How To Read Literature Like a Professor Chapter 1: Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) In Chapter 1 the author explains the symbolic reasoning of why a character takes a trip. They don’t just take a trip they take a quest. Structurally a quest has a quester‚ a place to go‚ a stated reason to go there‚ challenges and trials en route‚ and a reason to go there. Quests usually involve characters such as a knight‚ a dangerous road‚ a Holy Grail‚ a dragon‚ an evil knight‚ and a princess
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Heart Problems Within chapter 23 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor‚ Thomas Foster discusses the in-depth reasons authors use heart complications in novels and the meaning it can add to a story. Throughout The Scarlet Letter‚ Nathaniel Hawthorne uses these various heart techniques that Foster talks about to further emphasize character’s personalities and guilt. Guilt is an emotion Hawthorne used to cause pains within Reverend Dimmesdale. At the beginning of the novel‚ Dimmesdale is seen
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In Thomas C. Fosters How to Read Literature like a Professor‚ Foster expresses how every story has a journey that someone or sometimes multiple people go on specific journeys. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus‚ the novel is based on exactly that‚ a journey. One journey is Victor Frankenstein’s quest for knowledge. Foster says that “The real reason for a quest is always self knowledge.” Victor Frankenstein is the perfect example of this; Frankenstein sets out on a journey to
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In the first chapter of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor‚ Foster discusses the five aspects of a typical character’s quest and alerts all readers that “when a character hits the road‚ we should start to pay attention” (6). To start out the chapter a rather dull scene is set of a young boy commuting to a store to retrieve bread for his mother. Foster reveals that the seemingly unimportant commute is actually a quest. It is determined that “a quester” (3)‚ a destination‚ an
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Journal Entries; AP Eng Ch: 1 In the first chapter of his book‚ Foster lays out the conventions for a quest‚ stating that in most literature‚ modern and classic‚ "every trip is a quest." the novel "the Help" by Kathryn Stockett is not perhaps seen by the unaware reader to be a quest‚ however as it details a journey‚ it can in actuality be broken down into the conventions Foster cleverly recognized: every journey or trip a story embarks upon follows a pattern‚ and that pattern is a quest.
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techniques in How to Read Like a Professor ‘How to Read Like a Professor’ is a book that discusses several broad yet detailed techniques of reading. While I am positive everyone who reads this book knows how to read‚ they may not know how to read to fully comprehend all of a volume‚ even that which is not on the page. One such technique that really helps to reveal much about a story is symbolism‚ or the use of something to represent something else usually not in the story. Symbolism is important
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Life of Pi Analysis With How to Read Literature Like a Professor 1. Chapter 12: Is That a Symbol? A. Example one In the early stages of Life of Pi‚ Martel mentions a place that Pi and Ravi had gone to visit while on vacation. While looking aimlessly through the window‚ they noticed three hills. On top of one hill was a catholic church‚ another a Hindu temple‚ and the other a Muslim mosque. Each hill portrays each of the religions in Pi’s complex faith. The hills represent Pi’s struggles
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every piece of writing have a purpose? Are there reasons why authors choose specific characteristics‚ storylines‚ and plots? Thomas C. Foster‚ the author of How to Read Literature like A Professor‚ would argue yes‚ almost every type of writing has a purpose. More specifically‚ these "purposes" that are written about‚ are viewed as political literature. Authors discover things that interest them‚ or that they have a strong viewpoint on‚ and convey their opinion on this subject through their writing. In
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Conrad uses the accountant as a symbol of greed and conceitedness in Heart of Darkness similarly to how Foster describes the use of a symbol in his novel How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Symbols‚ according to Foster‚ have many meanings. Readers presume “them to mean something[‚...] one something in particular[‚ but] it doesn’t work like that” (Foster); they have multiple meanings. In this way‚ Conrad uses his character‚ the accountant‚ as a symbol of both greed and egotism. When the accountant
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This chapter from How to Read Literature Like a Professor starts off as if Thomas Foster‚ the author‚ is having a conversation with the reader like they are in the same room. When one looks at the title‚ he preconceives a notion that it will be a formal‚ more academic book when what he truly finds is a casual writing style that makes the reader feel more at ease. Foster begins to introduce a conditional situation about a fictional character named Kip who is described as run of the mill; The story
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