'How To Read Literature Like A Professor' By Thomas C. Foster

In the twelfth chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster provides various information on how to identify symbols throughout literature. The chapter stressed the individuality of identifying symbols, Foster mentions multiple times that “every reader’s experience of every work is unique, largely because each person will emphasize various elements to different degrees” (110). After learning this and also having read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, one thing that stood out was that the main character, Oskar, only has and only wears white clothes. Not only does Oskar often reference his various white clothes, including the white scarf that Grandma knitted

Thomas C. Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, tackles the process of uncovering the underlying complexities and symbols that authors incorporate into their literary works. In its most lucid form, Foster’s message is that, when reading a work of literary merit, anything you may postulate has a deeper meaning most likely does, since skilled authors do not include items and occurrences just to include them. The dystopian literature novels 1984, Animal Farm, and Brave New World follow this trend as they interpolate different motifs with deeper political and symbolic context; however, Foster’s statements do not only apply to written literature. The movie V For Vendetta, released in 2005, connects to How to Read Literature Like

In Thomas Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, it is written that there are five aspects of a quest: “the quester; a place to go; a stated reason to go there; challenges and trials en route; a real reason to go there” (Foster 3). In the book Siddhartha, Siddhartha is the quester who is specifically in search for enlightenment through his wanderings. During his quest, he constantly endures internal unrest. Although Siddhartha searched for enlightenment, he really wanted all of his unsettled questions about his life answered.

In the skillful novel, "How To Read Literature Like A Professor" by Thomas C. Foster, there is neither a protagonist nor antagonist. As a whole, the novel gives insights on how to pick up signs of symbolism, irony, and many other hidden details that are buried within the words of literature. Foster refers to many classis novels by classic authors to demonstrate the use of logic in writing. The novel is extremely educational, leaving many insightful questions and interpretations to the reader's opinion.

Foster breaks down the aspects of a journey to describe the quester, the destination, the stated reason, the challenges, and the real reason. The character who embarks on the journey, also known as the quester, has a defined reason to do so, whether it is to obtain an object, save one from the lurking dangers, or acquire life-saving knowledge. Along their way to reach their destination, they may encounter various challenges such as a physical barrier, a challenger/defender, or a personal obstacle they must face. Through whatever form it takes, these barriers force the quester to challenge their abilities and beliefs, which ultimately leads to them discovering personal knowledge previously unknown about themselves. Though the quester may have accomplished their stated goal of their journey, they return from their voyage often as a changed person as the real reason for their quest was to gain self-knowledge. After they finish their conquest, the quester realizes that the journey was more important than the destination whether they built upon their relationships with another, conquered a personal fear, or gained new found knowledge about themselves, altering their personality and their identity. Foster believes that every trip is a quest, and the quest is a revelation about one’s

As Santiago is walking through the dessert with the Alchemist in search of the pyramids, he has mixed emotions about the journey. He is happy with his life at the moment. He met a wonderful girl, is respected by the people of the oasis, and has a steady income. Walking through the dessert in search for treasure that may not even exist, puts everything that he has gained in jeopardy. He is afraid of losing it all. In order to comfort Santiago, the Alchemist tells him to listen to his heart. He states “People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel they don’t deserve them, or they’ll be unable to achieve them. (Coelho 134)” We often aim to low and set up a mental block for ourselves. People have dreams and goals they

The reason Santiago was told that the treasure was at the pyramids because they wanted him to see how beautiful they were and how getting to your personal legend is not always

As seen in Coelho’s novel, our quester is Santiago. The place he is going to is Egypt because he believes there is treasure buried there by the Pyramids. There are many challenges Santiago has to face before reaching his treasure. The earliest challenge Santiago has to face is when a man steals all his money in Africa, leaving him without any money and far away from home. Santiago then decides that he has “to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer in quest of his treasure”. He chooses the later and walks around the city looking for employment. Eventually, he gets hired by a crystal merchant and works for him an entire year. Santiago was originally going to return back to Spain with the money he made to buy a larger flock of sheep, but realizes that he can always return to that lifestyle when he wants but to fulfil his dream was a once in a lifetime

The only dreams he ever had were to travel with his flock of sheep or marry the merchant's daughter. When he had that dream about finding the treasure, it was all new to him. He was unsure how to even go about going to the pyramids and wasn't sure that that dream was really what he wanted to do. After talking to the gypsy woman, Santiago ran into a man named Melchizedek who was the King of Salem. Melchizedek also said that Santiago should follow his dreams and go to the Pyramids.

When Santiago firsts learns more about his recurring dream from an old gypsy woman, he doesn’t immediately take action. Without having any clue on how to get to Egypt, and remembering that “he had a number of things he had to take care of”, he decides not to follow through with the

Both novels, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, can be viewed as journeys of discovery to the reader. Both journeys in both novels are a very significant part of the development of the story itself. The Alchemist is a journey of self discovery for Santiago, the young Andalusian protagonist, which is all about him fulfilling his Personal Legend which would strip him of all of his impurities. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is also journey of self discovery for Christopher, the young British protagonist. Christopher’s journey of discovering himself is about him finding out that his mother has not died and she is still alive, which he learns through his journey, he discovers a lot of new things about himself that he did not previously know or knew he had in him.

This type of behavior is evident in Santiago when he rejects his parent’s wish of specializing in religion as a priest, and states that he wants to become a shepherd to travel across the hills of Andalusia and become familiar with the language of the world. When Santiago’s father tries to persuade Santiago that travelling does not change a person, Santiago replies, “But I’d like to see the castles in the towns where they live,” … “Well, I’d like to see their lands, and see how they live” (Coleho-9). As a shepherd, Santiago had a reoccurring dream of hidden treasure in the Egyptian Pyramids which was approved by the dream interpreter, and later confirmed by Melchizedek, the king of Salem, who Santiago met in Tarifa. Melchizedek spoke to Santiago about a person’s Personal Legend, or every person’s long term goal or desire they wanted to accomplish in their lifetime. Now gaining a sense of adventure and obligation, Santiago disbanded this sixty sheep and travelled across the Strait of Gibraltar and marched across the Sahara Desert in alternations of horse and camel to achieve what he believed the world and the nature wanted him to achieve. During Santiago’s crusade to the Pyramids of Giza, he is introduced to a life changing branch of studies known as alchemy. Introduced by the Englishman travelling to Al-Fayoum, and later properly taught by the Alchemist, Santiago learns that the world and the nature bound within it is unified together through the Soul of the World, how to read omens present in nature, and how to interact and converse with the extremely vital factors and elements of nature. When held hostage by some Moorish chieftains and given a daunting task to take down the Moorish military camp by transforming into the wind, Santiago

Santiago’s purpose was to validate his personal legend in finding treasure. The old woman wanted to know more about his dream. She then gave her interpretation: “[Santiago] must go to the Pyramids in Egypt. [She has] never heard of them, but, if it was a child who showed them to [him], they exist. There [he] will find a treasure that will make [him] a rich man.”(Coelho 14) So begins his journey that takes him away from home. A shepherd who wants to travel, he seeks treasure to support his life and livelihood. Along the way, he meets the alchemist who tells him that, “before a [Personal Legend] is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way.”(Coelho 132) The alchemist’s teaching guides Santiago as he continues his journey. With each continuing step, Santiago realizes that his true treasure is back where he started, at home. While his journey was truly epic, and he overcome many obstacles,

In the first half of the novel, Santiago meets a Gypsy/Old Woman who helps to find the theme by telling him, “you must go the Pyramids in Egypt. I have never heard of them, but, if it was a child who showed them to you, they exist.

Santiago at one point seems to try to talk himself out of going to Egypt when he reflects on many things, “Curse the moment I met that old man [Melchizedek] . . . If he [Santiago] ever decided to leave them [His sheep], they would suffer . . . Here I am, between my flock and my treasure . . . There was also the merchant’s daughter” (Coelho, 1993, p. 27). Like Santiago, many people fear change and will find any reason to convince themselves that the journey is not worth the risk. Fear’s de-motivational abilities, almost keep Santiago from ever undertaking his journey. However, it is these same thoughts that he realizes are keeping him from his “Personal Legend” when he thinks “There is nothing to hold him back except himself. The sheep, the merchants’ daughter, and the fields of Andalusia were only steps along the way to his Personal Legend (Coelho, 1993, p. 28). How many times in our own lives are we afraid of something, just to realize that it is that specific fear that is holding us back from our own happiness. Many times, just like Santiago, once people get over the hurdles that hold them back, they find there was nothing to fear after all, and that their fears generally were unfounded. Like Santiago, fear of the unknown can motivate an individual to find his or her place in, as the narrator says, “the Soul of the World” (Coelho,