How To Read Literature Like a Professor (Chapters 11-15)

Chapter 11

Violence is everywhere in literature. Authors can use violence to either symbolize a greater meaning or they can use it to thicken the plot. In Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes, which is about a school shooting, the violence is used to represent the power of friendship. Which is weird, yes, but it is true. Peter and Josie were the best of friends until Josie started dating Matt. She ignored Peter and did not bother to come to his rescue when he needed it. The book tells the story of the court cases after the shooting with several flashbacks. In the end we find out that Peter was not a lone shooter, when Josie had the chance to murder her boyfriend, who beat her, she did and Peter took the fall. Another form of violence is when someone just dies off such as in Forest Gump when his mother passes away of "The Cancer." Both examples had me teary eyed the first time I both read and saw them; however, they have different effects. The violence in 19 Minutes was built upon, and was not revealed until the very end. This made us realize the greater meaning lying within the story. In Forest Gump, his mother passing away was just used to keep the plot going.

Chapter 12

Since we have not started the class this year, I am choosing a book that I have read during my previous years. In It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, there is one pay phone in the hospital that is designated for patient use. This, in my opinion, is used to symbolize every patients want to be on the outside world. In the novel, no one is aloud to leave the hospital because it is a metal ward and the patients must stay until they are deemed ready to function in society. Each time the pay phone in mentioned there always a line of people eager to use it, some may want to call children, some may want cigarettes, and some may just want to call their mothers; but it has a greater meaning otherwise it would not be mentioned as much as it is.

Chapter 13

Again, we have not had anything assigned for us to read this year; however I can use a work that I have previously read. Foster clearly states that even though it may not be a political book, it is still, in fact, political. One prime example of the hinting of politics can be found in The Scarlet Letter. Early America was ran by the religious laws that the Puritan people believed in. Women like Hester Prynne, an unwed mother, were scorned and punished by being forced to wear the "scarlet A" as a regular reminder of their sin. In this setting, religious figures like Dimmesdale are put on a pedestal and treated with the utmost respect.

Chapter 14

Once again this is a question that takes me back to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan is looked upon as a Christ figure. Aslan meets almost all of the characteristics given on page 119. Though he was a lion and not a man he was a Christ figure that gave hope to all of those who followed him, he was tempted by the White Witch, who we could conceive as the devil and was crucified and rose again only to save the people of Narnia and lead the children and other to victory against the White Witch.

Chapter 15

For this question, I am going to reference a song. Martina McBride's Concrete Angel is a song that makes me cry and feel for the little children she is referring to. The song is about child about, which I thankfully can not relate to, but the topic still weighs on my heart. The song is about a little girls dreams giving her wings allowing her to flay to a place where people will love her. And that is very true, our dreams can take us places we would never be able to go. The little girl, in the end, is beaten to death and becomes an angle where she can escape the grasps of her parents and be free and be with God and other little children who will love her.