How To Read Literature Like A Professor Essay

Our Quester: A young boy who isn’t happy with his life living at home with his large family.

Regardless of personal beliefs or opinions, it is nearly impossible to imagine the existence of modern English literature without the influence of religion. Since the dawn of recorded history, religion has played a vital, recurring role in works of fact and fiction, alike. In his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, author Thomas Foster asserts several points about this relationship between religion and literature, especially in relation to the image of Christ, and states, “Culture is so influenced by its dominant religious systems that whether a writer adheres to the beliefs or not, the values and principles of those religions will inevitably inform the literary work” (125).

Nice To Eat With You: Acts of Communion (Chapter Two) from How to Read Literature Like A Professor expressed that literary communion is always written deliberately to show an act between friends and can be used as a way to bring characters together or to tear them apart. The chapter talked about how everyone shares at least one thing in common, which is death, and how once you recognize that it's smooth sailing. That next to mortality all of our differences are tiny details that play a big factor in how different all of our lives our when compared next to each other.

In Chapter One of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster begins with an example of a situation that a boy, Kip, encounters. He goes to the local A&P in order to pick up bread for his mother, however comes in contact with several obstacles. Although this seems like just a trip to the store, Kip in reality was on a quest. Foster then goes on to explain the five parts of a quest—a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there. When a person goes on a quest, they often discover something different than what was intended. In the story about Kip, Kip’s quest was to pick up white bread. On the way, he encounters a German shepherd and then spots the girl of his dreams in

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Chapter 1 Throughout chapter 1, Foster discusses quests and how all stories include them in some way. Quests include a quester, a place to go, the stated reason to go there, challenges and trials, and an actual reason to go there. These may not be straightforward in every story, but they can be identified with practice, and will help the reader understand the big picture. The motivation for the quest is implicit; the stated reason is never the real reason for going.

“Sometimes the really scary bloodsuckers are entirely human” (Foster 18). In How To Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster argues that vampires in literature are not always actual vampires, but can be figurative as well: “Using other people to get what we want. Placing our desires above the needs of others...as long as people act toward their fellows in exploitative and selfish ways, the vampire will be” (Foster 22). In essence, Foster illustrates that the act of using others to attain one’s personal goal is analogous to a vampire sucking the blood out of it’s victim. Foer’s protagonist in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar, also shows these vampiric tendencies in his goal of learning about his father’s key. “‘Actually, I’m diabetic

Chapter 14 is about how almost everything, in some form, is a Christ figure. The chapter gives a list to relate characters to. The list is 1. crucified, wounds in the hands, feet, side, and head 2. in agony 3. self-sacrificing 4. good with children 5.good with loaves, fishes, water, wine 6. thirty-three years of age when last seen 7. employed as a carpenter 8. known to use humble modes of transportation, feet or donkeys preferred 9. believed to have walked on water 10. often portrayed with arms outstretched 11.

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.

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.

There has to be a compelling reason to include a meal scene in the story because they’re typically boring.

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.

Students often find themselves lost and intimidated by their professor’s experience when analysing literature. In “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster, Foster attempts give students the tools they need in order to begin learning how to read literature. Each chapter covers a unique concept students can begin look for in their reading. The book details what certain events or settings could mean and how they may relate to similar events in other literature.

As I was reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I was thinking about how much I have missed in the books I have read due to not knowing how to look for certain literary devices. Something as simple as not knowing how to read between the lines caused me to miss out on points the author was trying to make. Over the course of reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I have learned many ways to analyze literature that I did not know before.

It could be the simple mentioning of a ‘godly’ figure that can link a story to religion. Within the story Big Mama’s Funeral by Gabriel Garcia Marquez religion is shown through the statement, “…whose funeral was attended by the Pope.” (Maquez, 1), and not too long after that, there is the mentioning of Big Mama spending time with the priest. This theme is also shown in The Civil Peace by Chinua Achebe, when the protagonist says, “To God who made me;” (Achebe, 3), and again in The Necklace by Farida Karodia. Jesus is mentioned, while the protagonist refers how brutal the truth was, the protagonist states, “Jesus, I knew.”

The possibly most emphasized literary concept within most high-school english curriculum has to be the allusion. It is an important lesson in comprehension for people to learn how to recognize when a work alludes to another, and for what reasons they do so. High-school literature courses generally wean their students into being able to recognize allusions by introducing literary works that only take use of the most recognized allusions. Once the students have on-par comprehension, the curriculum allows for more obscure allusions to challenge the students. For what reason, however, is there a necessity for these challenging, obscure allusions to exist?