Comparing The Hobbit And How To Read Literature Like A Professor

The third chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster writes of the recognizable pattern where a “nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates young women, leaves his mark on them, steals their innocence … and leaves them helpless followers in his sin” (Foster 16). In the fourth episode of the fourteenth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the detectives discover a girl from an accident with a barcode tattoo who was thought to be part of a sex slavery ring. The detectives tried questioning the girl, but she refused to release any details about the slavery. After questioning, she was picked up by an older girl who also had a barcode tattoo. The detectives promised to help the older girl if she would just stay

In How To Read Literature Like A Professor, by Thomas C. Foster, the main purpose is to show readers how to go into depth with the meaning of things seen or talked about when reading literature. It highlights symbols in texts and shows how every single thing can be significant. It also talks about literary sources like greek mythology, the Bible, Children text, and Shakespeare (which he refers back to a lot ), that many stories use to form their plots or quests. The book talks about a topic and then gives the reader and example passage to refer to when talking about that that specific subject. For example, when talking about violence in Chapter 11, Foster analysis Robert Frost’s violent poem called “Out, Out-” and it’s true meaning.

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.

Thomas C. Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, and the book “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald both successfully demonstrate what makes a piece of literature so great by the use of community. Chapter two of Foster’s book is titled “Nice to Eat with you: Acts of Communion”, and this chapter discusses the importance of meals in literature. In literature, meals often have more meaning than just a gathering of people; authors would have a hard time writing scenes where people just eat, and nothing more than that happens. Also meals represent community, by the gathering of people to socialize. Another importance of a meal is that it’s a good way to reveal things about a character by their actions, and it is a good way

A place with munchkins, witches, wizards, and a girl name Dorothy trying to get home to Kansas, in other words, Oz. This 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz is in the top 100 American Film Institute (AFI) list because of the many themes, symbols, and motifs. According to Thomas C. Foster the author of How to Read Literature like a Professor and Reading the Silver Screen,certain aspects make stories more understandable. In his books, he teaches us how to interpret and find these features in literary works. In How to Read Literature like a Professor it focuses more on the plot while the Reading the Silver Screen focuses more on the techniques of the film.

Looking. Searching. Seeking. There is just nothing like it for getting to conclusions. Finding. “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after” (Tolkien). Certainly, when E.M Forster wrote A Passage to India or J.R.R Tolkien wrote The Hobbit or Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse -Five they were not looking for anything. However, they ended up finding a crucial link in their books–links to society at the time their books were published. 1924, 1937, 1969 or is it 1890, 2157 (Shire reckoning), 1945-It is not possible to be entirely sure. And it is this ambiguity that reveals a major aspect of literature. Literature has a tendency to represent the prevailing collective outlook. Forster highlights the growing discontent, of both Indians and the British, with the way the sub-continent is handled. Tolkien represents, very allegorically, the hardy nature of the people surviving the great depression, naming them hobbits. Vonnegut expresses the general disillusionment of the post-war years and Billy Pilgrim’s fatalist nature provides a grim undercurrent to the cheery “good war” (Jarvis 62). Thus, as seen through Forster, Tolkien, and Vonnegut’s books A Passage to India, The Hobbit, and Slaughterhouse -Five (respectively) authors tend to mimic

Do you ever wonder what kind of person you are? Are you adventurous, perseptive, athletic? Have these traits ever affected your decision making? Because in “The Hobbit” By J.R.R. Tolkien, The protagonist Bilbo Baggins feels conflicted whether he should act like his more daring ancestors, the Tooks by embarking on a perilous journey to retake a kingdom. Or to be like his more respectable ancestors, the Bagginses and stay in the comfort of his warm home. As you can see, the traits he has acquired from his forebears are altering the way he sees the situation. Much like Bilbo, I believe that we all have similar sides to our personalities, whether the conflict is to be brave or timid, or smart rather than foolishly. And it is up to us to correctly

When you think of a hero, is the first character to pop in your head a little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins? In most cases, people think of Superman or Hercules, but in The Hobbit, an unexpected hero emerges and changes the name for all heroes to come. The Hobbit is a novel about Bilbo Baggins and his journey, with thirteen dwarves and a wizard, seeking the treasure stolen by the dragon, Smaug. While on this unexpected journey, Bilbo and his companions overcome many obstacles to eventually get to the treasure and retrieve it. Throughout the story, Bilbo develops into a courageous man, who indeed, is a hero. Richard Tyre wrote an article, “You Can’t Teach Tolkien,” and he explains his theory in which he connects multiple story’s plot with six elements. The Hobbit, is assuredly a prime example of Tyre’s theory because it follows all six steps throughout the story simultaneously. The six elements are; “(1) those who hunt for treasure, (2) must go alone, (3) at night, (4) and when they find it, (5) they must leave some of their blood behind, (6) and the treasure is never what they expected” (Tyre 19). These elements are steps in which a character must take to emerge into a hero in the end. Bilbo Baggins is the hero in The Hobbit, but he doesn’t start off as the hero. He has always had heroic traits but throughout the novel, he pursues those six steps and in the resolution, he is transformed into an actual hero.

Literary consonance is a literary device where the same consonants are repeated numerous times in short succession. Sibilance is a form of literary consonance made by the flow of air through the sharp edges of the teeth. Phonetic Alphabet symbols representing sibilants are [s], [z], [ʃ], [tʃ], [dʒ] and [ʒ], which all create hissing noises when spoken. Tolkien effectively provides a thorough demonstration on how an author can play with consonance. He adds depth to Gollum’s character by emphasising his hissing noises with the assistance of this poetic device. His sibilance is designed to portray him as sinister, cold and distant from the normal Hobbits to the reader. It

-Flight is freedom. When a character has the ability to fly they are free from the burdens of everyday life.

In the novel, The Hobbit, the author J.R.R. Tolkien, suggests when an individual pushes themselves to explore risk-taking, they take the opportunity to grow within themselves, and test the extent of their newfound values, which result in the character fostering a stronger sense of self-identity.

One of history’s famous authors was and still is today, J. R. R. Tolkien. Many people know some of his more famous books like The Hobbit or his Lord of the Ring series. Within these people there are others who know that the names of all the dwarves from The Hobbit and the name Gandalf come from an ancient Norse poem titled Volpusa. An even smaller group of people know that more than just his name came from Norse mythology, in fact the model for Gandalf’s character may have been taken from one of Norse mythologies most important gods Odin. There are many similarities between the two of them; pictures and paintings of Odin look like Gandalf, they both are immortal, they both can take on other appearances, they both have the fastest horses in the world, both of them die and come back better than before, both plan out the battles more than partake in them, both of them are very wise, and they both use similar magic in combat. J. R. R. Tolkien was influenced by the Norse god Odin when he created his character Gandalf.

On September 21, 1937, the fantasy-fiction writer J. R. R. Tolkien published the first copy of the Hobbit. The Hobbit book and movie show striking differences, but they do share a few outlying similarities. First, they both have the same main character, Bilbo Baggins, and most of the names of characters have been kept to prevent confusion from those who have read the book. But where in the book does it talk about Tauriel, the elf maiden whom of which Legolas and Kili both are in love with? See Tauriel was a character that was created by Peter Jackson specifically for his film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Secondly, in both the book and the movie the main theme is Bilbo’s development into a hero, which more broadly represents the

“The hobbit” and “Lord of the rings” were already became a famous sign of fantasy literature. Their author created a fantastic and great world for us to imagine. No matter teenagers or elders are loving his work. He contributed a lot to the literature and whole world. There are a lot of meaningful questions about Tolkien and his work deserving us to find out answer. Why he written these books? How he contributes and influences literature and world?

Few books are as imaginative, and exciting as the J.R.R. Tolkien series of books involving the adventures of mythical creatures that include hobbits, wizards, orcs, and one very cranky fire-breathing dragon. The Hobbit is both a stand-alone story and an introduction to the Tolkien world and more stories involving many more characters and adventures, including The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is one book about a well-defined adventure of one small set of characters, while The Lord of the Rings is a trilogy of books that are much more complex and involve many more characters. Several key characters in The Hobbit including Bilbo, Gandalf, and Gollum are also found in The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is about one hobbit aided by some dwarves, fairies, and one wizard going on an adventure to find treasure and one very important ring.