Literature Like A Professor Reflection

Reflection

How to Read Literature like a Professor was definitely a ‘thought provoking read’ like the table at Barnes & Noble said. Although at first, I have to admit that Foster’s writing had bored me a bit, until I realized fact that I had subconsciously been thinking about what certain items symbolize and how they were important to the story. Overall, I enjoyed the work; Foster’s book is truly “A lively and entertaining guide to reading between the lines.” I liked the references Foster constantly gave to novels and movies, that helped me with visualizing what kind of ideas he was talking about, since I personally learn better through visualizations. Finding out about the classic fairy tales becoming modern ones, surprised me a bit;

The chapters with weather were interesting, because I had never thought of the multiple meanings of rain, let alone know how many countless meanings rain could represent. The chapter about the seasons was not actually surprising since I had a basic understanding that spring is birth, winter is death, fall is old age, and summer is youth. The seasons also have multiple meanings, which I thought was interesting since they are considerably long amounts of time and a great deal can happen in a short amount of time, so it was feasible how abundant the symbols for a single there are.
To put the use of Foster’s knowledge into context, I had a friend over this summer and we watched Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Having both read How to Read Literature Like a Professor, we began to discuss how the mythical element of the Force could play the role of God and that Anakin Skywalker is a Christ figure since his mother had conceived him on her own. Our biblical referencing to the movie did not go far when we encounter the problem of the Dark Side of the Force. Having known the fate of Skywalker going to the Dark Side, we faced a problem with our chosen Christ