How to Read Literature Like a Professor By: Thomas C. Foster

1. How to Read Literature Like a ProfessorBy: Thomas C. Foster Hannah Strickland AP Literature Mrs. Stratton

2. 19. Geography Matters… • It is important to take into consideration the setting of a story • The term geography • Space at which humans take and what humans take from that space (Foster 165-6) • Can be used in everything to represent anything • A character in its own way, forcing problems and suggesting solutions • Characters are effected by their surrounding and it influences their: • Actions • Responses • Behavior • Motivations • A characters environment makes them who they are, gives their qualities • Cultures, religions, and traditions are influenced by the history of an area • Adds details and makes the story vivid in its message • Translates fear, melancholy, or gaiety just by putting the reader in a place that they can connect to immediately

3. Continued… • Geography can offer promise, change, or growth • A place can symbolize a home, a cage, or a escape; it all is determined on how the character reacts to his or her surroundings • In the environment of the unknown characters can find themselves defeated due to the insecurity and unfamiliarity • Where what might be correct elsewhere is unfitting • When away from what is familiar desires are empowered and the character more vulnerable • When writers send their characters south, those characters are meant to be disruptive and venture through their subconscious(Foster 171) • Hills have come to symbolize a characters evolvement through the ups and downs at which the story takes the reader through • Height: at a higher elevation there is cold temperatures, thinner air, and no obstructed views and visa versa for a lower elevation • Can represent clarity and solitude • Although both high and low elevation can have a positive and negative connotation

4. 20. …So Does Season • Seasons can symbolize time • Past, present, and future determined by the effect the environment has with the weather • Represent growth, struggle, and age • Example: flowers bloom and storms destroy • Experiences change depending on season • Diction can be used to relate characters to seasons • Weather can parallel with characters qualities and influence behavior • Emotions are transparent through seasons • Fall- the days have slowed down and although there is harvest, the reminder of age is apparent • Winter- negative connotation • The days are shorter and colder representing the end of life • Spring- life thrives and everything is starting a new life • Summer – positive connotation • Days grow longer and life is at its peak • Increase in passion and desire • A change in season represents • Beginnings and ends, old thing die away and new blossoms create new opportunities

5. 25. Don’t Read With Your Eyes • When reading a piece from a different: (worldly views) • Time • Society • Religion • Culture • Place • Age • Individual pieces can not be viewed as other literature is viewed • A piece needs to be read with a perspective of a person in that environment instead of an outsider looking in • Stories are to be reviewed through the surroundings of its settings • Pieces of literature that are set up in a struggle for change format give the characters an opportunity to be saved and in most cases if the reader’s perspective is focused on their own surrounding the ideas of the literature would be lost • Although, it is the reader’s point of view that matters • Literature and characters should be viewed as individual pieces • To be judged as the reader would judge their morals and actions as acceptable or revolting

6. 26. Is He Serious? • Irony • Always to be taken into consideration to a story’s purpose • When used, irony is to be the first consideration when trying to annotate a story’s purpose • Irony gives the audience a push to venture and try to find meaning in the story • Consists of self-pityingor limited characters at which the reader feels superior to • The object that is being ironized, path of some sort for example, adds a to the degree • Irony is meant to take the perception of a given idea, object, or emotion and to force the audience to notice it differently • In the case of irony, nothing is every as it seems • Messages are sent through signs • Signs are stable and determined, although the messages that they portray are left to be identified and applied • Popularity amongst the more modern writing tend to used irony more frequently • Causes their readers to become more acquainted to the trends of ironic relations between writings • Therefore, ironic is not understood or agreed by all

7. Reading Like a WriterBy: Francine Prose

8. Ten: Learning from Chekhov • Think about the story and the effect it has • When reading always ask yourself questions • Always look for answers • Nothing is ever certain • Art cannot be defined as math or science • Art is a means of expression and literature is no exception • Use the imagination to discover • The more open the mind is the more stimulating the idea • When imaginations cross the lines that society draws something new is created that is a product of the mind • As one criteria is true for one it is not set for all • Fiction is created through motivation • Stories written in an objective point of view gives the reader the opportunity to experience a different perspective on a given idea • A story should be comprehend as though a new beginning or idea • Nothing is to be understood completely to where literature can be categorized • Stories are told as characters are involved in them • All stories revolve around life in some way • Life gives everyone something to relate to • Life can be different for everyone; change or stay the same

9. Eleven: Reading for Courage • Writing takes courage to say what has not been said • to experience acceptance or rejection of something that has a piece of the writer in it • Reader’s understanding of this courage to venture out into the unknown helps the reader comprehend the story’s purpose • Writing is to be done in a way that is unique • When rules are set by society writing is no longer unique • In reality the rules that are set no longer exists • there are no boundaries to the imagination • It is necessary to follow your own guidelines and not the lines set in front of you • Reading is a way to learn from others the use of courage as they stepped over their lines and inspire the same • Courage helps create a piece that is different; the only one of its kind • If everyone followed the same rules then every story would be the same • Writing is time demanding and thought provoking and the encouragement from other authors helps to raise enthusiasm and morale to do what is loved • Writing is the freedom of imagination shown through the stories of strangers that force emotion • Literature’s quality is determined by its readers and everyone is different therefore the quality is in the eye of the beholder

10. Works Cited Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: Harper, 2003. Print. Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. Print.