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Thomas C. Foster
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Thomas C. Foster
How to Use This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to assist you in the analysis of your summer reading assignment for AP English. As you are reading and annotating How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, you will be required to post your study guide responses for each chapter for a minimum of 25 posts. Additionally, you should try to avoid repeating your classmate's examples; therefore, those who wait to complete the blog assignment will have a more difficult time trying to find creative and original examples. If you do utilize the same example, you must expand and look at the work in a different perspective. Finally, you will need to respond to at least five other individuals' posts. Aim for 100-200 words per response for each post, depending on the type of question you are asked to answer. Focus on facts and specific details in the novel/movie rather than making judgments or summarizing. Pay attention to the movies/TV shows you are watching and think about novels you have read. These ideas will hopefully help everyone think outside the box and dig deeper. I'm looking for the WOW factor!
Blog Archive
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2009
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May
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- Introduction: How'd He Do That?
- Chapter 1 - Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It'...
- Chapter 2 - Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion
- Chapter 3 - Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
- Chapter 4 - If It's Square, It's a Sonnet
- Chapter 5 - Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?
- Chapter 6 - When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare ...
- Chapter 7 - ... Or the Bible
- Chapter 8 - Hanseldee and Greteldum
- Chapter 9 - It's Greek to Me
- Chapter 10 - It's More Than Just Rain or Snow
- Interlude - Does He Mean That
- Chapter 11 - ... More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: C...
- Chapter 12 - Is That a Symbol?
- Chapter 13 - It's All Political
- Chapter 14 - Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too
- Chapter 15 - Flights of Fancy
- Chapter 16 - It's All About Sex; Chapter 17 - ......
- Chapter 18 - If She Comes Up, It's Baptism
- Chapter 19 - Geography Matters...
- Chapter 20 - ... So Does Season
- Interlude - One Story
- Chapter 21 - Marked for Greatness
- Chapter 22 - He's Blind for a Reason, You Know; C...
- Chapter 25 - Don't Read with Your Eyes
- Chapter 26 - Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
- Chapter 27 - A Test Case
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May
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21 comments:
For my example of irony, i chose a short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle, "Greasy Lake". To start off, the title is quite contradictory since grease or oil doesn't mix with water from the lake. In addition to that, the irony in this story is abundant. The characters in the story are three seemingly "bad dudes", when in fact they are not what they seem. They have the whole appearance of being tough, but no real tough guy would drive around in mommy's car, and no real tough guys would run away in such a hurry when confronted. Instead i believe they acted like rebels in order to fit in because they were insecure about themselves. In fact the time of courtesy and winning ways was "out", and the time of being bad was "in". I guess the lake decided that its time to be sparkling was also "out" and that it was time to be bad as well. Now this is quite ironic when the figurative baptism of a morally filthy boy in a literally filthy lake results in the cleansing of the boy. It is also ironic how the dead body floating in the lake is present for the spiritual rebirth of our character. Death present at baptism in filthy water, at night none the less, is hardly something conventional. Also, when confronted, the narrator drops his keys, which if we remember from earlier chapters in our book could resemble male anatomy. So the narrator gets scared, loses his "manhood" (in the form of keys), and runs into the lake. Then when he rises from the lake he is more of a man then when he went in, quite ironically. When the boys learn their lesson and emerge from hiding as reborn people they simultaneously but separately decide that "being bad" is not for them. It's as if the car being beat up was like their image being transformed, but as long as the tires were in shape, they could make progress in their lives. This is seen when they turn down the exact offer they were searching for earlier. Just hours prior they could not have refused an offer from a girl in tight pants with drugs, but now they all unanimously decline. I bet it was striking to our narrator that these girls were looking for the late motorcyclist. Whatever he was mixed up in, which very well could have involved the girls with drugs, wound him up dead in the lake. So when the three boys decide not be bad and not to partake with the girls, they are in some way keeping themselves from ending up dead in the lake as well. In this way, their decision to not be bad, reflects the lake's slow progress to not be bad (by not housing 3 more bodies).
Ironic literature can be found everywhere. It seems like there is always something contradicting itself in different pieces. A piece of work that many would not find to contradict itself is the Bible. One of the commandments is “thy shall not kill.” Everyone that believes in Jesus and God is supposed to follow the ten commandments including this one. Well, in the Bible, many of the stories involve death. I’ll specifically use the wall of waves story. In this story, Moses is leading a bunch of people out of Egypt. The Egyptians were trying to follow them, so with God’s help, Moses parted the waters so that him and his followers could make it through safely. When the Egyptians try to come through, he lets the water crash in on them, killing them all. Very contradicting to what is supposed to be followed, and to what actually happens.
Sarah- True but Moses didn't write that commandment untill later in the desert, after the escape your talking about.
Chris- I was hoping that wasn't the case.
Ironies are one the most entertaining forms of literature. It is captivationg and intriguing to most readers. As Thomas Foster wrote, "Irony trumps everything" (235). In the book Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a fireman. A fireman had the duties of burning banished books people tried to hide in their homes. In fact, at 451 degress fahrenheit paper takes to flame. Montag's job in life was to rid the town of these rechet books. Ironically, Montag ends up trying to save the books. He flips from destroying to saving throughout the coarse of the book. The symbols for fire and water are also used to ironically symbolize this transformation. Fire is a harsh element usually realated to death. Fire is what Montag uses to destroy the books. Toward the end of the novel when he realizes he wants to save the books, he gets "baptized" in the river, meaning new life. The whole book is an irony from start to finish. I guess that's why I found it so entertaining.
Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of a Shrew,” is an ironic work because in the beginning Katherine is the hardheaded, stubborn one who refuses to listen to what other people want her to do. She rarely recognizes Petruchio as her husband and doesn’t ever listen to what he tries to tell her. She is described to us as a very opinionated and strong woman, which is a very good quality to have compared to all the other women during her time. Then, towards the end of the play, all the husbands have a bet on whose wife will come first when they call for them. Everyone tells a servant to call on their wives and none of the women come out, except for Katherine. Based on what we knew about Katherine before, we never would have expected her to come calling at all, let alone be the first to arrive. What’s even more ironic is she yells at the other women for not coming when their husbands called for them, when earlier she was telling them how wrong it was for them to come to their husbands every beck and call.
Though at first Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore seems quite silly, it is a very ironic, satirical, and interesting work. The title makes it very clear that this is the case. The combination of H.M.S. (his or her majesty’s ship) and pinafore (a little girl’s garment commonly worn as an apron) suggests that the commonly proud, honorable, and valiant crew and ship in the British Navy is rather the opposite, possesses qualities that are instead childish, shameful, and even cowardly, and among others, coy, apathetic, and indecisive at times. From the beginning, all the characters have their own ideas, as long as their actions follow suit with the British class system, or at least the thoughts and ideals of the highest ranking officer on board. For example, Captain Corcoran admits to the boatwoman Little Buttercup that her would return their affection if he were of a lower class. When Buttercup reveals her secret to all those on board, the social standing of the Captain and another sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, is reversed and they are free to be with their true loves. However, one has to ask, ‘If they were truly in love, why would they let the class system separate them?’ That’s just one part of the irony. Not only does that change, but the Corcoran becomes a simple sailor and Ralph becomes the captain of the ship. Does it sound like a healthy choice to have a new captain just because he is of a higher class? Yet, everyone goes along with it as if nothing had ever been different. The presence of Sir Joseph Porter, a naval man with no naval experience but of a much higher stature than anyone else aboard, makes everything else just as ironic. Because of him and his ideals, the characters of the play act differently just because a few words roll off his tongue. The captain’s daughter, Josephine, who loves Ralph, at first promises her father that she will not proclaim her love for him. Still, once Sir Joseph says that “love levels all ranks,” she is now determined to marry her love. Are these people insane and so crazy to go along like puppets on strings? Yes indeed, but it is surely not accidental that Gilbert and Sullivan used this irony or how the English people know what they want but act by class while doing nothing to change the system in order to make the play as comical and silly as it is and point fun at the class system, patriotism, and politics.
The most ironic work of literature I think I’ve ever read is The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. In this novel, there are five girls, all sisters, only one year apart from each other. Their names and ages are Cecilia (13), Lux (14), Bonnie (15), Mary (16), and Therese (17). Many people referred to them as the Lisbon girls (Lisbon is their last name) because they spent much of their time together and they were so close in age as well as resemblance. Many people didn’t see them as individuals, just a group of sisters. The girls were very sheltered by their parents (the mom more than anything), and therefore never got to go out. As time went on though the girls convinced their mother to let them have a birthday party for one of the sisters, and they were all allowed to invite friends over to their house. While this new change and new found freedom should have brought the girls some happiness, it did not for the youngest, Cecilia. Cecilia had already tried to kill herself once, but was saved by her mother who found her in a bathtub of blood in a nick of time. But on the night of the party, Cecilia succeeded in her mission by jumping off the roof onto the fence great iron gate/fence surrounding their house.
Shortly after Cecilia’s death, the remaining four girls were completely secluded from everything, including school. Their mother withdrew them from their schooling and thought home schooling would suffice. The girls were never allowed to leave the house, and the boys across the street from them began sending them messages to talk to them. The girls would reply and the boys thought they were forming a friendship with them. One night, the girls made plans to escape from their household with the boys help. When the night of the escape came, the boys met one girl outside with her things and were told to wait there for the others to come out while Lux went to get the car. The whole time the boys thought they were going to Florida with these girls, while the girls never had any intention of leaving. In worry the boys went to search the house for the girls. They found Bonnie, who had hung herself in the basement. They later learned Mary put her head in their kitchen oven, Therese overdosed on sleeping pills, and Lux let the engine of the car run in a closed garage with the windows of the vehicle down. They only one who survived was Mary, but she died days later in the hospital. All the while these boys thought they were leaving for Florida, the sisters planned on leaving the world completely.
The biggest theme in this novel is also loss of innocence. But being the girls are all virgins and very strictly confined to their home, some readers don’t realize that’s even a possible theme. The loss of innocence stems from their mother, who strips them of any right they have to know and experience the outside world. Part of growing up is becoming part of the world and making mistakes that you learn from as well as having a social life. Their mother was so desperate to keep control and shelter their innocence she didn’t realize she was quickly killing it. Instead of protecting it, their mother drove it straight out of them as her daughters became rebellious and desperate for a way out, permanently. The loss of innocence is also found in their deaths. They were all very young when they committed suicide.
For my example of irony I chose 1984 by George Orwell. The book is filled with irony from start to finish. Throughout the whole book every Party character is governed by the rule of double think. As Orwell writes "doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them". This is a wonderful example of irony because it is humanly impossible to grasp the meaning of this. Winston is surrounded by many ironic things such as when he goes to rent an apartment with Julia he believes that he is safe from harm’s way because he is in Prole territory. However he later finds out that the man renting them the room was a member of the thought police and the monitor was located behind the picture. When Winston was captured and thrown in jail he was physically torn apart by little food and hazardous condition this was used to help kill the rebellion inside him. However, the real test comes when he meets his fate in room 101. Here he is faced with his biggest fear: rats. They set up a face mask as to where the rats can attack his face, but before they release them Winston begins to speak of Big Brother and he once again becomes a loyal member of the party. The irony here is so strong due to the fact that he wanted to over throw the party just a few weeks before hand. Winston was worn down and broken. He become like every other member of the party, the very party he had hoped to destroy forever.
Lauren- I agree with how ironic 1984 is and especially agree with the connection you make to doublethink. Not only is it ironic that it is a principle that can not be completely grasped and acted upon, but I also think that it is ironic that it is a principle upheld by those who govern and control Oceania. You would think that the leaders and those who are of higher status in Oceania would be able to express, discuss, and apply their own ideas but under Big Brother and doublethink it is just the opposite. Those who are considered insignificant and have no power in the eyes of Big Brother and the Inner and Outer Party, the proles, actually have more power in thought and the mindset of true individuals. As we know, the proles don't follow Big Brother and the Party's ideas in their entirety. Still, by including this bit of irony in the work, Orwell is making this point oh so clear to the reader and part of the everlasting message and warning to those in future generations.
Talking about irony got me thinking of an ironic short story by W.W. Jacobs called The Monkey's Paw." This story contains many ironic details. Before Mr. White makes his three wishes, he states that he has everything he wants, so I found it ironic he wished for something when he has everything he wants. Readers would probably expect the three wishes to bring good luck because naturally humans think of wishes as giving a person their desire. In the story though, the outcome of the wishes is devastating. Mr. and Mrs. White's son dies at work, but that is how they got their money they wished for. Ironically, the wishes left them in greater sorrow than they were in before. After their son, Herbert, died, Mrs.White forced her husband to wish their son back to life. People might think if the wish comes true the son would come back to life and everything would go back to normal, but no. The son comes back as a monster. The wife ironically mentions how she would not be afraid of her own son whom she nursed. However, in the end, Mrs. White became terrified by her monster son. Readers imagine a loving father would never kill his own son, but unexpectedly Mr. White wished his son he loved dead. I find irony in stories, like this one, more interesting with their unexpected twists. Irony played a huge role in this little story.
Ironic literature is very popular, most likely because it is very interesting and entertaining. An example of an ironic piece of literature is the book The Secret Life of Bees. This book is ironic because of many reasons. At the beginning the young girl kills her mother on accident, therefore she knows nothing about her. Her father has no desire to tell her about her mother so she has to find out on her own. She only has a few of her mothers’ belongings that she had left behind. One of them is a picture of a black Mary, at the bottom of the picture there is a name of a town. She decides to runaway to this town called Tiburon. After arriving there she is welcomed into the home of the Boawrights. She spends weeks there before she finds the courage to ask August Boawright about her mother. After talking to August she learns that her mother had come from there and August herself had raised her. Her mother had lived in that very house and helped August just like she was doing now. Now how is that not ironic? Yes there was one clue that lead her there, but who would of known she would learn that much and follow in her mothers footsteps. She practically picked up where her mother had left off.
There is irony everywhere in literature and in movies. One example is from the book "To Kill a Mockingbird". Throughout the whole book Scout and Jim try to discover who Boo Radley is. They seem him as this evil, mysterious, and crazy person that could kill them if they got to close. So both of them are scared of him. But in the end of the novel Boo ends up saving there lives, from Bob Ewell who had tried to kill them both. If Boo had not been there then they both would have died. So instead of killing them like the kids thought he might do, he ended up saving their lives.
There are so many works that contain irony. The particular work I have chosen is the movie The Village. It is about a village which is seemingly set in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The people in the town aren't allowed to leave the town because there are creatures that reside in the woods. The main characters are Ivy, a young blind woman and her husband Luscious. Shortly after they get married Luscious is stabbed by a man with mental problems. His injuries force Ivy to seek the "towns" for medical supplies. Before she leaves the village elders tell her the creatures were only certain townspeople who wore costumes to prevent people from leaving. That is ironic because the monsters were supposed to be the enemy and dangerous when in reality they were just ordinary people in costumes. When the blind Ivy somehow makes it to the "towns" you discover that the movie is set in modern times and the village was formed by the elders who disliked modern life. This is ironic because the film is supposed to be set in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
There are many works of literature in which irony plays a role. Yet again I am going to use an example from the movie Goal. Santiago is extremely talented in soccer. He loves the game and wishes to play for Newcastle United when a former player notices his talent. This former player recommends that the team extend a try out to Santiago and they do. Santiago tells his father and grandmother of the news he has just received. His father doesn’t support him one bit, and refuses to let him go try out. His father thinks that since he had to have a hard life trying to provide for the family, that Santiago should do the same. He doesn’t care about what is best for Santiago. He even steals the money that Santiago has worked for and saved up to buy a plane ticket to Newcastle. Santiago eventually sneaks out with the help of his grandmother who gives him money for a plane ticket. He then tries out, and makes the team. He eventually makes it to Newcastle’s top team and becomes their star player. Back in the United States, his father eventually goes to watch one of his games on the television at a local bar. Shortly after, he dies of a heart attack. I think this is extremely ironic because just as soon as Santiago’s father is changing and realizing his mistake, he dies of a heart attack. He is changing in a good way, and something horrible happens to him. For the first time, he is doing something out of the good of his heart, and his heart stops. Plus, Santiago’s is becoming a supreme player and this happens and he has to leave the team for a while to go back to America. Just when everything started to go well for everyone and everyone was changing for the better, this horrible event happened and stopped all progress.
Best ironic book I’ve read? Twilight. Actually, Twilight is my favorite book (horrible movie) ever. After reading it eleven times, I’ve dissected it quite well. Around the 7th time I read it, I began to notice how ironic and bizarre the whole story is. When I think of the perfect place to live, it’s somewhere constantly sunny and lively. In the beginning of the book, Meyer makes the whole “moving to Forks” experience sound absolutely miserable. When Bella reaches Forks, Washington, she begins to fall in love with the town. Mostly, she’s falling in love with Edward but because Edward lives in Forks, she falls in love with the town too. When her mother talks about moving home, Bella instantly refuses. She would rather be in a town under constant clouds with a cold vampire than in an upbeat, sunny city with plenty of perfectly tanned, not to mention hot, guys.
The ironic literary work that I chose to look at is probably one that no one who is reading this post will have ever read (or even heard of before now). It’s called The Journey of Geable Lence, and the reason that I don’t think any of you have heard of it is because it hasn’t been published yet. I know the author (Nathan Blunt), and his nephew, who I am friends with, let me borrow his copy (one of the few currently in existence, though I’m trying to purchase one). It’s an amazing book. If you ever get a chance to read it, do so! Hopefully, Nathan will be able to convince the authors that first person for a novel isn’t always bad, and it will be published in the near future.
The basic setup for The Journey of Geable Lence is that Geable, for whom the story is named, dreams of being an adventurer. However, there are two problems. The first is that he’s stuck in a point in his adult life where he can’t change the course of his life to much (or so the reader would think). The second is that he’s delusional. Yeah, that’s right. It’s a first person point of view story and the narrator is delusional. One can tell that this will make for a fun set of events. (Anyways, back to Geable) Geable is the main source of irony in the story. He’ll meet someone, such as a boy who has gotten himself stuck under a wagon and whatever he registers the person as is who they are (since he’s the narrator). So when Geable goes to help this poor boy, his hand accidentally ends up inside Geable’s travelling satchel, and probably because of the pain this boy is in, he manages to get his hand wrapped around a jar of phosphorescent powder that has some magical qualities. Geable understandingly takes the jar back from the boy and puts it back in his satchel… Obviously, the boy is a pickpocket, which we as the readers can pick up on. Delusional old Geable, however, throws everything that we start associating with the thief out the window because when he first saw him, he was a boy lodged under a wagon who needed help. (Despite the fact that the boy complains of a broken leg, Geable suspects nothing when he runs away (without even a limp) at the sight of Geable’s travelling companion, who is a half-ogre half-giant (a race Blunt terms as a ‘moffter’). The countless incidents of irony in Geable’s story (a few of which that don’t actually deal with Geable, such as a cheerful person in an area that’s in a constant state of dismal weather with a slight chance of zombies (it’s a realm of the undead, Geable’s party goes to a few different dimensions)) can usually be looked at under different lights to mean different things. For example (reader thinking here): should I really believe this character because Geable does and this seems like an excellent place for reverse-reverse psychology? To put it plainly, Blunt likes messing with readers, and the reader has fun while it’s happening. This is a great book, and it’s a shame that Nathan can’t get it published. That, my friends, is irony.
In The Crucible, a man is fighting against his way of life, a sinful one. He is asked if he has signed a contract with the Devil, and refuses to have done anything with the Devil. Later, he is accused of witchcraft, which is considered the work of the Devil. His accusers try to make him sign a contract that he has worked for the Devil. By signing, he would be lying, therefore, wouldn't he be signing his soul to the Devil. Without signing, his actions would be considered acts of the Devil.
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