. In the older days, people had small amounts of texts to choose from, but read them more thoroughly, and gained in depth knowledge about each book. In this day and age, the scope of reading has broadened but at the same time become shallower. He believes that we now read large amounts of materials, divulging ourselves into all sorts of different subject matter, but that we merely skim across its surface gaining no knowledge. In his opinion we have gone from vertical to horizontal depth. He deems an increase in the

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.

Welty describes the first steps of reading as “human, but inward...It is to me the voice of the story or poem itself” (Welty 11). Picking up from my knowledge of personification, I gained a new perspective on how books play an impact on how one thinks when reading a piece, as it describes the voice of the book as a human. Having said, this gave me the idea that books establish a personal connection between itself and the reader. Following through with the next chapter, Welty recognizes the value of the summer trips she experienced with her family. She makes an interesting analogy between her trips and reading by calling them “stories. Not only in form, but in their taking on direction, movement, development, change...each trip made its particular revelation, though I could not have found words for it” (68). Connecting this to the title of chapter two, “Learning to See” when reading requires looking closely at the small details and soaking it in, in a way that one can look back upon it later. Once one starts to carefully listen and look at the fluidity and rich ingredients a book has, he/she can find their own voice, which leads into the next chapter. Reading spurs imagination which then allows one to explore their own inner being. Welty best describes her encounter of this by explaining “my imagination takes its strength and guides its direction from what I see and hear and

Northrop Frye 's the Educated Imagination, published in 1963, attempts to bring out the meaning and effect of possessing an educated imagination in contrast to its opposite. Dr. Frye analyses how his theory advances society’s interests and overcomes its limits through the three levels of the human mind. In his essay, the three levels are broken down in a detailed manner, which links it directly its thesis. Frye presents definitive answers to his questions in the beginning of his essay, “What good is the study of literature? Does it help us to think more clearly, or feel more sensitively, or live a better life than we could without it?” Conclusively, the education of an individual’s mind is critical to understand the world we live in and to the advancement of our society. Educating the mind consists of absorbing and modifying literature, understanding and evolving art, and placing science within context without having data as the boundaries of our imagination.

How do professors read? Do they read like average people, like students, like an adult? The daunting question, only answered by Thomas C. Foster through his book, How to Read Literature like a Professor. This novel is an informational text and each one of the chapters discusses a method in writing that will help readers to better comprehend literature. Readers learn from the novel about all sorts of different methods and devices that they can use to locate and interpret connections and ideas that are normally surpassed when reading. This novel teaches readers to look between the lines and open up a whole new world of understanding.

He describes the act of reading having a sacred element, ritualistic and with a special meaning. Reading was not casual as today with our abundance of leisure time. Whether by candlelight or the morning sun, plow in one hand and a book in the other, reading was a serious endeavor with purpose. Learning to read was the primary purpose of school (p. 61). Hence, the ability to read held so much importance at the time because as Postman describes, “the printed word had a monopoly on both attention and intellect” (p. 60). This print-based culture made for a well-informed public that could equally grasp both historical references and complicated political matters of the day (p. 46). Again, it is the Lincoln-Douglas debate, the author highlights that portray this well-informed public. The audience for these deliberations represented an ability to transform the comprehension of seeing print-style long, convoluted, complex sentence to hearing them (p. 45). As the receiver of messages, this well-informed, literate audience of the eighteenth and nineteenth century carried this skill into many areas of public

Richard didn’t like to read not only because he couldn’t but because it made him feel alone. One quote that explains what he’s trying to say is,”To console myself for the loneliness I’d feel when I read, I tried reading in a very soft voice”(2). Mr.Rodriguez did not like reading at all, because he spoke very little english, so the school set him up with at tutor. He would meet with this tutor and she read so well he started to actually like reading,”Our sessions pleased me: the smallness of the room; the noise of the janitor’s broom hitting the edge of the long hallway outside the door; the green of the sun, lighting the wall; and the old woman’s face blurred white with a beard” (2). This quote is saying that it started to not make him feel alone anymore. After the days went he began to read more and more and he started to love it. In Strange Tools he says, “Didn’t I realize that reading would open up whole new worlds? A book could open doors for me. It could introduce me to people and show me places I never imagined existed” (3). When Richard realized the importance of education and how important it was to read he began reading and got a B.A. at Stanford University, got a M.A. at Columbia University, and was a Ph.D. candidate in English Renaissance literature at the University of California,

The story “Remedial Reading” (excerpt from Hunger of Memory) written by Richard Rodriguez, is an autobiography of his childhood struggle with reading in which he describes how difficult it was being a young Hispanic boy out-casted by classmates because of his illeteracy. Initially, Rodriguez is overwhelmed by a sense of loneliness while reading, but later embraces that struggle when put in a remedial reading class with a very old nun that helps him tremendesly. She does this by guiding him through words he cannot comprehend. Rodriguez does an excellent job connecting with the reader throughout the story, this is especially evident through Aristotle’s three “appeals”- ethos, pathos, and logos.

Throughout the semester of TE 348, I was able to read many books of various genres, themes, messages and characters. Due to the variety of text I read, I used a range of lenses when engaging with the text in my responses. This has shown me how I tend to react to a text, and what lenses I don’t use as often. Also, I am able to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages that come with engaging with the text with certain lenses. All of this has led to my development of engaging with literature.

There is then the serious reading undertaken for research and for satisfying one's longing for knowledge. It may be a subject of scientific significance, or a subject of historic or philosophic importance - varying according to the taste of the person. This kind of reading disciplines the mind and trains one for critical and original thinking. There is yet another kind of reading -reading for pleasure. Though serious reading is also a source of pleasure, reading which is devoted mainly to it differs in one respect. It grows upon one, it gives before demanding and it soothes and relieves tension and loneliness. The only kind of reading which neither stimulates thought nor provides knowledge is one which is approached negatively, with the simple motive of escape and of "killing" time.