How To Read Literature Like A Professor Essay

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Analysis essay

"That one story that has been going on forever is all around us. We - as readers or writers, tellers or listeners - understand each other, we share knowledge of the structures of our myths, we comprehend the logic of symbols, largely because we have access to the same swirl of story. We have only to reach out into the air and pluck a piece of it”

Foster (p 192, Interlude)

How to Read Literature Like a Professor is an assortment of literary themes, motifs, and symbolism found throughout literature. The book aids readers into comprehending the full meaning of any text given to them, giving the reader a basic guide to reading between the lines. Foster gives examples on how to discover repetitive distinctions within different pieces of literature, giving us different examples of plays, poems, short stories, and novels. Using Foster’s techniques, readers are able to recognize the author’s methods for a more profound understanding of the text. Symbolism is able to take upon many different forms. Foster is able to

explain how other authors use this figure of speech where an object, person, or situation is able to obtain another meaning other than its literal meaning, while …show more content…
For example, foster uses Oedipus as an example of his deformity foreshadowing an event. Oedipus literally translates to “swollen foot”, symbolizing his entrapment. Oedipus name has a direct correlation with his parent’s abandonment. As a child, Oedipus was deserted in the mountains, his ankles bound together leaving him with permanent scars. Oedipus was “confined at birth and continued to be confined by fate.” Characters differences are what make them know, how we- as readers- are able to tell apart and remember each character. “All characters who are as famous for their shape as for their behavior. Their shapes tell us something, and probably very different somethings, about them or other people in the story.” (Foster,

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