Thomas C. Foster: How To Read Literature Like A Professor

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Recommended: Essays on symbolism in literature

Savannah Faber

Mrs. Smith

AP Literature

24 September 2017

How to Read Literature Like a Professor talks about analyzing many kinds of literature. Thomas C. Foster, explains techniques on how to identify if, and when, a literary text has alternate meanings. Learning to read as if you had the demanding eyes of a professor is a vital skill in developing a deeper understanding of an author’s use of language. Authors utilize many tools to show alternate meanings in their literature; this is called symbolism: the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Foster explains this literary device, symbolism, through definition, disabilities and earth and its seasons and weather.

The earth: weather, seasons, geography, when reading you would …show more content…

Disabilities can include physical marks, deformities, and diseases. All disabilities have their own generic meaning. For example, Foster states, “Richard, as morally and spiritually twisted as his back, is one of the most repugnant figures in all time” although it sounds demeaning, to use a disability against one person, it is a great way to show a character’s personality through their being. Employing symbolism in this way is not often noticed in many works. Scars are another disability used in literature to draw interest toward a character. Foster asks the question, how many times is a hero different than everybody else, how many times is that a physical difference. Heroes in literature have these disabilities because it draws attention to them, it makes them stand out, sometimes even relatable to the reader. “Why does Harry Potter have a scar, where is it, how did he get it, and what does it resemble?” the reader asks themselves all of these questions, in turn making them read more so they can find out the answers. Every scar a character has, holds a story of what makes them particularly unique. Foster provides many examples of how physical disabilities are more than what they appear to be to the naked eye, throughout the chapters on deformities. He well argues how they are symbolic and make the reader …show more content…

It was when it showed up, and even now this virus that can mutate in infinite ways to thwart any treatment eludes our efforts to corral it. Symbolic? Most definitely.” As Foster brings up how AIDS is symbolic he mentions that it has been an epidemic that occupies writers’ time. Every aspect of AIDS, from how fast it spreads to how long it can stay dormant, is symbolic in literature. This specific disease is not only symbolic of tragedy and despair, but of courage and resilience and even compassion. It is a plot and a theme and much more. A writer does not give a character a disability because he/she hates that character or for no reason at all, it is to allude to their perseverance (or lack thereof), to represent their

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