...Bible is a powerful piece of literature connecting to the vast majority of society's morals and beliefs. Foster states how "often those values will not be religious in nature but may show themselves in connection with the individual's role within society."(Fitzgerald 88)Religious references in literary text do not always refer to God but biblical references in a text can strengthen the plot through symbolism. For example, In the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald Christ is symbolized by a billboard with eyes of a well-known doctor. These eyes can be interpreted as God because they overlook sins just as God does. Gatsby's speeding, Tom committing adultery, abuse and death and much more sinful activities, take place all under the eyes. While gazing from the top floor Mr. Wilson, the husband of the cheating wife, says "God knows what you have been doing, everything you've been doing. You may fool me, but you can't fool God!"(Fitzgerald, 159) , all while staring into the eyes of Dr.T.J. Eckleberg. To sum up, religion in literary texts can strengthen the storyline through symbolism as seen in The Great Gatsby. When writing a story, it is essential to decide the plot and characters that authors desire to be involved. A novel or story must have a suitable environment in order for the story’s plot to be strong. Foster states, "landscape and architecture and weather...merged as neatly with mood and tone to set a story in motion" (Foster 116). Taking the well-known childhood...
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...Introduction Some people don’t see the meaning In symbolism, and frantically I feel it is highly overlooked . Symbolism is important because it helps you have a deeper meaning of your story. Oh, but there is more. So kick back, read on and let me open your mind into the world of Symbolism, and why it helps you infer what a book it’s about, how you practice symbolism in your head, or just knowing what some of the symbols mean! It’s easy to figure out what a book is about when you read. But what if I told you you could get a glimpse of what it’s about before even turning a page! For instance in the novel twilight on the cover you see a red apple, as you may know the book is centered around a human girl who falls in love with an immortal vampire....
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...In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most blatant and powerful symbol is blood. He takes the blood that means so much to the believers of this legend and has it represent more than even they could imagine. Blood is the main object associated with vampires and vampirism. From a mythical standpoint, it is the basis of life for the vampires as they feed off of the blood of young, vibrant souls. From a more scientific standpoint blood is what would drip out of the corpse's mouth when family members would dig up their dead kin to check for the dreaded disease. Stoker takes the significance of this symbol and puts his own unique twist to the meaning of blood. He combines the traditional folklore of vampirism and the immense sexual undertones of the Victorian era to create a simply horrific tale which completely confuses the emotions of his readers. Stoker knew bloods importance in vampire history and used the overwhelming symbolism to convey his own personal lust and sexual obsessions. The scenes where Lucy is receiving transfusions; first from Holmwood, then from Seward, and the unforgettable vampire baptism between Dracula and Mina all have these very erotic, sexual feelings associated with them. What makes these so powerful is the combination of violence and sex. As a reader, you know that what Dracula is doing are horrific and wrong, but because they are so sexually described and associated you think you should enjoy them, but you can't. This is the confusion which stoker implements into...
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...Over the years, many legends have been told about the vampires and their monstrous ways. However, specific details about these creatures’ habits differ from story to story. Some say they burn if exposed to sunlight, some say they can only be destroyed with fire; every author interprets the legend in his or her own way. There is only one true symbol that has remained constant in every vampire story ever told, and that is blood. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, blood is a powerful symbol. Throughout the novel, it represents life, lust, and weakness. The most obvious use of blood symbolism in Dracula is blood symbolizing life. All of the characters, whether they be humans or vampires, rely on blood to stay alive. The more blood Dracula takes from...
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...exploring concepts like symbolism, bundled lore, evidence based knowledge, and hyperreality, I have learned that the majority of information that the average American believes to be true is based off of illiterate knowledge rather than literate knowledge, but more importantly, when critically thinking it is not the result that is most important, but rather how you get there. Critical thinking involves gaining background knowledge on a subject, taking multiple factors into consideration, searching for credible sources, and using these techniques to form an idea or opinion based off of it. It is easy to form and share an idea or opinion based on...
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...The novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is a complex novel. It is full of juxtaposition, symbolism and complex themes about life, the world around us, society, and our deepest internal struggles. Yet perhaps one of the greatest juxtapositions in Dracula is the juxtaposition between science and superstition, seen through the shortcomings of both, where the other succeeds, and the balance between them seen in the character of Professor Van Helsing. Throughout the novel there are many evident shortcomings of both science and superstition. For example When a young woman, named Lucy, is bitten by a vampire, named Dracula, which is where the book gets its title, she is cared for by a doctor, Dr. Seward, but despite his science and medical knowledge he...
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...BOOK REPORT * TWILIGHT * By: Stephenie Meyer * * * Kathrina I. Batac IV – Perseverance ENGLISH IV * * * * I. INTRODUCTION * 1. OVERVIEW * Bella Swan moves from Phoenix, Arizona to live with her father in Washington to * * allow her mother to travel with her new husband, a minor league baseball player. After * * moving to Forks, Bella finds herself involuntarily drawn to a mysterious, handsome * * boy, Edward Cullen. She eventually learns that he is a member of a vampire family who * * drinks animal blood rather than human blood. Edward and Bella fall in love, while * * James, a sadistic vampire from another coven, is drawn to hunt down Bella. Edward * * and the other Cullens defend Bella. She escapes to Phoenix, Arizona, where she is * * tricked into confronting James, who tries to kill her. She is seriously wounded, but * * Edward rescues her and they return to Forks. * * 1.1 SETTING or CONTEXT * * Most of the story takes place in Forks, Washington, and its surrounding areas. * * According to Bella, Forks claims the highest rainfall per year in the United States. To put * * it bluntly, it's dreary and gray 99% of the time. The cloudy, rainy climate is one of the * * reasons the Cullens have chosen to live in Forks – because it's rarely sunny, they can * ...
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...majority of people in England practiced Protestant religion, but Dracula is about a blood-thirsty vampire that meets his demise with the use of the Catholic religion. Mina, Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing, John Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris use a variety of symbols from Catholicism that kills Dracula and protects them from being harmed. Dracula is a Satanic being that in the end meets his defeat by the power of God. In the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker uses various Catholic symbols in the fight against Dracula, the antichrist, to illustrate the good of the Catholic religion and the promise of its salvation. The crucifix is...
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...Skyline High School pre-AP/AP English Summer Reading List . The following books are required summer reading for students taking AP English IV courses at Skyline High School in 2016-2017. Students must have the assigned reading completed by the first day of classes. It is recommended that students create an AP Test preparation card for each work of literary merit that has been completed. In addition, students should expect a test which evaluates their comprehension of 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...
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...What we have here is a symbolism by Stoker of using the blood of the working class to sustain the nobility from being figurative to literal. Dracula demands unconditional obedience as his due right from his servants and people employed by him. This is evident when he imposes his will on Harker and tells him he needs to stay in the castle for a month to transact business satisfactorily. “When your master, employer, what you will, engaged that someone should come on his behalf, it was understood that my needs only were to be consulted.” ( chapter 3, p 4). For Dracula, the lower classes signify only two things: service and sustenance. After his arrival in England, Dracula hypnotises Renfield, a patient in a mental asylum, to act as a faithful servant to “lord and master”...
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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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...but art is also done for entertainment, and everything that was created by entertainers has a certain degree of artistic merit. If we go to a museum, we will see wonderful paintings and sculptures which are certainly more artistic than graffiti on the walls in the street. In a museum, we expect that we will be exposed to a certain level of art, and at the same tame, we will experience a certain level of entertainment. Whether something is artistic or not, simply depends on the opinion a person has, and this opinion is no less valuable than any other. Of course, there must be some objective attributes of art that make it art like using metaphors, symbolism, and plot devices, and similarly, entertainment has features that make it entertainment. Black Swan by Aronofsky is probably more artistic than, say, the Twilight vampire saga, but the latter one would be probably more entertaining for the common audience. Another question is, which one is better? That is again a matter of opinion. If we focus on literature, a classic novel by Hardy is generally considered more artistic than a romantic story by Danielle Steel. This comparison offers an idea that art is more superior to entertainment, but this is not true. All creations have aspects of both, although to different degrees, and comparing them would be unfair, because they serve different purposes. Many people do not want to read, watch, or listen to anything artistic, while others derive their entertainment from enjoying...
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...LITR201-1402B-04: Literature: A Reflection of Life- PHASE 4 Name: Institution: LITR201-1402B-04: Literature: A Reflection of Life- PHASE 4 PART A Drama is also referred to as a play because it tells a story and is also performed on stage. In addition, drama is similar to plays in that it has a theme, a plot and is often narrated by a persona (Ghent, 2012, 629). Also, drama is also known as a play in that it evokes emotions and has a tone just like a play. During my high school days, the school invited a group of people who performed a play on HIV/AIDs. This was my initial time to timepiece a live stage performance. The characters perfectly represented their roles in that the audience felt as if the characters were real. For example, those characters representing HIV patients appeared weak and sad; the sounds were full of sympathy as they spoke. Every scene had its own sounds that paralleled the theme and purpose of the act (Meyer, 2011, p111). There were cries, mourns and even sounds of desperation. Throughout the drama, the audience was full of sad mood. HIV/AIDs infection was presented as something that people should be afraid of. The audience was also filled with pity and sympathy for the infected characters. Since it was my first encounter to see a live stage drama, the theme, scenes and characters were a great impact to my life and my understanding of what entails a drama. For a elongated time I had wished to be involved in a dramatic act until one day, my literature...
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...Angela Carter – ‘The Bloody Chamber’ – ‘The Erl-King’. Sources ‘The Erl-King’ is an adaptation of a European tale which draws heavily on folkloric traditions of the Green Man. The Erl-King is the personification of nature, as traditions embark this in the Green Man, ‘when he combs his hair that is the colour of dead leaves’, emphasising as though he is a tree. Therefore this can be linked to Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ as it too is associated with nature, in the sense of the wild and desolate moors, representing the wilderness and the isolation of nature. The folkloric traditions of the Green Man perceive him as peaceful as he does no harm, embodying him as the protector of nature, a Celtic symbol of creative fertility of nature. ‘He comes alive from the desires of the woods’ further relate the Erl-king and the Green Man as they’re both considered as a symbol of the woods. The perception of ‘The Erl-King’ as peaceful is represented in his lack of disruption to the forest, as the only wood he would chop was ‘the dead branches’. Angela Carter however emphasis the negatives of what the Green Man represents in ‘The Erl-King’ as being a reincarnation of the devil. This is shown through his desire to entrap young girls through the enchantment of the forest, which he abuses in his favour as the protector of nature. Erl-king is perceived as a serial rapist as the birds in cages represent the young girls he raped before and once they grew to love him he would then turn them into...
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...From How to Read Literature Like a Professor Thomas C. Foster Notes by Marti Nelson 1. Every Trip is a Quest (except when it’s not): a. A quester b. A place to go c. A stated reason to go there d. Challenges and trials e. The real reason to go—always self-knowledge 2. Nice to Eat With You: Acts of Communion a. Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion b. Not usually religious c. An act of sharing and peace d. A failed meal carries negative connotations 3. Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires a. Literal Vampirism: Nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates a young woman, leaves his mark, takes her innocence b. Sexual implications—a trait of 19th century literature to address sex indirectly c. Symbolic Vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the autonomy of other people, using people to get what we want, placing our desires, particularly ugly ones, above the needs of another. 4. If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet 5. Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before? a. There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature—stories grow out of other stories, poems out of other poems. b. There is only one story—of humanity and human nature, endlessly repeated c. “Intertexuality”—recognizing the connections between one story and another deepens our appreciation and experience, brings multiple layers of meaning to the text, which we may not be conscious of. The more consciously...
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