Throw-out the years, I have been told by relatives how reading from an early age, has always been a habit for me. From children books to my grandfather’s old books. Although always encouraged by my parents to read, it was a natural essence. Most of the books have been in Spanish, being this my primary language. As I grew older, the notion of being recognized by relatives as the reader, empowered me by exceeding their expectations. Despite not knowing how to recognize the significances of certain words, my parents’ college thesis was among the books that I read. As the years went by, reading was no longer of my interest. The reason was not the shortness of time or responsibility, it was the lack of motivation. The transition to a different country and language restrained me. It was not until high school that I became interested in reading again. Eager to be literate and not fallen behind among peers, encouraged me to persevere and improve my reading skills in English. Ever since, Khaled …show more content…
It integrates the reader as if it is one own story. Novels as Safe heaven and the fault in our stars brings tears to my eyes, these are examples of fiction books that enhance sympathy towards the cast. Not forgetting how it can be fragmented nature of reality; life true story. However, not every individual is to be interested in the exact narrative stories whether fiction or nonfiction. Many are attracted by the cover, others by the title or just for pleasure. As for dystopian fiction, diversity in the context, unpleasant and indifferences attracts more young adults. Divergent and the giver are among dystopian fiction where true darkness comes along. The path into the world of fiction can trap readers as emotions rise. Personally, when reading these type of fictions, it surpasses a habit and becomes mixed feelings where anxiety, compassion, love and hatred towards characters
As new genres in the world of novels fade out of the public eye, new ones arise just as fast. A genre that has taken the world by storm is the dystopian trope. Many new young adult novels have this new genre incorporated into the story, often weaving in themes of sadness or conformity being overcome by rebelliousness and hope. It is one of the newest genres, yet one of the most widely varied compared to older ones. Even novels from 70 years ago, such as Ayn Rand’s Anthem share similarities with the same types of stories from only 20 years ago, like The Giver by Lois Lowry.
In the sixth chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster examines the Bible and its importance throughout stories, poetry and film. The Bible is one of the most commonly known pieces of literature and is even “nonsectarian” in Foster’s eyes (44). Because stories from the Bible are so well known, the Bible is a tremendously easy for authors to reference when constructing a new composition. Especially “prior to sometime in the middle of the twentieth century” writers were “solidly instructed in religion” and could count on the public being very well acquainted with Biblical stories (47). This widespread knowledge of the Bible lead to greater understandings throughout literature, and the recognized allusions helped
Patterns are everywhere. A pattern is a "repeated decorative design." Whether in a constructed environment or a natural environment, patterns are made and set into stone with an intended idea or form and are repeated. As Thomas Foster shows us in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, there are patterns in Literature. In The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson, we are shown how the different patterns explained by Foster are put into place to form the story. Johnson uses the same techniques Foster presents in 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
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster is an all-encompassing guide to literature. Thomas C. Foster sets outs to explain how seemingly each detail in a story has some sort of symbolic meaning that may not be easily noticed at first glance. These symbolic meanings can range from the more potent symbolism of the weather to the obscure deeper meaning of a supernatural creature in a story’s plot. As I was reading this book, I was amazed and somewhat taken aback to how much other works of literature are used as examples to validate Foster’s explanations. Well-known novels like Animal Farm, Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet, biblical stories, and Greek myths are referred to. It was immediately apparent that the author was very
In the book “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C. Foster, many elements are brought to the reader’s attention. Three of these elements, happen to connect with the novel, “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” written by Mark Haddon.
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.
How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster has definitely made me look back at how I analyzed all the books and other types of literature I’ve read and made me think how less-than-mediocre my analyzing skills were. I never thought that a boy running an errand for his mother could be a quest. When I started reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, it vaguely reminded me of something I would find on the English tag of Tumblr.
A book is like a puzzle, it contains many different pieces to make it into a whole. Thomas Foster, in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor, discusses the many aspects to decoding a book. There are many aspects included in the book, including the importance of weather and Foster incorporated lots of content in his book, but the two that stand out are irony and symbolism.
Foster discusses the idea that when two characters eat together, that moment acts as a bonding experience and causes the characters to come together. I had never noticed the significance of a meal between characters before. After reading this chapter, I can think of so many moments in stories when the characters share a meal together to form friendships or come to a peace. In one of my favorite novels, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Picoult writes that “Emma Alexis- who was one of the cool, beautiful girls…she rolled her wheelchair right beside Justin. She’d asked him if she could have half of his donut” (367). Splitting the donut between one of the popular girls and one of the quieter, nerdier boys was a representation of the deformation of the high school social classes. After reading this chapter, I could recall the significance of meals together in so many novels and movies but I never noticed this pattern before.
-Flight is freedom. When a character has the ability to fly they are free from the burdens of everyday life.
After finishing Albert Camus’ The Stranger, it is easy to see that I have read something similar to this work previously. I found myself able to correctly predict exactly what was going to happen to Meursault. This phenomenon is easily explained in Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In Chapter 5 of Foster’s work, he discusses how the majority of literature really builds off other works of literature. The tale of someone that has a mediocre live goes through a redemption with himself is very similar to the tale of Buddha.
The motivation for the quest is implicit- the stated reason for going on the journey is
In Thomas Foster’s book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor,” readers learn how to look past the surface of a literary work to find a deeper or hidden meaning. Writers use devices, such as symbolism, imagery, foreshadowing, irony and allusion to reveal these meanings. If these are overlooked, important aspects of the story can be lost. One literary device that Foster emphasizes in his book is allusion. Every story has elements of another story, and Foster devotes Chapters Four through Seven explaining the meaning of allusion in works by Shakespeare, the Bible, and fairy tales.
My reading experience has had a lot of ups and downs. I was never an over-achiever in my language arts or reading classes, which has affected my passion for reading. A lot of my opinions about reading have changed even just since this summer. I don’t have any recollection of reading before kindergarten except for learning the letters. Kindergarten was a struggle for me, but after kindergarten to third grade. In third grade I peaked and absolutely loved reading and writing, but it faded in middle school and has been fading since then for me.