Analysis: Compare chapter 1:How to Read Literature Like a professor-“Every Trip is a Quest(Except When it’s Not) ” to part one of The fountainhead. At the beginning of chapter 1 of The Fountainhead, we meet are most important characters, Peter Keating and Howard Roark. Both of these characters want something different in life, they don’t want similar things. As Foster says in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, a quest consists of a place to go and a reason to go there. He also starts that with a quest comes challenges and danger. The book, The Fountainhead starts off with Roark, Who is the quester, Roark heads to New York to fulfill his dreams after being …show more content…
In chapter four of The Fountainhead, Wynand agrees to give Peter the Stoneridge building only if he is willing to allow Dominique and Wynand to take a one week vacation on a yacht for a cruise. Peter agrees and Dominique and wynand enjoy a cruise. While there on the ship they start naming high off of the ground places. As they talk they say, “when I look at the ocean, I feel the greatness of a man. I think of a man’s magnificent capacity that created this ship to conquer all that senseless space. When I look at mountain peaks, I think of tunnels and dynamite, when I look at planets, I think of airplanes (26-29).” As Foster explains in, How to Read Literature Like a Professor our character development can be influenced by where we are and our elevation levels as well. For example high elevation signifies purity and life. As Gail Wynand mentions that being in places like that ones hes at makes him realize that he couldn’t love women before but now he has fallen in love with Dominique with great power. He says that Dominique has given life to him. And as explained earlier, life is one of the significations. Gail Wynand feels that he has gotten feelings that are pure from this yacht that he has never felt before and it makes him feel
By reading “How to Read Literature like a Professor” and “The Kite Runner”, the reader is aided in his or her ability to understand the true meanings behind the text. One is able to decipher how the act of coming together to eat can mean anything from a simple meal with family, to an uncomfortable situation that leads to anger or stress in an individual character. The reader is able to understand the use of rain or other weather in a novel to transform the mood and tone of scene, or understand the cleansing or destructive qualities that weather may have on the overall plot of the story. The use of illness can be transformed, as it can lead to the reader discovering veiled means behind tuberculosis, cholera, a simple cold, or even cancers such
Have you owned your own sailboat when you were fourteen years old well there is “A fourteen year old boy stood there looking at his own sailboat. Does this sound like most fourteen year olds you know?.” The boy is trying to make his last sail with his grandpa but it didn’t happen because his grandpa came down with cancer and wasn’t going to make it. In The Voyage of The Frog, Gary Paulsen uses the character of David to demonstrate determination to complete a task. That task is to make that last sail worth it.
Thomas Foster, a professor at the University of Michigan, taught literature and writing. He was born in West Cornfield, Ohio, and living in such a small town caused him to become very associated with books. In 2003, Foster published a book, How to Read Literature like a Professor, written in second person. The book is written as a guide for readers to know the parts of nonfiction books. It teaches young readers how to include important elements into their stories.
Thomas Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor, is a thought provoking guide to reading literature. This book helps with understanding the “language of reading” and the importance of details. Foster opens up a new side of literature where rather than reading emotionally, you dig deeper into the grammar of the literary work to discover the true meaning. How to Read Literature Like a Professor, is beneficial when reading any kind of literary work. It explains the particular “set of conventions and patterns, codes and rules” (Foster xxv) used when dealing with literary works.
In Thomas C. Foster's How To Read Literature Like a Professor, he describes the setup of the adventure of the protagonist, dividing it into five parts: Our quester, a place to go, a stated reason to there, challenges and trials, and the real reason to go. A protagonist must experience all of these things in order to accomplish their goals and learn their lessons. In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens, the main character, must encounter these things in order to unlock the mystery of what really happened to her mother the night she was killed, in addition to learning about the passion of writing and telling stories, the dangers and foolishness of racism, and female power. Our quester, Lily, is a fourteen year old girl with a passion for writing.
A hero’s journey consists of many mythological/archetypal characteristics--such as the characters, settings, situations, and outcomes. As unique as both stories are, The Lion King and Beowulf are great works of the hero’s journey following the mythological/archetypal path. The Lion King and Beowulf both revolve around the hero and outcast of the story. The quest and outcome are also other important components of the mythological/archetypal path.
In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster teaches readers the meanings behind commonly used symbols, themes, and motifs. Many readers of all ages use this book as a guide to understanding messages and deeper meanings hidden in novels. The deeper literary meanings of various symbols in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale are explained in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. By using Foster’s book, readers can better understand the symbols in The Handmaid’s Tale.
How does How To Read Literature Like A Professor applies to every piece of literature? This novel is written by Thomas Foster and he gives the better understanding on many things, including patterns, symbols, and other literary devices. He helps the reader to gain knowledge on how to recognize each small detail of the story. This novel makes the connection with The Scarlet Letter and makes it easier to comprehend. The Scarlet Letter is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne; this novel is about Hester Prynne, who is a young and beautiful woman and committed adultery with town’s minister, Reverend Dimmesdale.
The book, Ghost, by Jason Reynolds is a story about a boy named Castle, but is called Ghost. Castle has a very rough life because his father is imprisoned and his mother struggles with finances. Castle is a misbehaved kid who struggles in school and makes a track team which motivates him to be good in school. Track played ended up playing a huge role in his life and went through the ups and downs with him. Track taught him respect and discipline which spread throughout his home.
This book, along with being a utopian fiction, follows the Hero’s Journey archetype. Even though this book may not have purposely been made as an example of the Hero’s Journey the book and many others follow the paradigm. It may not be a perfect example, however, it definitely has it’s moments. The first three steps of the Hero’s
Chapter five of How To Read Literature Like An English Professor is about how Shakespeare is prominent in both old and current works of literature and in the media. Foster states “He’s everywhere, in every literary form you can think of. And he’s never the same: every age and every writer reinvents its own Shakespeare.” (33). So why Shakespeare?
How to Read Literature Like a Professor is a book that shows numerous ways and strategies to understand what their reading. Each chapter shows examples from books and use of literary devices that can help develop the meaning of the story. Think of this book as reading between the lines. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald used people to symbolize objects or things to let the reader have an interpretation on the characters. For example, the green light represents Gatsby's future for him and Daisy to be together.
Behind each movie lies the meaningful aspects and significant features worth noticing. All movies and books can be carefully examined and interpreted. Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor provides a new view on interpreting literature. In the novel, Foster identifies and analyzes common patterns, themes, and motifs found in literature, many of which are also present in Disney’s film, Maleficent. This movie showcases several of his ideas, including quests, flight, geography, and symbolism.
The book has every part of the five significant things for a quest (a) quester- Edgar, (b) place to go- Starchild colony, (C) stated reason to go there- escape punishment for the death of Dr. Papineau, (d) challenges and trials en route- inexperience, hunger, or the possibility of being caught, and (e) real reason to go there- get away from Claude. The quest of the novel Demdemyanos 2 also fits perfectly into Foster’s purpose for a quest and his characterization of typical quester. Edgar is an inexperienced and immature teenager who descends on a journey and along the way he finds himself, his views, as well as his values changing, a prime example of this is when he begins to miss Almondine he starts to realize that he was in the wrong position when got angry at her for lying next to Claude, Wroblewski states “ Now Almondine occupied his thoughts... Perhaps she would have forgotten his crimes, for which he wanted more than anything to atone.
Every Trip Is A Quest For many people who study literature almost all works of literature are related to eachother in some way or another. The most common relationship found between texts is some structure of a quest. In Thomas C. Foster’s book How to Read Literature Like a Professor a quest is described as “[consisting] of five things: A quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials, and a real reason to go there”(3).