How To Read Literature Like a Professor: Ch. 6-11

During my reading for this section, I realized that Thomas Foster was basically providing various examples for the same main point. His point is that each literary work has been derived from something that the writer may have read, encountered, or experienced. In Chapter 6, Foster mentions that many works used Shakespeare as an inspiration. In Chapter 7, the Bible was the influence; in Chapter 8, children's literature; in Chapter 9, Greek and Roman myth. By the time I was finished with Chapter 7, I pretty much GOT THE POINT. However, I noticed that I never really thought of how much of literature is derived from simple works, like "Hansel and Gretel," or influenced by other cultures and religions. Thinking back on it, many works that I have read DO include some of the elements that Foster mentions in the book.

I found the chapters about rain and about violence interesting. I often take things literally whenever I read books but these chapters helped me understand that some events in books aren't always meant to be literal. According to Foster, rain, snow, and violence all have some sort of significance beyond their literal figures. This led me to think back to the works that I have read in which these significances may have existed, like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in which Harry is "saved" by Hagrid from the light house during a storm, thus "cleansing" Harry of his old life with the Dursleys so that he can start a new life as a wizard.

The interlude was also very enjoyable. The chapter posed the question that I think many of my classmates wanted to ask when we discussed books and their symbols in our English class last year: "Did the author really mean that?" Another issue that we wondered was if an author meant to place a symbol and how the readers were supposed to know whether or not it was a symbol. Foster's insight to those questions gave me the answers I was looking for.