How to Read Literature Like a Professor By Thomas Foster

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

• By Thomas Foster

Every Trip is a Quest!

Eating: Acts of Communion

• Whenever people eat together, it is a communion. This is not necessarily religious, but it is an act of sharing and peace.

• A failed meal carries negative connotations.

Eating: Vampires

• Literal vampires are easy to spot. You don’t need a degree in literary theory to notice when one character sucks blood out of another character’s neck!

• The subtext here is usually sexual. It is a trait of 19th century literature to address sex indirectly.

• Symbolic vampirism is trickier. A character can be selfish, exploitive, and place his or her ugly desires above the needs of another.

Monsters

• Frankenstein – monster created through no fault of his own, the real monster is the creator

• Faust – bargains with the devil in exchange for one’s soul

• Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde: the dual nature of humanity, in each of us there is evil

• Quasimodo – the physical deformity reflects the opposite of the inner character

If it is a Square, It is a Sonnet!

• My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

References: When in Doubt, It is from Shakespeare!

• Hamlet: heroic character who seeks revenge, plagued by indecision, is melancholy.

• Henry IV: a young man who must grow up to become king, must mature to accept his responsibilities.

• Othello: jealousy is his downfall.

• Merchant of Venice: theme of justice vs. mercy.

• King Lear: aging parent, greedy children, a wise fool.

…Or the Bible!

• Garden of Eden: women tempting men, the apple symbolizes temptation, serpent symbolizes evil, a fall from innocence

• David and Goliath: overcoming great odds

• Jonah and the Whale: refusing to face a task and being “eaten” or overwhelmed

• Job: facing disasters not of the character’s making, suffering, but remaining steadfast

• The flood: rain as a form of destruction

• The Apocalypse: Four Horsemen usher in the end of the world

• Biblical names

Fairy Tales

• Hansel and Gretel: lost children trying to find their way home

• Peter Pan: refusal to grow up, eternal youth

• Little Red Riding Hood: connects to vampire imagery

• Alice in Wonderland / Wizard of Oz: entering a world that doesn’t work rationally or operates under different rules

• Cinderella: orphan abused by adopted family

• Snow White: evil woman who brings death to the innocent

• Sleeping Beauty: a girl becoming a woman, a long sleep or an avoidance of growing up, saved by a hero

• Prince Charming: rescuer, interchangeable in fairy tales

It is Greek to Me

• Odyssey and the Iliad: men in a struggle over a woman, heroic journey home mirrors one’s self discovery

• Achilles: a small weakness in a strong man

• Penelope: determination to remain faithful

• Oedipus: dysfunctional family, being blinded

• Cassandra: tells a truth nobody wants to hear

Weather

• Snow

• Death
• Paralysis
• Isolation
• Can be positive – holiday imagery

Is that a Symbol?

• YES! But there is no definite meaning unless it is an allegory where characters directly match up to other things (characters in Animal Farm directly connect to the Russian Revolution)

• Symbols have multiple meanings and are open to interpretation

Christ Figures (Her Too!)

• Wounds on hands and feet

• Agony

• Self-sacrificing

• Loaves, fishes and wine

• Carpenter

• Walking on water

• Confrontation of evil

• Rising from the dead

• Disciples

• Forgiving

Flying

• Can be dangerous – Dedalus and Icarus

• Can also symbolize freedom

It is ALWAYS about Sex…

• Look for images of fertility for women and masculinity for men

• Sometimes coded sexual images can be more intense than literal ones

• In the past, authors have had to write about sex indirectly in order to avoid censorship

…EXCEPT When It Is about Sex!

• When authors write directly about sex, they’re writing about something else, such as sacrifice, submission, rebellion, domination, enlightenment, etc.

Water

• Baptism is symbolic of death and rebirth into new life

• Drowning is symbolic of baptism – IF the character comes up, symbolically reborn. But drowning can also represent a form of rebirth, choosing to enter a new, different life, leaving the old one behind.

• Rain can also connect to baptism

‘Tis the Season!

• Spring = fertility, life, happiness, growth, resurrection

• Fall = harvest, reaping what we sow, both rewards and punishments

• Winter = hibernation, lack of growth, death, punishment

• Christmas = childhood, birth, hope, family

• Look for irony! (“April is the cruelest month”)

He is Blind for a Reason!

• Physical blindness mirrors moral, intellectual, or psychological blindness

• Sometimes ironic – the blind can “see” the truth and the sighted can’t

Disease

• Tuberculosis – a wasting disease, often associated with sexuality or passion (red blood coughed up is the sign)

• Physical paralysis – mirrors moral, social, spiritual, intellectual, or political paralysis

• Plague – Divine wrath, philosophical possibilities of suffering on a large scale, the isolation and despair created by destruction, the puniness of humanity in the face of an indifferent world

• Malaria – means literally “bad air”

• Venereal disease – reflects immorality OR innocence, when the innocent suffer because of another immorality

• Fever – mysteriously carries off victims

• Cancer – festers inside and worsens as it spreads, gnaws away at the victim, often mirrors the emotional state

• AIDS – modern plague, tendency to be dormant for years, victims are unknowing carriers of death, disproportionately hits the young and the poor.

Is He Serious?

• Irony is the most important device to look for

• Failing to observe an ironic moment in literature will often lead to a COMPLETE MISUNDERSTANDING of the author’s intent.

How Do I Spot Irony?

• Look for the unexpected or surprising –

• In Waiting for Godot two men stand beside the side of a road and yet they never take a step. Also, “Godot” never shows up
• In the movie The Social Network Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of facebook, has millions of “friends” on facebook but no actual friends in life
• Huckleberry Finn repeats racist language that he was raised hearing, but acts with kindness and compassion to Jim, a runaway slave