How+to+Read+Literature+Like+a+Professor+Notes

Post your chapter notes here. **Chapter 24: ...And Rarely Just Illness** From: Eric Castelli **-**It should be picturesque **-**It should have strong symbolic possibilities **-**It should be mysterious in origin From: Bryan Bantay //-Rhyme scheme that ties the octave (8) together followed by a sestet (6) //
 * Not all illnesses are created equal. Tuberculosis occurs frequently; cholera does not because of the reasons below
 * Tuberculosis- A wasting disease
 * Physical paralysis can mirror moral, intellectual, political, spiritual and social paralysis.
 * Plague: divine wrath
 * Malaria: Literally “bad air”
 * Veneral disease: Reflects immorality or innocence.
 * AIDS: the modern plague. The victims often have no idea that they have the disease
 * Chapter 4. If It’s Square, It’s a Sonnet **
 * Sonnets usually have 8 (octave is a single unit o f meaning) or 6 parts; the two parts/sections are connected
 * Most recognizable form of poetry
 * Modern sonnet my be unique in line #’s or regularized meter
 * Lines and stanzas are necessities in poetry, but if the poem is good its basic unit of meaning is the sentence.
 * This means the sonnet form actually becomes a part of the meaning—this is why form matters.
 * Sonnets, 14 lines
 * common ever since the Renaissance
 * No other poem is so versatile and ubiquitous and agreeable as the sonnet
 * Geometry of the poem, square like
 * READ the poem first, BEFORE any stylistic analysis
 * Images, and the musicality of the language, idea, content, wordplay
 * Sonnet - merely a form 2 MAIN TYPES - Pentrachan and Shakespearean
 * //PENTACHAN //

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">-Divided into quatrains and there is a rhyming couplet at the end. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">-Count how many sentences there are in the poem <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">- Being the “entrepreneur” he was, Shakespeare created his own sonnet with different units of meaning his organization: four lines (quatrain) x3 and then a two line couplet. Look at the the couplet= meaning/theme
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">SHAKESPEAREAN
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">often it follows the basic pattern of 8/6 : leaving us to 2 sentences


 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">Poems- Arranged in lines, written in sentences
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">A poet’s literary cleverness may emerge through different choices and images
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif;">The poet selects the style of sonnet that will best communicate the content/ meaning of the poem

- Every writer "reinvents" their own Shakespeare, using similar plots and situations that come up in their literary works. - Shakespeare's works are so pronounced and have influence today, such as quotes, that we don't even realize its originally from Shakespeare. Literary authors use his influence just because its such a basis for literary concepts, and he did it so well. - Some authors also play/bounce off of Shakespeare's works and ideas, responding to them in their own works. - Other authors also take the same story line as Shakespeare's works and simply change names, slight plot, etc, but adds more to to the moral/theme/etc. - Authors play off of Shakespeare because everyone already is familiar with his works. Especially high school each year we are required to read at least one Shakespeare novel, further familiarizing us with him. Even if we haven't read Shakespeare's books, we still "know" him because of how influential he is in society with quotes, plots, etc. - "So if your reading a work and something sounds too good to be true, you know where it's from."
 * __Chapter 6 (When in Doubt, it's from Shakespeare)__**

Chapter 6- When in doubt, it's from Shakespeare By Devyn Baum

Shakespeare is everywhere, he pertains in any literary form you may come across -throughout literary periods authors, writers, poets,etc. reinvent their own form of Shakespeare (pg.38) most writers do this because it gives off an illusion that they are smart, and have some form of Shakespeare already in their head (pg.42) -Any form of writer takes Shakespeare and interperts their own ideas on things(pg.44) most likely any type of material you may be reading is associated with Shakespeare(pg.46)

Introduction:
FROM Cyrus Javan -A deal with the devil is a common literary theme, it does always have to be the literal devil however. -In A Raisin in the Sun the “devil” is played by a man trying to buy out an African American family out of an all-white neighborhood. -Commonly student will think that a Professor is just making things up or inventing deeper meanings, such as saying a racist man is the Devil. -However, Professors actually possess a different “Language of Reading” that comes from being an experienced reader and being able to see deeper meanings in stories. -The only way to be able to begin to see these deeper meanings and symbols is to practice, by reading as much literature as possible you will be able to see through those literary glasses. -Memory, Symbol and Pattern are all things that an advanced reader can see in all aspects of literature. -Memory: Every time you read you be able to be checking your memory to see if this relates back to anything you have read before. -Symbols: The ability to recognize symbols is useful because often times seemingly simple actions can actually have a much deeper symbolic meaning. -Pattern: Patterns emerge often within a number of literary works, patterns not only with works but patterns crossing over multiple works, such as recognizing patterns of authors from a specific period of time.

The Quest (adventure) has the following elements.

 * ====Quester (character)- a person who goes on a journey in a book.====


 * ====A place to go- like a journey somewhere important.====


 * ====**Stated** Reason to go there- some one (another character) tells the character to go and do something.====


 * ====Challenges and trials during the journey, and a **real** reason to go.====

====**Ex.** Meets dangerous, scary, and strange people. Gets involved in an old postal conspiracy through her therapist. Real reason was to find out what she can trust about herself because her name is actually Oedipus the King. We assume she gains self-knowledge.====


 * ====Questers (characters) are typically young because they lack self-knowledge, and are still trying to find what it is they are searching for.====


 * ====Always and Never- these words in literature do not have a lot of meaning because another author can come along and easily disprove a study.====


 * ====Whenever a character is introduced pay attention to see if the previous====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Chapter One (Again) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">From Solomon Hood

The Quest consists of five things:


 * 1) The Quester: a person who goes on a quest, whether or not he knows it is a quest, such as Foster’s imaginary Kip Smith, an unpopular teenage boy or Oedipa Maas, the unassertive and unhappy heroine of //The Crying of Lot 49//.
 * 2) A Place to Go and a Stated Reason to Go There (2 & 3): when someone, usually a mentor or other authority figure, tells the protagonist to seek out something or go somewhere, such as Kip’s mom telling him to get Wonder Bread at the grocery store or Oedipa being summoned to Southern California as executor of her late ex-husband’s will.
 * 3) Challenges and Trials En Route: tests for the quester on his path, such as the German shepherd attacking Kip on his bike or the strange and dangerous people Oedipa meets in her travels.
 * 4) The Real Reason to Go There: more often than not self-knowledge, often having nothing to do with the mission the quester thinks he (or she) is going on, such as Kip realizing he should go into the military rather than stay in this town or Oedipa finding and relying on herself rather than all the men she was once so dependent upon.

**CHAPTER TWO: Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion** from Kendra Rowland


 * Communion can interpret a word in quite a variety of ways**
 * Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communio**n**.
 * For example sometimes a meal is just a meal and eating with others is simply eating with other but more often than not, though, it’s not.


 * **Communions are not always holy**
 * Communion can also represent intercourse, though intercourse does have more meaning that sexual being.


 * **Communions of all kinds**
 * In the real world, breaking bread together is an act of sharing and peace. One will invite a friend to dinner, unless one is trying to get on the good side of enemies. No one would accept an __#|invitation__to dinner with someone you didn’t care for. Eating with another is a way of saying “I’m with you, I like you, we form a community together.” And that is a form of communion.
 * Ex. //Tom Jones//(1749)
 * Tom and his lady friend dine at an inn, chopping, gnawing, sucking on bones and licking fingers. They were leering, slurping groaning. This was one of the first sexual meals.


 * **What the narrator can reveal to us-**
 * //Cathedral//(1981) a guy with real hang-ups: included among the many tings the narrator is bigoted against the people with disabilities. When a friend of the man’s wife, is blind and is coming to visit, we know that the man will have to overcome disliking people that are different. By the end of the story he does. It shows that he has when him and the blind man sit together to draw a cathedral so the blind man can get a sense of that it looks like.
 * The only reason the narrator gave the man a serious hang-up was to give him the chance to get over it. Even though he may fail, he will still get the chance. They had communion.
 * When the man watchers the blind man eat, the man notices that he was normal as he is eating. That is when he will begin to gain a new respect for him.


 * **What happens when communion turns ugly**
 * This happens all the time on television shows. For example, two people are at dinner and a third comes up, quite unwished for, and one or more of the first two refuse to eat. They place their napkins on their plates, or say something about losing their appetite, or simply get up and walk away.
 * Ex. //Dinner at the homesick Restaurant//(1982)
 * The mother tries over and over again to have a family dinner, but every time fails for many different reasons. Not until she actually dies, does all her children assemble around the table at a restaurant and achieve dinner. At that point the body and the blood they symbolically share are hers. Her life-and her death- become part of their common experience.
 * Another example is //The Dead//(1914).
 * This story is centered on a dinner party on the Feast of Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas. The mail character Gabriel Conroy must learn that he is not superior to everyone else. During the course of the evening he receives a series of small shocks to his ego that collectively demonstrates that he is very much part of the more general social fabric. The dishes of food themselves are //lavishly// described in great detail. No writer would ever do that, except for purpose. Joyce, has many purposes in the story, one was to draw the reader in the moment as though we were sitting at that table. Joyce also wants to convey the sense of tension and conflict that has been running through the evening. When he is trying to help the tension, He does this for a very profound reason: we need to be part of that communion. When snow beautifully falls at the end of the story we think “all the living and the dead.” We think that snow is just like death. Joyce then laid out for us, a communion not of death, but of what comes before. Of life.

CHAPTER THREE: Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
From Maddie Gaborko


 * The classic vampire story** often follows similar patterns: An older man who holds to corrupt and evil values which are a threat to the vitality and purity of young women.
 * Ex. Bram Stoker’s //Dracula// (1897).


 * The "Boo factor" is Not Actually the Point:**
 * These types of conflicts are common subject matters in novels, poetry, and short stories that were written during the Victorian era. The authors were subtly trying to communicate ideas about the evils of sexual lust, seduction, and temptation without actually bringing up such topics, as they were considered taboo at the time.
 * In a literal sense: The portrayal of a "vampire" in literature is also used to show a conflict between the wholesome and pure, and the sinister tempter. When the tempter is successful, the life, vitality, and purity are taken from its victim. Blood is drained when a literal vampire takes a victim and is replaced by the evil nature of the attacker.
 * In a metaphorical sense, society or a member of society as whole can be used effectively as a vampire.
 * Ex. “Daisy Miller”, by Henry James: A story about a young woman who is more independent and strong willed then would have been socially acceptable at the time. The man she desires as a husband does not know what to do, as she is beautiful but her actions make her disagreeable. Because of his high status and rigidness, he rejects her. Daisy, who is hurt and upset, decides she has no reason to truly care ends up dying of Malaria which she contracted while she was meeting with a lover in Rome.
 * Society kills the young woman; the man's rejection of her and her actions pushes her to a point that causes her to lose her life.


 * The Vampire Himself:**
 * The vampire is not necessarily a classic vampire, with fangs and a long black cape. A vampire is any character that serves the purpose of attempting, and often succeeding, to remove the life and vitality and spirit from another character.
 * This "vampire" can come in the form of other supernatural beings such as ghosts or demons, or sometimes more subtly as a human. It is more about the effect that the character has on its protagonist counterpart, as in the case of "Daisy Miller".
 * The character is a representation of an idea or standard that the author does not want to appear favorable. Most obvious is the evil, vile monster of lust and sensuality. Or possibly the outdated, crushing standards of an outdated social standard.


 * The Young and Pure:**
 * Every vampire has a victim, and classically it is a young girl, typically an unmarried virgin who is beautiful and full of life.
 * Some scenarios the girl can take various forms or characteristics. A young child who is at the mercy of his guardians, still innocent and without the worries of death. Or it could be a young person who is not necessarily innocent, but is full of enthusiasm for life and its possibilities.

As the much as the "vampire" is evil, the protagonist symbolizes life and vitality. The author will use this contrast to show the conflict between what they perceive as an evil, life threatening idea or concept and that which they see as a higher form of existence. For some it is very religious in nature, and draws upon the basic pull between temptation and purity as seen in the Genesis, between the snake and Eve.

CHAPTER FOUR: If It's Square, It's a Sonnet
from Nathan Lester

• The Sonnet is one of the most common forms of poetry and has been written since the English Renaissance. • "No other poem is so versatile, so ubiquitous, so various, so agreeably short as the sonnet." • A sonnet is fourteen lines long and each line has ten syllables, or is very close to ten. • In English writing, ten syllables are about as long as fourteen lines are high, thus creating a square. • While there is a wide variety of ways to write sonnets, most of them have two parts the first of eight lines and the second made of six lines. • The first eight lines are called the octave and the second six are called the sestet • A Petrarchan sonnet has a rhyme scheme for the octave and a second for the sestet. Both rhymes schemes are designed to unify each part of the sonnet. • A Shakespearean sonnet is divided by four typically. So, the first four (or quatrain), the second quatrain, the third quatrain, and the last two (a couplet). The first two quatrains and the third quatrain and couplet, each is supposed to have some unity of meaning. • Here is a sonnet written by Christina Rossetti called "An Echo from Willow-Wood": "Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she, Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think, Pale and reluctant on the water's brink, As on the brink of parting which must be, Each eyed the other's aspect, she and he, Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink, Each tasted bitterness which both must drink, There on the brink of life's dividing sea. Lilies upon the surface, deep below Two wistful faces craving each for each, Resolute and reluctant without speech:— A sudden ripple made the faces flow, One moment joined, to vanish out if reach: So those hearts joined, and ah were parted so." • If you notice there are only two sentences which make up the sonnet. The octave is the first sentence and the sestet is the second. • Each sentence is separate yet related. • No sonnet will be just like this one and it isn't at all required for them to maintain the same format of sentences and rhyme scheme • If a sonnet has no rhyme scheme it is called a blank sonnet meaning that it has unrhymed lines.

CHAPTER FIVE: Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
From Luke Spinardi
 * **Story from a Story**
 * There is no such thing as a “wholly original novel”. There will always be something in a story that will resemble or reference an event in another whether the author writes it intentionally or unintentionally.
 * Authors place references to other pieces of literature in their books to give the reader deeper comprehension into the true nature of the character, event, location, or dialogue that just occurred.

>>
 * **That's Familiar...**
 * Ex. __Going After Cacciato__by Tim O’Brien (1978)
 * Story split into three parts
 * The main character, Paul Berlin, enters the Vietnam war and tells of the battles he was in
 * His fellow soldier Cacciato runs from battle and the reader follows this imaginary trip Berlin and his squad takes to chase after Cacciato who is going to Paris.
 * Berlin, who is really watching over the camp, balances in his mind the gruesome reality of war and his fantasy of going away.
 * The fantasy Berlin has is full of events that he read about in his childhood
 * At one time Berlin and his squad fell into a hole in the road and one of the characters says the only way to get out is to fall back up. Although this underground structure would regularly be taken as a regular Vietcong Tunnelway, it is the way the author describes it that makes it relate to another story, in this case being __Alice in Wonderland__by Lewis Carroll. This refrence is supposed to suggest like in the land of wonderland, anything, whether it is natural or unnatural, can happen in these tunnels.
 * Later another character shows up named Sarkin Aung Wan. She is a young Vietnamese girl who leads the squad through the mysterious tunnels. Nothing special? Look deeper. It is a foreign woman, native to the land they are in, guiding a group of white men into an area they know nothing about, not able to speak the language of the rest of the group. Tim O’Brian made Sarkin Aung Wan look like Sacajawea. Because this connection can be made, O’Brian suggests the group has hope but also the depth of Berlin’s need for help.
 * Authors even unknowingly reference History because just like novels and poems, history tells a story also. One can even say that History is the only story.
 * **Types of Connections**
 * Some connections are more direct than others.
 * The obvious connections are when authors write novels about other novels like T. Coraghassan Boyle’s “Overcoat II” which is a rewrite of the classical Russian story “Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol
 * Other more subtle references include a modern miser recalling Scrooge or a sci-fi story where has a character whose foe is their father.

- Every writer "reinvents" their own Shakespeare, using similar plots and situations that come up in their literary works. - Shakespeare's works are so pronounced and have influence today, such as quotes, that we don't even realize its originally from Shakespeare. Literary authors use his influence just because its such a basis for literary concepts, and he did it so well. - Some authors also play/bounce off of Shakespeare's works and ideas, responding to them in their own works. - Other authors also take the same story line as Shakespeare's works and simply change names, slight plot, etc, but adds more to to the moral/theme/etc. - Authors play off of Shakespeare because everyone already is familiar with his works. Especially high school each year we are required to read at least one Shakespeare novel, further familiarizing us with him. Even if we haven't read Shakespeare's books, we still "know" him because of how influential he is in society with quotes, plots, etc. - "So if your reading a work and something sounds too good to be true, you know where it's from."
 * **Finding the Connections and Beyond**
 * Once you become aware of the fact that every story is connected to another, it becomes easier to recognize the similarities.
 * It takes practice but eventually you will be able to recognize a repetition in the characters in all novels.
 * Finding the connection is not the end of it.
 * Ex. __Wise Children__by Angela Carter (1992)
 * The main family of the story is theatrical and does entertainment.
 * In the story, a character named Tiffany walks onto a tv show enraged for an unknown reason and is later found drowned. This resembles Shakespeare’s Hamlet where Hamlet’s love interest, Ophelia, goes mad and drowns.
 * Carter relies on our __#|registering__that Tiffany=Ophelia so that he can use her as a different character from Shakespeare's “Much Ado About Nothing” who fakes her death and funeral to teach her fiance a lesson.
 * Carter uses her new novel to tell a very old story which becomes part of the one big story (History).
 * __Chapter 6 (When in Doubt, it's from Shakespeare)__**
 * from Trevor Brown**
 * from Trevor Brown**

CHAPTER SIX: When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare ...
from Devyn Baum

Shakespeare is everywhere, he pertains in any literary form you may come across -throughout literary periods authors, writers, poets,etc. reinvent their own form of Shakespeare (pg.38) most writers do this because it gives off an illusion that they are smart, and have some form of Shakespeare already in their head (pg.42) -Any form of writer takes Shakespeare and interperts their own ideas on things(pg.44) most likely any type of material you may be reading is associated with Shakespeare(pg.46)

CHAPTER EIGHT: Hanseldee and Greteldum
From Tessa Moore __Borrowing Ideas or Referencing__ -make references that are relevant and make sense or pertain to today's culture -don't make a reference that people wouldn't get -try not to use the references that everybody uses -use references or ideas from "kiddie lit" (aka Cat in the Hat, Goodnight Moon) to catch a larger audience who would understand your point or analogy, etc. -also use common fairytales (aka Snow White, Sleeping Beauty) -using these types of literature is useful because in these stories there is no confusion about characters (ex. We all know that the stepmother in Cinderella is evil and no one likes her.) If we were to use a more complex piece of literature, different people might have different standpoints on characters (ex. Some people think Romeo in Romeo and Juliet is quite romantic while others think he is childish and wimpy.) Using "kiddie lit" leaves no room for argument over something that could be unclear. -you can also use the whole idea of the story and change it up a bit to make your point clearer (aka modernize them) however, the main point or moral of the story must be the same -irony always gets the point across -when reading, always look for familiarity in the story (aka Does this story use ideas from anything else I have read or heard of?)

CHAPTER NINE: It's Greek to Me
From Andrew Grabowski 3 sorts of Myth: Shakespearean, biblical, and folk/fairy tale

Myth- the shaping and sustaining power of story and symbol, not a legendary false story. Ex. It’s not whether or not someone believes in the story of Adam and Eve, in the context of myths it’s how the story functions

We use myth as the ability of a story to explain ourselves to ourselves in different manners than we are used to, Myth is the part of the story that matters

Many classical writers often went back to tribal or cultural myths. Roman myths are prominent in our cultural today. We see the Greek culture in the names of our high school mascots. Ex. Richard Wagner, a composer, went back to German tales to provide material for his work. We also saw this with many Native American writings such as, Silko’s “Yellow Woman,” Edrich’s Kashpaw, and Gerald Vizenor’s peculiar Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles. Toni Morrison introduced the Song of Soloman, many white readers believed it to be reference to Icaras, but it was actually referring to the flying Africans.

Biblical mythology covers greatest range of human situations while Shakespeare and fairy tales also cover human situations fairly well

Myths often teach us morals and lessons that can be applied to our lives, they also give us the knowledge of something powerful inside ourselves, but they also show our many struggles. Ex. In our writing we must bring sin into the lives of our characters and not try to make them perfect. Such as Derek Walcott who names his characters after Greek gods trying to show us that greatness lives inside of us such as in the Illiad and the Odyssey you can see patterns. In the book Ulysses, it talks of an old man who wanders the city and comes home late at night to meet his wife and then a yound man trying to decide on his future. James Joyce’s novel paralleled The Odyssey, in the modern age. Also the story of Ovid’s Metamorphoses being changed into Franz Kafka’s story of a man changing into a beetle. The comparison of Idiana Jones and Apollonius and the Argonautica, while other characters serve as a baseline for all dysfunctional family members.

Myths allow us to refer to them to give our own story a comfortable feel to the reader. Ex. Pieter Brueghal painted Fall of Icarus, which seemed to be any regular landscape except the legs of Icarus sticking out of the water. These pair of legs gives the picture a story instead of a boring background. Ex. Two poets. H. Auden and William Carlos William wrote on The Fall of Icarus painting about how the world continues even during our tragedies. William talked of the thematic and pictorial elements, while Auden is a meditation on how the world doesn’t care for our private struggles. Foster refers this to the kids buying muscle cars in the 60’s, with many coming to their deaths against the advice of their elders.

CHAPTER TEN: It's More Than Just Rain or Snow
FROM: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kristina Ryan
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There is always a purpose for something, including the weather. Rain isn't in the novel just because, it has a purpose and something will happen because of the rain or perhaps another form of weather.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Weather (including rain, snow, or sun) is used in a piece of literature for four primary purpose...
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Plot Device: Weather can force the characters into different circumstances which then changes the plot. EX: In //The Three Strangers,//Thomas Hardy forces a condemned man, a hangman, and the escapee's brother into a shepherd's house in the middle of a rainstorm, thus causing an uncomfortable situation.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Atmospherics: Weather creates a scene in the reader's mind; perhaps a peaceful, calm scene or an eerie scene.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Misery Factor: This forces the characters into uncomfortable circumstances.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Democratic Element: The weather effects every character in a novel.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rain is used in literature for these purposes as well...
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is clean. Rain cleans land, but also produces mud. This can be used to represent if a character needs to be cleansed, perhaps physically but also mentally. Or just the opposite if a character needs to be brought back to reality and cleansed of their imaginary illusions and dreams. EX: In //Song of Solomon,//Toni Morrison has her character, Hagar, be completely heartbroken in which she reacts by going shopping and going to places in order to make her outer self be pretty enough for this lover. Consequently, she is caught in a rainstorm and her newly bought clothes and new makeover is completely ruined. This portrays the idea of the character's ideal illusions being cleansed away.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rain is restorative. It brings things back to life in the world, however this is used mostly ironically. Authors use rain to depict death, perhaps a character standing in the rain dies the next week or after one dies, a character goes into the rain.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rain supplies water and life. When things need to be repaired, most of the time rain is used in order to do this.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rainbows: Rain works hand in hand with rainbows. When a rainbow is mentioned in a novel, rain is also being depicted. Like Noah's story in the Bible, the rainbow signified God's promise to never flood the Earth again. Rainbows are the happiness after rain. EX: //The Rainbow,// by D.H. Lawrence, includes flooding.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fog represents confusion; not being able to see in it and being completely unaware of one's surroundings.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Snow, alike to rain, has the ability to represent anything. It can either depict fun and enjoyment or enclosure and death. EX: In //The Pedersen Kid,// William H. Gass has death arrive at the end of a blizzard.

FROM: Ariana Bio - There is much more to a story than just the setting. Some say it's the whole deal, but it's not. - Why start the book with, "It was a dark and stormy night?" Rain, water, affects us. It brings back the memories of "the flood". The connection of something real to a line in a book can really make a reader think. - Adding the simple setting of rain and darkeness changes the mood. Weather has the affect to spchange the story's mood or a character in the book's mood. - Many people don't think about rain this way, but it has elements of it's own. I falls not only on the unjust, but on the just as well. - Rain can cleanse. It is used as a symbol when falling down on a character of cleansing. The cleanse can be from anything, good or bad, real or fake. - Rain can also bring growth, just as it gives life and growth to plants, it can also do so in a character. - Itis connected with the season of spring, the season of renewal. . Renewal of hope. - Rain helps with the symbolization of promise and peace, helping create the rainbow. - The setting, more specifically the weather has a huge affect on the mood of whatever poem, story, or book it is in. - When reading what type of weather is in play you can connect it to what emotion it evokes, what the meaning behind it is by looking at the simple characteristics of that element of weather.

INTERLUDE Does He Mean That?:
FROM: Kristina Ryan
 * Most of the time, the author is doing this on purpose, he or she is intentionally using a symbol or following a pattern.
 * They do so by writing pieces that are alike to something that has already been written before or happened in the past.
 * 1) Example: //Absalom, Absalom!// by William Faulkner, uses the title form the Bible of David's son and also includes characters from Greek mythology
 * In order to be aware of this, you have to look for hints or evidence that proves what the writer is doing
 * Lateral Thinking: The way that a writer keeps their eye on the target or the main idea of the plot. However, while doing so they write material that is also related to what the main idea is.

FROM: Ariana Bio
 * Some writers try to control the output of their work so much the reader has little to think about. They are called Intentionalists.
 * Other writers take stories or books written in the past or take an event in the past and rewrite it to be just about the same story changing little elements so it can be seen as a different story.
 * The use of titles can say a lot about the stories too. William Faulkner wrote //Absalom, Absalom!//using the name from the Bible of David's son. Writers use this method to show a connection to or with something that has happened in the past or was written already.
 * What a reader has to work with is the hints the writer gives. What is behind what the author is writing. What the writer is trying to lead the reader to, trying to make the reader think about what they are reading and form a prediction or a point that could connect to the theme of the book.
 * Lateral thinking: this book describes it as the writer staying on point, using sources or other materials to solidify that point, veering from the path of the book but not too far so they continue to stay on the right subject. Some are born with this gift and some are not.

FROM Cyrus Javan
 * Some writers are “intentionalist”, writers that try to control every effect and think about what everything they write means.
 * Writers also draw upon stories they know and use them in their own writing.
 * Ex.** In the book Ulysses by James Joyce, Joyce follows the narrative of the epic poem the Odyssey. Such as mirroring Odysseus’s trip to the underworld Joyce has his character visit a cemetery. And Odysseus’s encounter with Circe his character goes to a notorious brothel.
 * To find if the writer intentionally tried to use symbols or follow pattern is hard to discern without trying to find hints the writing itself.
 * Writers also use lateral thinking, this is a way of being able to stay on topic and move to the end of the story but being able to use symbols and patterns and add a deeper meaning to the story.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: ... More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
From: Madison Kelly Violence by definition ~One of the most personal and intimate acts between human beings  ~Cultural and societal in its implications  Violence can be...  ~Symbolic  ~Thematic  ~Shakespearean  ~Romantic  ~Allegorical  ~Transcendent  Violence in literature  ~ Violence is everywhere in literature. Examples A. Anna Karenina throws herself under a train  B. Emma Bovary solves her problems using poison  C. Dedalus is beaten by soldiers  ~While it is literal, violence in literature is often used as a metaphor. Examples A. Poem from Robert Frost, "Out, Out," is a cautionary tale of child labor and power tools. Violence has two categories ~Character caused, injuries by the character or one another on themselves. Examples A. shootings and stabbings  B. drowning  C. starvation  D. Bombings  ~Character uninvolved, violence that causes death and suffering that the characters are not responsible for. Literature weight ~Weight or depth in works in sensed when things are happening beyond the surface that changes our perspective depending on the books genre. Accidents and Misfortune ~Violence without agency, when writers dispose of their characters. ~When accidents in literature happen, THEY ARE NOT REALLY ACCIDENTS, the author plans and plots them, accidents are always executed by somebody In literature. Violence... ~Makes us question, why, because the author rarely shows violence straightforward.

From Josh Gardner


 * Violence is prevalent in literature
 * Even children were casualties of violence in some stories
 * One story has children killed by their parents to prevent them from having to live the slave life
 * The writer of the story makes the reader feel a personal connection with either the character that dies or the one that does the killing making the reader become attached and feel emotion when the character dies
 * Violence is a personal and sometimes intimate act
 * Violence can also teach lessons in social implications.
 * There are several types of violence it can be symbolic, thematic, biblical, Shakespearean, Romantic, allegorical, transcendent
 * In real life violence just happens it can possibly be symbolic of another thing but it generally just happens.
 * In a story, violence can be a metaphor.
 * An author of a story can make it seem almost as if the tool used to commit the act of violence can have a mind of its own
 * Violence in stories can show us how fragile our own lives are.
 * Violence is a prevelant subject in literature.
 * Violence ranges from little things such as, using poison to help with a task, to having a main character throw themselves in front of a train.
 * There are two types of violence the first is specific injury including things such as shootings and stabbings
 * The second is authorial violence wich the author introduces to the reader through death and suffering in this category the author is responsible for the violence not the characters
 * Violence in detective novels is less noticeable because the author creates no real attachment to the dead except for some plot reasons.
 * The deaths lack gravity in detective novels and mysterys
 * The situation becomes more grave when there is something that is happening under the surface with the character.
 * There are several other layers in mysterys that the deaths are buried by all the other activities.
 * In the fictional universe violence becomes a sort of symbol and that symbol carries a weight that the reader feels.
 * Slavery allow the victims no ability to make decisions and determine their outcome.
 * Occasionally writers will dispose of characters to thicken the plot.
 * So called "accidents" in literature are not really accidents. They are accidents only to characters inside the novel. On the outside they are planned and carefully exucuted by the author.
 * There is a number of possibilities that an author can use violent to tell a story.
 * Violence creates a psychological dilemma in the reader.
 * Because of the prevelance of violence in literature we can only accept it and try and understand what I means.

CHAPTER TWELVE: Is That a Symbol?
From Scott Gardner I. //Is That a Symbol?// -One of the most common questions in class -Ask, "What do you think it stands for?" -Whatever you think it does, it probably does it. II. The problem with symbols A. People expect them to; 1. Mean something a. Not just any something, but something in particular i. Exactly ii. Maximum B. Symbols that work straightforward ex. "A white flag means, what, don't shoot. Or it means, we come in peace." C. Symbols sometimes have relatively limited range. 1. A symbol can't be reduced to standing for one thing only III. It’s not Symbolism, it's Allegory A. Allegory 1. things that stand for other things a. on one-to-one basis 2. convey a certain message 3. Allegory fails if... a. There is ambiguity between: i. the emblem ii. the figurative construct iii. the thing it represents b. The message is blurred IV. Was that Symbolic? A. Neatness 1. symbols don't work so neatly a. The thing referred to is most likely non-reducible to a single statement but will probably involve a range of possible meanings and interpretations. V. Symbolic of what? A. symbolic 1. We want it to mean something a. something for all of us and all time ex. Mrs. Moore unpleasant encounter in a cave, where she finds something she can't symbolize, that is unidentified and unpleasant. i. the cave is a symbol of secrets and mysteries ii. what the cave symbolizes mainly by how the reader engages the story VI. Problem of Symbolism A. Symbolic meaning 1. Further compounded when we look at... a. a number of writers emphasizing various, distinct elements for a given symbol B. Readers expect symbols to be objects and image rather that events or actions VII. Action A. Action can be symbolic 1. Uses of it can be sly and the symbolic level can be missed entirely ex. activity of mowing a field is what it is, a description of leveling a field of hay one stroke at a time. VIII. So what do you’d do? A. What to do with symbols? 1. Past experience of literary labor or rivers can help 2. brainstorm and take notes 3. organize thoughts with groupings under headings, rejecting or accepting different ideas. 4. Ask questions of the text B. Reading literature is a highly intellectual activity, but it also requires a lot of instinct and affect to a large degree C. The more you exercise symbolic imagination, the better and quicker it work D. Engage your creative intelligence, listen to your instincts, and pay attention to your feelings about the text.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: It's All Political
From Alex Wolfsberger
 * The Christmas Carol actually attacks a widely taken political belief.
 * Dickens books hide most of his social criticism, but its still their, he continues to ridicule the social shortcomings.
 * The works of socialist realism are of the Soviet era where the bold hero finds a solution to increase production and meet the goals of a five-year plan.
 * Programmatic political writing: pushing a single cause, concern, or party position onto someone else. It can also be related to another highly typical situation that doesn’t shift well outside of its time period and place.
 * This is used in Ezra Pound’s politics when she uses the mixture of anti-Semitism and authoritarianism.
 * “Political” writing engages the actuality of its world, such as human problems and the rights and wrongs of those in power.
 * D.H. Lawrence is incredibly political even though it is well hidden.
 * Edgar Allen Poe has a few stories talking about the society we are only able to read about: the nobility.
 * Poe certainly believes that what Europe represents is degraded and decaying.
 * Most literary works must resemble their own specific period in ways that are definitely political. Writers are men and women who are simply interested in the world they call home.
 * //Oepipus at Colonus//is about an old Oedipus who arrives in Colonus and gets the protection of the king. Later the city-state is threatened the Sparta’s severe aggression as well as from the inside for those who are not happy with the king.
 * The author is simply saying they could use a leader like the king in the book.
 * To understand what is in the background of the book, we have to be aware of the social and political surroundings from where the writer creates their work.
 * Virginia Woolf writes about women in her days only being able to do a certain amount of things.
 * She writes these stories to hint to them the material and changes she wants to see put into the Legislation and sent to the //Times.//

From Zack Sharp -A Christmas carol was actually attacking a widely accepted political position

- Scrooge is representative of something in us and in society

- Dickens is so entertaining that we may overlook his social points

- "Political writing" does not age well and is generally not very good in its own time

- Overtly political writing can be one dimensional, simplistic, reductionist, preachy, dull.

- Writing that compels thinking about human problems in the social and political realms can be compelling

- Nearly all writing is political on some level

- D.H. Lawrence's characters in Women in Love share his political opinions and you can see this through them refusing to behave or submit to convention

- Radical Individualism is politically charged in Lawrence's writing

- Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" both speak of the nobility. In both stories Poe critiques the European class system

- Poe believes that what Europe represents is decaying

- Rip Van Winkle has political allusions to the Revolutionary war

- Rip is loyal to his wife at first, but when he finds out he's free he likes it

- Irving notices that not everything is better, but there is more energy and hope to help improve

- The things that really matter such as freedom and self determination are better

- Like Poe, Washington Irving sets himself up as an opposition to European Literary Convention

- Some think that every piece of literary work is political

- Writers tend to be Men and Women who are interested in the world around them, that is why political and social themes find their way into many literary works

- Sophocles writing in Oedipus at Colonus shows how useful a good leader would be in his city-state at the end of the fifth century when spartan aggression is high

- Virginia Woolf writes of women's position in a male dominated society in Mrs. Dalloway

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too
From: Arielle Rumbaoa

CHAPTER 18 IF SHE COMES UP, IT’S BAPTISM
from Janna Basaran - Actions that take place in literature each have a separate and usually very specific meaning pertaining to the author’s objective in the story. - Falling, being pushed, and tripping into water are all different ways in which an author can use different meanings. Drowning, getting drenched, or being able to swim are some results expected in books; drowning or not is important in the books course of events. - Many writers have met their ends in water; for example, Virginia Woolf, Ann Quin, Percy Bysshe Shelley etc. - Some of the reasons why writers use characters that fall or jump into the water because “wish fulfillment, exorcism of primal fear, exploration of the possible, and not just a handy solution to messy plot difficulties.” - Each outcome of a character that falls into water represents something different and each is symbolically different. - In Judith Guest’s Ordinary People two brothers go out on a lake when a storm comes up and the older brother, the one who was the favorite and not likely to die, drowns. The younger brother, the one who wasn't as fortunate and blessed as the older, survived. The opposite of what would be expected happened and the little brother doesn't know how to live while believing he was the one who should’ve died. Through sessions with his psychiatrist, he is able to overcome his low self worth and changes from the person he was before the storm to someone entirely new. In a sense he is “alive all over again”. - The younger brother has experienced a feeling of rebirth and sees that in his life rebirth is painful. - In other books water is constantly referred to with a passion that brings out characters passion for things. - Love Medicine (1986) - In books the characters have to be ready to receive their rebirth or in some situations baptism. Certain things might have to happen first for a character to be ready; items might have to be taken away form them or the might have to end a relationship etc. - Rain can also be symbolic in its nature in books. It can represent restoration and cleansing. - Generally when writers baptize a character they mean, death, rebirth, and new identity. - Baptism does not always have a spiritual significance. - Every drowning serves its own purpose; like, character revelation, thematic development of violence or failure or guilt, plot complication etc.
 * 1) Scene: Henry, a Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and his brother Lyman go out to a flooded river after fixing up their prized car. When all seems well, Henry runs into the water and matter-of-factly states that his boots are filling with water. He drowns and when his brother Lyman realizes he wont be able to save him, he sends the car into the river as well.
 * 2) Meaning: Henry chose to go into the water and therefore chose his way of departure from the world. With all that he had experienced in the war his life back home felt as if everything was already falling away and slipping through his grip. The way the author, Louise Erdrich, portrays him being swept away in a flood is a symbolic action.

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INTERLUDE One Story:
FROM Cyrus Javan -All stories or anytime someone goes to write anything is all drawing from one story that all other stem from. -Authors are just telling us the story of what it is to be human and what they do is explain us-and-the-world or us-in-the-world. -There are no more original stories; all stories are based somewhat in the past. However this is not a bad thing because it allows a comforting sense of familiarity to the reader, which a completely original work would lack. -Writers must enter a new project with a sense of amnesia in order to avoid constantly thinking of the greats of the past and all the things that could go wrong in their writings. However they never completely forget they merely write as they write and their prior knowledge flows through them without thinking. -Intertextuality is the idea that all writings are somehow intertwined with each other. Some writers can be up front with their connections to other works and some writers may not even realize the connection. -An Archetype is a certain component in literature that just catches on and sticks. And unlike a cliché that gets tired with repetition an archetype gains strength with each installment. It allows the reader to see something they recognize and give them that Aha! moment.

From Kayla Duffy - Seasons have an affect on not only the setting but is often to help the mood of the characters in literature. - Seasons help also by giving the feel of the author or his or her emotion to what he or she is descirbing. - In literature seasons are sometimes used as symbolism. -Summer normally represents: passion, love, adulthood, fufillment and romance. -Winter: anger, hatred, old age, resentment, and death. - Spring: childhood,and youth - Autumn: decline, middle age, tiredness and harvest
 * CHAPTER 20 .... So Does Seasons**


 * CHAPTER 21 Marked for Greatness**
 * characters who are famous which have a physical defect
 * ---Richard III: hunchback
 * ---Frankenstien (the monster): many of many parts deforming him
 * shapes of charactes tell us something about them
 * in reality physical defects/ markings mean nothing
 * ---when put into literature they say a great deal aobut the character
 * ex) Scoliosis = scoliosis
 * scoliosis + Richard III = reason/ foreshadowing about his personal character
 * physical imperfection are symbolic
 * --- marks set the character apart from others (signifigance)
 * ex) Harry Potter
 * Oedipus the king
 * ---oepdepus = wounded foot = wounded foot the king
 * --- summary: in an attepmt to avoid the dreaful prophecy king and queen BIND THEIR BABY'S FEET and leave him stranded on a mountain INJURING HIS FEET. Assuming thier child is dead the mother marries a man with deformed feet going against a second prophecy about not marrying again and not marrying someone with damaged ankels/feet. you know the rest.
 * Ernest Hemingway
 * ---in reality Hemingway had a wound on his upper thigh in the book he moves it farther north creating sexual desire and frustration that his character can not act upon
 * an author cant give a man a limp in the second chapter then make him run in the 15th= ergo ALL LITERARY DEFECTS ARE CREATED FOR A REASON.
 * "now go figure out Harry Potter's scar"