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the bonesetter's daughter essay
the bonesetter's daughter essay
how to read literature like a professor chapter 2 essay
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Analyzing “How to Read Literature like a Professor” is easy, but on the other hand, to analyze “The Bonesetter’s Daughter” is a consuming task. The difficulty doesn’t lie in the grammar or the structure, but in employing the skills employed by Foster’s book. An unskilled reader would assume that Amy Tan’s novel: The Bonesetter’s Daughter, is just another novel written for entertainment purposes. To an untrained reader, there seems to be no author’s intent to use literary devices that would contextualize the deeper meaning that is usually found in fiction, mythology, and folklore. Instead the novel would seem nothing more than entertainment, but for a reader that isn’t just reading but also searching through the text for the literary devices …show more content…
Jazz, it’s groovy, its rich, and its improvised, or maybe it isn’t. All jazz solo’s follow a planned beat, maintain a tempo and rhythm that surrounds the individuals solo and stays constant through the different instruments and song. Therefor the improvised notes are to a degree preplanned, follow the same tempo and are meant to lead to the same conclusion. Similarly, Amy Tan is almost all over the place, writing in the present, the past, the possible future, taking the reader through her work, her mothers work, through different worries and dilemma’s, and yet no matter how unrelated or off topic they may seem to one another, her writing is following a tempo, a rhythm that stays constant through her different stories. The rhythm employed by Amy Tan leads to one single resolution, one big musical and smooth finale that ties up all the stories and loose ends in her novel. Yet similar to jazz, the rhythm of her book is hard to identify, because the reader is sucked into the story too much to pay attention to the inner-message and literary …show more content…
But a woman’s heart, a heart drawn out of sadness, the dead heart that gave shape to the world. “A particular beginning results in a particular end”. Messages relayed from Precious Auntie to her daughter. The theme of heart resonates so deeply through The Bonesetters Daughter, that a whole chapter is titled after it. Not only that, but a reader can also sense the importance of a hearts symbolism because it is stated over and over in the first paragraph of this said chapter. If that’s not enough, it is also the name of Precious Auntie’s village: Immortal Heart. By employing skills learned through analyzing “How to Read Literature like a Professor” a reader takes note of the metonymy and irony of the village’s name. Reader may infer that, possibly, a heart is the importance of the story. A heart may be the message of the novel. It symbolizes a particular beginning and end. A heart from a sad woman, possibly Precious Aunties heart, ties everything together. She is the start of the family, and she is the end. She is the resolution, the big mystery behind Amy Tan’s novel. But then why is the village name Immortal heart, and how can an immortal heart end? Ironic, but maybe, this symbolizes the heart of the novel, the village, Precious Auntie, the resolute perseverance of survival of both, only to come to an indefinite demise, left to
...e insight to life or contain certain meanings that the reader must reconstruct in order to evaluate the text fully. Other novels are considered to be noteworthy because they exist within a specific literary movement, or because they reflect cultural change. However much one might argue that Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre and Chester Himes’ If He Hollers Let Him Go belong at the bottom of the literary ‘stack,’ they nevertheless employ the same concepts and exhibit the same characteristics that turn many other novels into works of ideal greatness.
In the introduction of Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster sets the scene for the upcoming chapters by pointing out crucial literary devices. Through several references, it is further explained how memories, symbols and patterns help to create broader understandings throughout literary texts. Foster continues by stating that the usage of these devices establishes the advanced readers from “the rest of the crowd” (xxvii).
In the skillful novel, "How To Read Literature Like A Professor" by Thomas C. Foster, there is neither a protagonist nor antagonist. As a whole, the novel gives insights on how to pick up signs of symbolism, irony, and many other hidden details that are buried within the words of literature. Foster refers to many classis novels by classic authors to demonstrate the use of logic in writing. The novel is extremely educational, leaving many insightful questions and interpretations to the reader's opinion.
...Literature. Vol.1. Ed. Rossi, Patricia. Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. New York: Copyright 1999. 2655-57.
The metaphorical meanings of ¡§A Rose for Emily¡¨ and ¡§Barn Burning¡¨ teaches me to view life in a different way. I do not agree with Miss Emily¡¦s deed, but admire her inflexible love. She reminds me to be careful when choose a beloved. It is important to find someone who suits me. The other protagonist, Sarty shows strong self-awareness. He is young, but he is able to determine right and wrong. He knows that if he continuing stay with his father, he will not be able to live his own life, or do right things. It is pretty courageous that he decide to leave his family. When I make a decision, I should have the same courage. Both stories¡¦ plots themselves are odd, but the meanings stimulate deep thought.
It tells the story of a woman who lives secluded in mind, body, and soul for about three months in what is a “hereditary estate” (Gilman 462) , but how she portrays to the reader as “a haunted mansion” (Gilman 463). Extremely unhappy in her current situation (a suffering woman who nobody believes is truly ill), she escapes through her writing. Having to keep her passion of writing a secret and hiding it from her husband, housekeeper, family and friends, the story has untold endings to her thoughts due to the abrupt arrival of unexpected guests. The diary helps us to see the quick, spiraling downfall and eventual breakdown of an unstable woman whose isolation from society may have encouraged her imminent disease. Through quickly written journal entries, the audience can see the unfolding of the unstable woman. This enlarges the view of the narrative because it helps show a plot line of the progression of an illness (which is the theme as a whole of the
we are told that this story is about a girl or a woman and perhaps her
In a Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, we meet a young woman that is surrounded by death. As the story progresses we find more and more death and decay throughout Emily’s life. This leads to the theme of Death and Dying. Through-out the short story the theme of Death and Dying is represented through many symbols. These symbols include dust, the house and Emily herself. This essay will examine how each of these symbols represent Death and Dying.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
In John Hassler’s novel Staggerford, a spotlight is shining on Miles Pruitt and Beverly Bingham. Beverly Bingham, Miles’ student, preyed on Miles until he fell to his knees. If Beverly had never shown interest in him, Miles would not have thought of her as anything but a student. She was relentless, and that is all it took for Miles to write, “Don’t tell me I’m falling in love with the Bonewoman’s daughter” (Hassler 112). Their growing scandal was based on convenience and not on love.
The rose, the rose-color bridal chambers of Miss Emily, signify the little details that come full circle. In that moment, there comes a consciousness that death trumps all that. It is a reality that cannot be avoided. What once was a bridal chamber has now become that of death and decay, still with the same hint of rose-colored innocence it once had all over its
Narratology divides a ‘narrative into story and narration’. (Cohan et al., 1988, p. 53) The three main figures that contribute a considerable amount of research to this theory are Gerard Genette, Aristotle and Vladimir Propp. This essay will focus on how Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights can be fully appreciated and understood when the theory is applied to the text. Firstly, I will focus on the components of narration Genette identifies that enhance a reader’s experience of the text. Secondly, I will discuss the three key elements in a plot that Aristotle recognises and apply these to Heathcliff’s character. In the final section I will apply part of the seven ‘spheres of action’, Propp categorises, to Heathcliff’s character. However, not all of Narratology can be applied to a text. This raises the question; does this hinder a readers understanding and/or appreciation of the text? This paper will also address this issue.
Supernatural elements – religious figures and activities, ghosts, witches, and anthropomorphized animals among others – have been used throughout the history of literature from its origins in oral folktales to Shakespeare’s plays to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. Throughout the history of literature, supernatural elements have been useful in developing themes that reflect the nature of humanity. Supernatural elements are often used to outline and comment on conflict and power struggles: both within the plot of the work and within society at the time of the work’s publication. These otherworldly components are also commonly used to adapt, expand upon, and make a work of literature more applicable to its settings. Supernatural elements also play a r...
There are billions of books in the world, all with different plots and styles. However, the one thing they all have in common is that they all have literary devices. A literary device is any technique a writer uses to help the reader understand and appreciate the meaning of the work. Due to the use of these devices, books that would otherwise have nothing in common can be compared. For instance, the books Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, and If I Stay by Gayle Forman have different plots and themes. But when both are examined closely, it is evident that they utilize many different and similar literary devices.