literature cheat sheet
Reading: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Please create a quick reference guide or “cheat sheet” for each chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Include an analysis of the pattern/symbol discussed in the chapter as well as any examples from literature that you have read.
Example:
Chapter 1 significance pattern and symbol: Because any journey to accomplish
a task, however mundane, can be
considered a quest, authors utilize
this pattern/structure to lead their
characters along a path of selfdiscovery.
The process allows the
author to guide the reader along this
path as well, beginning naïve like
the protagonist and ending informed
with the knowledge acquired
through the quest. Based on the
context, tone and character’s
reaction to the success or failure of
the quest, this device assists the
author in conveying his/her thematic
views from the text.
chapter 1 literature example and analysis:Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club
“The gray-green surface [of the polaroid]
changes to the bright colors of our three
images, sharpening and deepening all at once.
And although we don’t speak, I know we all see
it: Together we look like our mother. Her eyes,
her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last,
her long-cherished wish.” (288).
In Tan’s narrative, Jing-mei Woo agrees to meet
her long-lost half-sisters in China, recently found
after her mother’s death, as an act of love and
devotion to her mother who she believes she never
really knew. Jing-mei embarks on a quest to meet
her sisters, constantly doubting whether they will
recognize her or if she will be able to accurately
convey who her mother is to two people who
never knew her. However, in the process, Jing-mei
discovers that she knew her mother better than she
thought, reflected in the symbolism of the polaroid…
chapter2 ….
3…
4…
like this continued.
remember its not a formal essay.