How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster is a book that gives you new ways to analyze and interpret the books you have and will have read. The first chapter of the book goes into the idea of a quest and how many, if not most have some relations to the quest and the five aspects. Some literature may have a direct correlation with these aspects, while others may have adapted a new way to write their stories so that things that may appear to stray from the aspects are actually as much as a quest as the others. There has been books from current day, to as long as thousands of years ago about mythology. Homer is a writer who has written many books that a widely known and regarded as some of the best mythological novels to be …show more content…
For Odysseus it is arriving home as the King of Ithaca, but must make this journey back from Troy which was first known as factual, but now known to be in North West Turkey. This journey would last him ten years and would be roughly around 5,000 miles in order to complete this quest. 3)The third aspect of the quest is a stated reason to go on this quest. Odysseus’s stated reason to go on this quest was he is a man trying to get home to reclaim his title as King of Ithaca and who is yearning to be reunited with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus. 4)The next aspect of the quest is the challenges and trials of the quest. Throughout the book Odysseus would undergo many challenges as well as life threatening situations in order to achieve his quest. He is a man who was both loved and hated by the god of Mt. Olympus. While others used their powers in his favor, some used them to hinder and if possible stop him from going home. For example due to his both his arrogance and conceitedness, the god Poseidon would cause for a rough voyage that would push him further from Ithaca and at one point cause a shipwreck that drowns his crew. One other notable trial of his journey was the encounter with the sirens. Their singing would cause him an irresistible temptation that he would soon learn he’d be unable to resist. It was there he learned the true value of his crew and that his quest was not only his burden, but
How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster The books main point is to guide readers through their readings while engaging in the reading itself. Thomas C. Foster ideal message throughout the book is that one should use what they know and put the their knowledge into the book. As for the purpose, Foster indicates the importance for owning the book in one's own way considering that no one reads the same.
In How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, the ideas from chapter 7: “Hansel and Gretel” can be directly related to the novel. This chapter of the novel solely relates to the fairy tale aspects of literature, and how they have been repeatedly re used. In the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde, it seems to have a concept of a work that had been created earlier during the Victorian era. The author Thomas Foster says “Literature grows out of other Literature”.
As a reader has one ever thought about what Fosters key idea is for this chapter “Don’t Read with Your Eyes” well here it is from How To Read Literature Like A Professor Foster emphasizes on “The formula I generally offer is this: don’t read with your eyes. What I really mean is don’t read only from your own fixed position in the Year of Our Lord two thousand and some. Instead try to find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical moment of the story, that understands the text as having been written against its own social, historical, cultural, and personal background” (234). Foster uses the example of the teacher whose brother is a drug addict from one’s perspective he might be considered a bad person and gross.
How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster, gives the reader insight on how to look at a novel in a different perspective. This book truly changes the way the reader views a book. In Chapter 11 of How To Read Literature Like A Professor, the topic of death is introduced. Every death in a novel has a deeper meaning which helps mystify the plot. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, has 3 significant deaths that occur in the novel to develop the story.
In the book , How to Read Literature Like a Professor written by Thomas C. Foster, he explains that there are five components to a quest, a quester, place to go, stated reason to go, the challenges and trials, and the real reason to go, which Foster explains is always self-knowledge. The initial purpose of the quest is not always completed; instead over time the protagonist runs into numerous challenges that test the very core of their being, reflecting their own thoughts on their life. While reading Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card, a sci-fi novel, Andrew Wiggin is the original speaker of the dead and Novinha a woman ravaged by her past and secrets, together they have to face the community of Lusitania. He searches to find an inhabitable
Justin Clinkscales Mrs. Mary Smith AP-EngLit 19 September 2017 How to Read Literature Like a Professor How to Read Literature Like a Professor, is a novel written by Thomas C. Foster for the sole purpose of Literary criticism. Foster covers a whole slew of literary devices, most notably symbolism, themes, motifs and tone. This novel is very much the breaking down of the blueprint that literature had taken on much earlier on in its existence, the novel contains many allusions towards Shakespeare, Greek Mythology, and even the Bible. As the title of the novel would suggest, it is essentially a deeper insight into reading and interpreting modern and classic literature like a professor. This novel is one that definitely develops
Thomas C. Foster states in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, that there are three main items to understanding literature. The first item is memory; Memory helps a reader connect works of literature with other experiences as a way of possibly better understating the writing at hand. Symbolism is the second item noted by Foster. Symbolism can be used to open a readers mind to the big picture being painted. Not all works of literature are as complicated, as to where symbolism is splattered through the pages.
Reading Between the Lines: Interpreting Fiction with New Eyes Thomas C. Foster’s book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids, helps young readers learn to interpret and understand deeper meanings in fictional literature. The book describes essential facets of reading fiction novels. By using Foster’s novel as a guide, readers can see the differences between the literal text and the author’s figurative meanings and agendas. In All of our Demise, by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman, seven families control a natural resource called “high majick”. Each family sends a champion to compete in a tournament to the death in order to claim the magick for one family.
Twenty years of action and adventure, defeating creatures, surviving, and just trying to get back home. In The Odyssey by Homer, the hero Odysseus takes an arduous journey navigating through raging waters and defeating strenuous creatures in order to get back home with his crew to his wife and son in Ithaca. Odysseus goes through a variety of islands on the way, each including many characters he needs to overcome. Being clever and cunning in difficult situations with the Cyclops, Scylla, Sirens, Charybdis, and finally the suitors will lead to success and survival in the future.. The cleverness of Odysseus is first supplied when he brilliantly guides his men from the danger of being devoured by the unprepossessing beast, to safety
Odysseus: An Epic Hero There are many characteristics of a hero; heroes usually have some type of problem(s) that they try to overcome. Heroes are Courageous meaning they attempt and/or accomplish a goal even when afraid. They are decisive, meaning they act when there are people in need. Heroes usually possess some type of inhuman qualities but are still humans and have flaws. They are also dedicated, when they set out to do something no matter what and who gets in the way the finish what they started.
Scout Coberg Ms. Fitzgerald AP Lit 8.14.15 1. Introduction: How’d He Do That? When reading literature, memory allows you to apply old texts to what you are reading, recognizing similar themes and plots.
Homer's use of vivid imagery, nuanced characterizations, and storytelling
Memory and forgetting play a huge role in Homer’s Odyssey, it seems to be something that reoccurs in the text many times. Whether it is Odysseus himself forgetting, or his men forgetting, it always seems to make their journey back to Ithaca an even longer, and harder process. First, who is Odysseus? He is said to be hated by the gods throughout the story.
In addition, now Odysseus must face the wrath of the God Poseidon along his voyage. He now dedicates himself to ruining all chances of Odysseus getting back to Ithaca. After several years of perseverance, Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca only to
The theme that present in The Odyssey after searching past the ice on the windshield was an internal conflict, or test within oneself. Odysseus must undergo very intense and terrible forces. Throughout the story, there is still only one main goal no matter how many problems arose between him and it. Odysseus’s main goal was to get back to Penelope after he fought against Troy, which lasted 10 years. After defeating Troy, Odysseus was stranded on an island accompanied by Calypso who tries to turn him away from his wife, however he doesn't give in, until he is forced to be with her.