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How To Read Literature Like A Professor Chapter 1 Summary

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How To Read Literature Like A Professor Chapter 1 Summary
How to Read Literature like a Professor

Chapter 1- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not):
• Quest consists of a knight, a dangerous road, a Holy Grail, a dragon, one evil knight, and one princess
• Quest elements:
a. quester
b. place to go
c. stated reason to go there
d. challenges & trails
e. real reason to go there- never involves stated reason
• Real reason for quest is always self-knowledge
• “always” and “never” have very little meaning in literature

Chapter 2- Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion:

• When people eat or drink together- Communion
• Not all communions are holy
i. doesn’t need to be holy or decent
• In literature, writing a meal scene is difficult
i. needs compelling reason to include in story
• Failed meal- bad …show more content…
autumn- tiredness, middle age, decline iv. spring- youth, childhood

Interlude- One Story:

• All stories are stemmed from one story
• Authors are telling stories of what it is to be human
• No more original storied
i. all stories now are based from the past
• Writers have to start with a sense of amnesia so they don’t think of past stories
• Archetype is a component that catches and sticks

Chapter 21- Marked for Greatness:

• Famous characters with physical defect
i. Richard III- hunchback ii. Frankenstein- many defects
• Shapes of characters tell us about them, in way
• Personal defects/imperfection is symbolic
• Characters can be set apart from one another by marks

Chapter 22- He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know:

• Blindness can be a symbol for blindness in other areas- morals, emotion
• Ex. someone who can’t see may be able to “see” things other people can’t
• Characters fail to see things such as love or reality, and blindness can be a metaphor for that

Chapter 23- It’s Never Just Heart Disease:

• Multiple definitions of heart can be related to heart disease
i. failed love ii. loneliness iii. disloyalty iv. hate
• Heart illness can lead to other things gone wrong

Chapter 24- … And Rarely Just Illness:

• Not all illnesses are
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