...In the ninth chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster explores the symbolic and literal significance weather holds in storytelling. Literally speaking, weather has the power to directly affect a character, whether they become soaked from the rain or sweaty from the heat. Symbolically speaking, weather means much more than a few drops of water, or a thermometer reaching one hundred degrees. Overall, Foster discusses three types of weather throughout this chapter: rain, fog and snow. Firstly, rain, “the principal element of spring”, possess transformative qualities and can symbolically cleanse a character (73). Rain, when mixed with a little sunlight can fashion symbolic, “divine promise[s]” and “peace between heaven and earth” (74). These celestial pacts, known as rainbows, are literally very rare, but commonly hard to miss. Symbolically, rainbows represent miracles and are just as important as they are beautiful. Although rain can demonstrate symbolic rebirth, and is capable of creating miraculous rainbows, a downpour can also form mud and induce a character to become...
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...the assigned reading within the first two weeks of the school year. AP English IV (11th grade students entering AP IV in 2016-2017) Seniors should create a synopsis card for each novel read of literary merit. Your teacher will explain how this will prepare you for the open questions for the AP Literature exam. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C, Foster Complete writing assignments from the chapter sheet that accompanies Foster. See Assignments on the back of this sheet. Access this link for tips on dialectical journal entries: https:www.YouTube.com/watch?v=CBsJTqfB1Ws AP English IV Writing Assignments Directions: Complete assignments for chapters 1-10 as you read Foster’s work. Writing Assignments for How to Read Literature like a Professor By Thomas C. Foster (Adapted from Donna Anglin by Sandra Effinger) Introduction: How’d He Do That? How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol or pattern. (200 words) Chapter 1 – Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in the form used on pages 3-5. Chapter 2 – Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion Choose a meal...
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...In the book How To Read Literature Like a Professor, the author interprets communion in an unlikely manner. He states, “…whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion.”(Foster 8). That means even if you’re eating as a family or with a group of people, you’re all taking place in communion. One generally thinks communion is a practice that takes place only in churches. In the book The Things They Carried, O’Brien writes about communion as Foster defines. In one instance, they were sitting around in the hot sun and they were all taking salt tabs just to stay alive (O'Brien 185). O'Brien also says, "Late in the afternoon, just before dusk, Kiowa came up and asked if he could sit at my foxhole for a minute. He offered me a Christmas cookie...
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...In Thomas C. Foster’s Chapter 11 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “...More Than it’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence,”compares violence in literature to violence in the real world. Violence in literature can mean a lot of things and be a lot of things like “symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent,” etc. while violence in the real world is exactly as it sounds, aggressive and mean (Foster 95). Joseph Conrad killed off his characters by having them kill each other, but all for absurd reasons. Mr. Jones kills Lena because he has a very strong hatred of women, regarding them as “wriggling vipers” of “horror” (Conrad 64, 65). He also shoots Ricardo, his secretary, because he wants the money that is nonexistent to himself. Wang, Heyst’s servant, kills Pedro, Mr. Jones’ slave,...
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..."Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures,” as quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster gives insight to the reader about how there is always more to a story than meets the eye. Foster covers an abundance of topics for instance, how some pieces of literature have in depth political apprehension. Foster distinguishes between overtly political writing which includes literature whose main intent is to influence the prevailing political ideology and “political” writing that is more subtle and possibly more effective. Political writing offers a perspective into the realities of the world and in doing so touches upon themes and problems that are collectively shared and thus relatable. In Park Tae Jun’s Lookism, a webcomic, regarding a teenage boy by the name of Hyung Suk who has repeatedly been the victim of bullying because of his appearance at his old school finally comes to his breaking point. Hyung Suk later convinces his mother to buy him a bus ticket to a new school somewhere in Korea for...
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...How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster Chapter Reflections Introduction: How’d He Do That? * How do memory, symbol, and pattern affect the reading of literature? How does the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature? Discuss a time when your appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol or pattern. * When reading literature: memory, symbol, and pattern help you understand the text better. If you don’t comprehend literature, then you won’t know the real meaning behind that passage. But that’s why memory, symbol, and pattern come in to help. I think the recognition of patterns make it easier to read complicated literature because then we can analyze what exactly it is that we are reading. It gets readers to look more in depth of the literature itself. I think memory helps the readers connect emotionally and/or physically to that literature. Also, symbols analyze a deeper thought to something. When I read something, I picture it in my head and I would create a scene in my mind. Then by using memory, symbol, and pattern, I’ll try to sort everything out to make it clearer for my understanding. Chapter 1 – Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) * List the five aspects of the QUEST and then apply them to something you have read (or viewed) in the form used on pages 3-5. * The quest has five aspects, which includes: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d)...
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...Dear Senior: In less than a year, you will be preparing for your freshman year of college. By that time, you should be familiar with a wide range of English, American, and Global literatures. The list of masterworks on the back of this sheet offers a guide for what are considered seminal works in the English-language tradition. We will read and discuss several of the texts during next year’s Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition course. (I AM NOT ASKING YOU TO READ THEM ALL – DON’T BE SILLY!) Reading ahead and reading a work twice is always advisable. In any case, a broad background of reading will benefit you on the AP English Literature test, as well as in your college English classes. Summer Reading: Bulfinch, Thomas The Age of Fable: Stories of Gods and Heroes^^ Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor* Hamilton, Edith Mythology^^ Shakespeare, William MacBeth Optional: Cotterell, Arthur & Storm, Rachel The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Mythology# These books should all be available at your local library or bookstore (you may also order online). *If you do not already own a copy of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, you should get a copy. We will be referring to it throughout the year as we dissect and discuss literary works. ^^I have provided .PDF copies of these works through Edmodo. Please do NOT print copies of these works. #This book is a great resource to have for college, particularly if...
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...Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect handbook to help students understand literature. It is meant to help you see past the story and into what the story means. It also helps in understanding what different symbols stand for and finding common themes and patterns across different works of literature. One of the most helpful ideas in his book is “Every trip is a Quest (Except when it’s Not)”. This chapter focuses on how to recognize when a character goes on a quest and what a quest actually consists of. One of the most important rules of a quest is that whatever reason the character says they are going on a quest for, is never actually what ends up happening and “the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge” (Foster, 3). The reason “questers” are usually so young and naïve is because the whole point of the quest is to become wiser and more mature. A second note-worthy idea from Fosters book is “Don’t Read with Your Eyes” (Foster 232). What he means by this...
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...The Quest of Pi The Life of Pi a quest with an strong influence of religion that is apparent throughout the story. “We are all born like Catholics, aren't we--in limbo without religion, until some figure introduces us to god” (Martel 58). Piscine Molitor Patel a young Indian teen has a unique infatuation with religion. Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi, Gave Pi or Piscine an interesting life that is different from others. Piscines’ life is a constant struggle or a quest.. In the book How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, the first chapter of Fosters’ novel “Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)” The chapter is clearly visible within the Life of Pi. Including what Pi had: the problems endured through...
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...AP English Literature and Composition 2012 Summer Reading Assignment I. DRAMA Oedipus Rex by Sophocles We are not requiring any particular edition of the play; however, we would highly recommend a version which includes supplemental materials/explanations of Greek drama and Greek mythology. Purchase, read, and annotate the play prior to the first day of class. It would be wise to focus your annotation on instances of dramatic irony, images of vision and blindness, and tension between fate and free will. The following literary analysis assignment will be collected during the second week of school. LITERARY ANALYSIS OF DRAMA In a typed, one-page essay, offer your assessment of Oedipus at the end of the play. Was he foolish? Heroic? Fated? Support with textual evidence as appropriate and follow MLA format. II. READING FOR PLEASURE Read a book—fiction or non-fiction—strictly for pleasure. Strong readers and writers have a wealth of textual experiences and a vast amount of background knowledge from which to draw. The most important aspect of this assignment is that you select a work you will enjoy reading. During the first week of class, you will conduct a book talk over your selected work in which you will “sell” the experience of reading your book to your peers, so pick something good! Some suggestions for selecting your “reading for pleasure” book include, but are not limited to: * Classic works of literature from an era, author, or genre you...
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...Aslan represents a Christ figure. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, Foster describes a Christ figure as “sacrificing yourself in some way for others” (129). In the movie, Aslan willingly trades his life for Edmund, one of the Pevensie children who betrays his siblings, to appease the White Witch’s claims that Edmund belongs to her because of his traitorous behavior. Aslan’s self-sacrificing actions are similar to those of Jesus Christ whose death was used to atone for all of mankind’s sins. The parallel of their deaths makes Aslan’s altruistic behavior even more sacrificial because it compares his action to the person whose sacrifice is greatly known by most people. Furthermore, Foster explains that as a Christ figure, he should have disciples. Already known by Narnia as the “King of the Woods” or the “Real King of Narnia,” the mere mention of Aslan brings hope to his followers despite him being away for many years. The Pevensie children, well most of them anyway, get baptised. According to the book, Foster describes baptism as “...taking the new believer completely underwater causes him to die out of his...
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...News of our class reading The Great Gatsby spread to past students and they decided to spoil the book for us. Past students informed us of all the most “important” ideas of the book. As F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous book was being introduced I remember sitting in my seat, looking through a packet we had received and thinking about how I already knew what was going to happen and knew the main idea behind the book. This memory, of the introduction of The Great Gatsby, ringed through my head as our AP Literature and Composition class read Vladimir Nabokov’s work, “Good Readers and Good Writers”. Almost immediately Nabokov revealed one of my reading errors. A big error I was making was beginning to read with a “readymade generalization”(1). By thinking I had the main idea down, as I read the book I simply looked for details that supported that main idea. A flaw that caused me to miss a great amount of details. Now that I think about my past reading strategies in approaching literature it seems like I have always generalized way to early. The questions asked in my past reading and english classes, when we read books, were all similar; they always had something to do with ideas and purposes. When it came to reading a book my brain was programmed to make a generalization and to use the details to explain it and prove it to be the correct...
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...Mariam from “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is the main protagonist in this novel. This particular novel can be considered a bildungsroman type of novel; a LITERARY PIECE dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education. Throughout the novel, we mainly see Mariam’s perspectives and we go into her world and experience everything she does as a gender perspective. Not only is her daily life seen, her culture is shown clearly as well. Some examples of elements of culture you might have seen are how women would live knowing two different cultures and heritages, allusions, Mariam feeling ashamed for being different, and symbolization of diversity of their different cultures, ethnicities, and races. These aspects would not be clear without...
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...Foster. Out of all the ones scattered around her book, there is one that is just impossible to miss, the name. In his book, Foster goes over the importance of biblical allusions, how they impact the story, and what an important tool they are for writers. “The Millstone,” is one of those biblical allusions, a text from the bible says "But who shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6). Foster mentioned this in his book “the bible is full of titles,” (Foster, 45) and he could not be more correct in this situation. The title is referring to Rosamund’s pregnancy; it’s an inescapable responsibility that she has to face. She tried to evade that responsibility but was not able to; therefore Octavia became the millstone around Rosamund’s neck. Back to the title and biblical allusions, just the simple title gave the readers an insight of what the book is going to be about; hard decisions and growing...
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...the idea of communion and sharing of food as described in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster, is immensely powerful in characterizing relationships. The denial of, acceptance of, or even just the food itself are all used to describe everything from mutual hatred to sense of community to the state of character’s personality or relationship with another character. It can even be observed in the literal biblical notion of communion such as Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. The refusal of...
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