how to read a separate peace like a professor an introduction to thomas c. foster’s how to read...

How to Read A Separate Peace Like a Professor

An Introduction

to Thomas C. Foster’s

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

Intertextuality

• There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature: Stories grow out of other stories, poems out of other poems.

Intertextuality

• There is only ONE story--of humanity and human nature, endlessly repeated.

Intertextuality

• “Intertextuality”-recognizing the connections between one story and another deepens our appreciation and experience, brings multiple layers of meaning to the ext, which we may not be conscious of. The more consciously aware we are, the more alive the text becomes to us.

Intextuality

• If you don’t recognize the correspondences, it’s okay.

• If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won’t save it.

The Journey/Quest

• A quester

• A place to go

• A stated reason to go there

• Challenges and trials

• The real reason to go --always self-knowledge

Gene’s Journey

• The Quester = Gene

“I went back to the Devon School, not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before” (9).

• The place to go= “There were a couple of places now which I wanted to see” (10).

Gene’s Journey• A stated reason:

“ Both were fearful sites, and that was why I wanted to see them” (10).

• Challenges and trial:

As you read, think about the challenges that Gene encountered on his journey.

• The real reason is self-knowledge:

What does Gene specifically learn about himself?

Symbolism

• Yes! But figuring out what, is tricky!

• Can only discuss possible meanings and interpretations.

• There is no one definite meaning unless it’s an allegory, where characters, events, places have a one-on-one correspondence symbolically to other things (Animal Farm).

Symbolism

• Actions, as well as objects and images, can be symbolic. (See Symbols and Archetype Packets)

• How to figure it out? Symbols are built on associations readers have, but also on emotional reactions.

• Pay attention to how you feel about a text.

The Novel’s Key Symbols

• The tree• The Devon School• Summer• Fall• Finny’s pink shirt• The rivers• Winter Carnival• Finny• The Iliad

Biblical Allusions

• Before the 20th century, writers could count on people being very familiar with Biblical stories, a common touchstone a writer can tap.

Biblical Allusions

• Garden of Eden• David & Goliath• Jonah and the Whale• Job• The Flood• Christ Figures• The Apocalypse• Biblical Names• (See Biblical Allusions handout)

Knowles’s Biblical Allusions

As you read and review the novel, look for and analyze the following allusions:

• The Garden of Eden (the tree of knowledge and the loss of innocence)

• Cain and Abel (jealousy and envy)• Lazarus (resurrection)• Jesus, Judas, and Pontius Pilate (betrayal)

Christ Figure

Characteristics of a Christ Figure:

• Crucified; wounds in hands, feet, side and hear, often portrayed with arms outstretched.

• In agony• Self-sacrificing

• Good with children• Good with loaves,

fishes, water and wine

• 33 years of age when last seen

Christ Figure

• Employed as a carpenter

• Known to use humble modes of transportation; feet or donkeys preferred

• Believed to have walked on water.

• Known to have spent time alone in the wilderness

• Believed to have had a confrontation with the devil; possibly tempted.

• Last seen in the company of thieves.

Christ Figure

• As a reader, you must put aside your belief system.

Why use Christ figures?• It deepens our sense of a

character’s sacrifice.• Thematically, it has to do

with redemption, hope, or miracles.

• If used ironically, makes the character look smaller rather than greater.

Phineas as Christ Figure

• Consider Foster’s list of Christ figure characteristics and trace the similarities Finny has with Christ.

• What idea is Knowles emphasizing by comparing Finny to Christ?

Baptism

• Baptism is symbolic death and rebirth as a new individual.

• Drowning is symbolic baptism. If the character comes back up, he/she is symbolically reborn; drowning on purpose can also represent a form of rebirth--a choosing to enter a new, different life and leaving behind an old one.

Baptism

• Traveling on water (rivers, oceans) can symbolically represent baptism

• Rivers can also represent the River Styx, the mythological river separating the world from the Underworld, another form of transformation passing from life to death.

If He Jumps into a River, It’s Baptism

Review the following chapters:Chapter 2Chapter 4Chapter 6/7

ØWho jumps? ØWhy?ØWhich river? ØSignificance?

Weather

• Fertility and life

• Noah and the flood

• Drowning- one of our deepest fears

Weather

Why?

• Plot device

• Atmosphere

• Misery factor-challenges the characters

• Democratic element- the rain falls on everyone

Weather

Symbolically:• Rain is clean- a form of purification, baptism,

removing sin or a stain• Rain is restorative- can bring a dying earth back

to life • Destructive as well- causes pneumonia, colds;

hurricanes, etc.

Weather

• Rainbow- God’s promise never to destroy the world again; hope; a promise of peace between heaven and earth

• Fog- almost always signals uncertainty/ confusion: mental, ethical, physical “fog”; people can’t see clearly

Weather

Snow

• Negatively: cold, stark, inhospitable, nothingness, death

• Positively: clean, pure, playful

What’s the Devon School Weather Report?

Re-read pg. 10- 14, beginning at “It was a raw, nondescript time of year…” to “anybody could see it was time to come in out of the rain.”– What details about the weather does Knowles

reveal?– How does the weather contribute to the tone

of the novel?– What is the thematic significance of the

weather at the beginning of the novel?

Seasons

Spring = Youth• Fertility

• Life

• Happiness

• Growth

• Resurrection (think Easter)

Seasons

Summer• Young adulthood

• Freedom from restrictions

• Playfulness

Seasons

Fall• Middle Age

• Harvest

• Reaping what we sow

• Rewards and Punishment

Seasons

Winter• Old Age/Death

• Hibernation

• Lack of growth

• Punishment

Knowles’s Reasons for Seasons

• Why does the novel opens in the fall?

“Toward the end of November, the kind of wet, self-pitying November day when every speck of dirt stands out clearly” (10).

Knowles’s Reasons for Seasons

• Why does Knowles begin the flashback in summer?

“For this was the Summer Session, just established to keep up with the pace of the war. We were in shaky transit that summer from groveling Lower Middlers to the near-respectability of Upper Middlers” (15).

Knowles’s Reasons for Seasons

The Winter Session begins after Finny’s fall:“Peace had deserted Devon…Fall had barely touched the full slendor of the trees, and during the height of the day the sun briefly regained its summertime power. In the air there was only an edge of coolness to imply the coming winter. For all had been caught up, like the first fallen leaves, by a new and energetic wind”(72).

Heart Break

Heart Disease Equals…• Bad Love• Loneliness• Cruelty• Disloyalty• Cowardice• Lack of Determination

Heart of the Matter

*Be on the look out for any characters who experience literal and/or metaphoric heart troubles.