How To Read Literature Like A Professor Chapters 14-26

Chapter 23: Illness

According to Foster, there is no better metaphorical illness than heart disease. All great writers use the heart to mean the center of emotion within the body. Heart disease= bad love, loneliness, cruelty, disloyalty, cowardice, lack of determination. Example: "The Man of Adamant" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a misanthropic man moves into a cave to escape society and his heart eventually turns to stone.

Chapter 14: Christ Figures

Characteristics of a Christ Figure: 1. Crucified wounds on the hands, feet, head, or side 2. in agony 3. self-sacrificing 4. 33 years of age when last seen 5. good with children 6. good with loaves, fish, water, and wine 7. Often portrayed with arms outstretched 8. Buried and rose again on the third day 9. Very forgiving 10. Believed to have walked on water 11. Said to have had a confrontation with the devil, possibly tempted 12. Had disciples, 12 at first, although not all equally devoted 13. Known to have spent time alone in the wilderness 14. Employes as a carpenter 15. Known to have used humble mode of transportation- feet or donkey 17. Creator of aphorisms and parables 18. Came to redeem an unworthy world Foster believes we live in a Christian culture. You might be a Christ Figure if you are: 33 years old Unmarried, preferably celibate Wounded or unmarked on the hands, feet, or side **Crown of thorns** Sacrificing yourself in some way for others In some sort of wilderness, tempted there, accosted by the devil Example: In Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is an useless and old man. He doesn't bring in the fish the town needs A young boy, his disciple, is the only one who respects him. Santiago goes out for 3 days to catch fish. On the first day he caught a marlin and wanted to bring it back. He encounters challenges, the sharks attacks the marlins and the boat is destroyed. He walks up to his little hut and collapses and the only one who helps him is the boy.

Chapter 18: Baptism and Drownings

Characters go to the water for 1. wish fulfillment 2. exorcism of primal fear 3. to explore possibilities 4. a handy solution for the author's built up plot device The baptism is not always 100% about rebirth since there are no absolutes in writing. It might not always be associated with spirituality either. Example: In "The River" by Flannery O'Connor, a little boy watched a baptism after Church. He goes back to the river the next day to join God on his own. He drowns.

Chapter 19: Geography

Geography can be used as virtually any type of literary device, especially characterization. Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces and at the same time the spaces that inhabit humans. Geography is setting, but it is also psychology, attitude, finance, industry--anything the place can instill in the people that live there. Example: In Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" the leopard, dead and perserved in the snow on the peak, is contrasted with the writer dying of gangreen down on the plain. The leopard's death is clean, cold, and pure, while the writer's death is ugly, unpleasant, horrible.

Chapter 26: Irony

Irony trumps everything. Irony is a sign used in a way other than the one for which it is intended. It makes a great use of deflection from expectation. If the writer doesn't write to fit our perceived idea then the newfound meaning trumps what we used to know. Example: In Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry walks into the rain after the death of his lovers child. The rain doesn't have the cleansing effect we've come to expect.

Chapter 21: Physical Marks

Physical deformity, in the past, was equated with moral deformity, suggesting that one's proximity to or from God was manifested in external signs. This explains why heroes may be marked and differentiated from everyone else in some way. Physical limitations may be given to characters because they mean something, some psychological or thematic point the writer wants to make. Example: In Shakespeare's Richard III, Richard was a hunchback and Shakespeare was using that to show he was just as morally twisted as his back. Making him one of the most repugnant figures in literature.

Chapter 16: Sex

Sex is so popular because of Freud. His book The Interpretation of Dreams, unlocked the sex potential of the subconscious. Male symbols: tall buildings, lances, swords, etc. Female Symbols: chalice, rolling landscapes, and grails( the search for the Holy Grail was all sex) Sex is often code in literature, and many times the "code" sexual acts are more intense and multi-purposed than actual sex. Example: In Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" Paul has a last wild ride on the horse before he collapses, supposed to be the last masturbation. Paul is a young boy who loves his mother and does anything to please her. His parents argue that not enough money in the house and his mother accuses the father of not being a good supplier. Paul has a gift where he can predict the winner of horse races. Lock= female sex organ Key=male sex organ Hayes Code in Hollywood, can't show naked bodies on TV, so instead the audience saw waves crashing on the beach, if character kissed in window the night before and next morning it is implied they had sex. train=male sex organ, tunnel=female sex organ

Chapter 17: Sex continued.. "...Except Sex"

When writers write about other things they are most often referring to sexuality to some extent, but when writers actually write about sex act, it's never just about sex unless you are E.L. James. Sex becomes heavily symbolic when used as the correct type of plot device. Example: In Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, sex to Alex is fun or rape. "the old-in out" and commits it but describes it in his language, Nadsat, which makes the act not as we understand it. Makes his character revolting, not make the violence and sex interesting.

Chapter 15: Flight

Whenever you see flight in literature, it symbolizes freedom. If a person in literature can fly, they are almost always one of the following: A superhero, an angel, suspended on wire, a circus act, departing from a cannon, a ski jumper, crazy, heavily symbolic Example: In Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, freedom is emphasized through flight. He and the children when they enter Neverland are free from reality and its restrictions.

Chapter 22: Blindness

Writing blind characters is a great deal of extra work, because everything that character does has to reflect his lack of sight, and people have to recognize it in him/her. This extra work can only mean one thing: **if a character is blind, you know that character is important, and the levels of sight and/or blindness go beyond the physical. ** Therefore, physical blindness may be used as foreshadowing. Example: In Sophocles Oedipus trilogy we meet the character Tiresias, the blind prophet, who know the whole truth about King Oedipus, but doesn't want to reveal it. When Oedipus, who vows to "bring the matter to light" finds out the truth, he blinds himself.