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Read Literature Like A Professor Analysis

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How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster offers a variety of different ways to analyze literature so the reader can understand all levels of a literary piece to get the most out of their reading. His ideas can be applied to almost any kind of work, including movies, such as Beauty and the Beast. The chapters of HTRLLAP that can best interpret and explicate all levels of meaning in Beauty and the Beast are: Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not); …More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence; and Is That a Symbol? “The real reason for a quest,” states Foster, “Is always self-knowledge.”(Foster, 4) Foster explains that any journey, trip, or excursion is a quest, even if the quester doesn’t know that. According to HTRLLAP, there are five aspects of a quest that you must have: a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials, and the real reason to go. Beauty and the Beast’s quester …show more content…

The authors says that violence is personal, and even intimate between two. Violence doesn’t exist in a story for sheer entertainment, though, it has meaning behind it. In Beauty and the Beast, Gaston brutally attacks the Beast and all inside his castle. Gaston’s mob is wild in their attempt to harm any of the castle’s staff, showing their power-hungry personalities; they want to feel stronger and better by any means. Gaston’s personal attack on the Beast is an attack out of jealousy. Although he claims he just wants to protect the village, he is angry that Belle could love such an ugly creature and not him. He wants revenge and thinks that killing the Beast will prove his adequacy, revealing his character’s narcissism and constant need for reassurance. Violence is personal, and being aware of this aids the reader so that they can realize a character’s motive and understand what that says about

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