Chapter 23 -Literature

In this chapter "It's Never Just Heart Disease..." I used the short story "The Sisters" by James Joyce to draw parallels and compare. In this chapter Foster again talks about the meaning behind things such as disabilities and physical appearances. Although in this chapter he talks about hears disease. One could easily imagine what the literary diagnosis for heart disease is, and no it's not the medical diagnosis. Most authors symbolize a heart attach or heart disease with problems that the character had recently faced before the incident. Foster says that things like cruelty, disloyalty, and lack of determination could all be causes to "heart disease". This short story isn't particularly on Heart Disease although it does include Foster's idea that the non-medical diagnosis is not always the only reason for having the medical problem in the minds of most authors. Authors take a more literal view of the medical problem and will "diagnose" the character with the disease or problem just so the characters problems will all surface, just indirectly.

Chapter 22 - Literature

For this Chapter, "He's Blind for a Reason You Know" I used the short story "Araby" by James Joyce to draw parallels and refer to. In this Chapter Foster discusses blindness. Psychological, moral, blindness, theses all somewhat refer to lack of common sense and lack of the ability to understand a major part of life. Although being blind in the ares of reality, love and truth, are more on the topic of the short story I read. "Araby" by James Joyce. In this story, the main character, who is unnamed, is in "love" with his friend Mangan's sister. He is completely wrapped up in this girl, just the tough of speaking to her makes him dizzy. At one point in the novel he ends up going to a bazaar to get her something as she had asked, because of already making plans with her school. He is put behind because of his dad being late to take him to the train. As soon as he arrives the bazaar is closing down and the shop he stopped at right before it closed seemed incontinent with his presence. This character was blinded by love, he simply stops and gives up as soon as he cant fulfill her very wish, instead of getting back up and thinking of a way to make it up to her. Love had him so wrapped up that he couldn't even use his reasoning skills to figure his problem out, thus to say he was blinded by love.

Chapter 21 - Fosters Ideas

"Things have changed pretty dramatically in terms of equating scars or deformities with moral shortcomings or divine displeasure, but in literature we continue to understand physical imperfection in symbolic terms. it has to do with being different, really."

- In this Chapter, "Marked for Greatness" Foster discusses characters like the Quasimodo ans Harry Potter, why both have something skewed about their physical appearance. What Foster proves to the reader is that this is normally not just a fluke. The author typically will portray a character with a physical fault or disability not just to add diversity to their set of character, but instead to add something to the story, either involving their character or something about their role in to story, but this is rarely just for the heck of it. Foster says that by doing this the author is tyring to make a point about the character that he or she wont just say, but instead it is up to the reader to interpret the signs and figure out what the author is symbolizing by giving his character a hunchback or one leg drastically shorter than the other. From this chapter I have figured out that the author communicates to the reader by sending messages like this for the reader to pick up on. It's almost as though he is providing you with a more in depth view of the novel, to benefit you reading experience with out even telling you directly.

Chapter 20 -Foster's Ideas

"For about as long as any one's been writing anything, the seasons have stood for the same set of meanings. Maybe it's hard-wired into us that spring has to do with childhood ans youth, summer with adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion, autumn with decline and middle age and tiredness..."

- In this chapter "...So does Season", Foster draws on the fact that seasons have a large role in writing today. They aren't just being addressed as that certain time of the year, but they are serving as symbols to different emotions, and surprisingly most human beings have around the same set of emotions correlating with the same season. One point that he mentions stuck out strongly to me, he says that this idea of the seasons that most human beings have is so "deeply ingrained in our cultural experiences" that we don't even have to think twice about a symbol involving seasons. From this chapter I gained the idea that, the way we live our lives and our common beliefs on ordinary things, effect how we understand literature immensely. Though of course the opinions and thoughts of some seasons might differ slightly from person to person depending on them, but for the most part we share a common belief on the emotions that correlate with certain seasons.

Chapter 18 -Fosters Ideas

"So maybe on some level tossing characters into the river is (a) wish fulfillment, (b) exorcism of primal fear, (c) exploration of the possible, and not just (d) a handy solution to messy plot difficulties"

- In this chapter "If She Comes Up, Its Baptism", Foster discusses the role that water mainly people struggling in water, and the role it will play or not play in a novel. Foster discusses multiple aspects of the situation and discusses the meanings of most of them. The aspects he looks at are, does he drown and die or does he come to his feet, does someone rescue him. These things all are symbolic for something. Foster then discusses the idea the a character being submerged into the water is like Baptism. He says that the pattern he sees is that when a character is close to drowning but survives, the reader will typically see a change in character. Rebirth. This could mean that the character had things he need to change about himself, and by having a near death experience it opened his eyes and changed his overall as a person. Foster also says that just because a character goes under the water doesn't necessarily mean that he or she has been baptized and will now be a new person. Throughout this chapter, i have come to realize the importance of stepping back and not just seeing the situation but taking my prior knowledge and gaining new thoughts by drawing parallels and reading for information that i have already some background on.

Chapter 14 - Fosters Ideas

"Why, you might ask, are there Christ Figures? As with most other cases we've looked at where the work engages some prior text, the short answer is that probably the writer wants to make a certain point. Perhaps the parallel deepens our sense of the characters sacrifice..."

- In this chapter "Yes, She's a Christ Figure, Too", Foster discusses that due to the Christian bases "upraising" that our country has under went, It is important to understand the basics of Christianity, for understanding and interpreting literature, although this is not to say that every person you see walking the street in the United States id Christian and practices Christianity. Foster then goes into the Christ Figure idea, He literally lists believed characteristics of Jesus Christ. Foster later goes on to explain that this list of characteristics isn't to find the most godly people, but instead to give a list of references to a reader who can pull characteristics of Christ and compare them the the character they are reading about. Foster says that this could be to see the characters generosity levels, or their level sacrifice. Overall these "Christ Figures" are those who may share a few characteristics with the list Foster used early on in the chapter, This doesn't mean that they are exact replicas of Christ. I have drawn a conclusion that these characteristics are used as symbols to draws ones focus to Christianity.

Chapter 12 -Literature

For this chapter, "Is that a Symbol", I used a Poem by Langston Hughes, "Island" to draw parallels and compare with. This chapter discusses the difficulty of figuring out a hidden symbol inside a novel. Although despite how hard that reader might find this task, Foster says that this task is never only right or wrong. Instead interpreting a symbol could conclude differently depending on the person. The Poem I read "Island" by Langston Hughes is based about a boat's weary journey, that has almost has ended. It is literally right in front of them. In this poem Hughes symbolizes their long and risky journey with the "wave of sorrow", its as if this one wave could destroy their whole journey or take them directly to their destination, or in other words "make or break them". In this case the symbol is somewhat easy to judge, although someone else could have though that it was symbolizing a doubtful future on their destined island. I learned from this chapter that as long as you let your imagination go and use a well thought out process in order to determine the true meaning of symbols and what they are symbolizing than you cant go wrong. Unless, of course, it is an allegory, where in that case the symbol was designed to only have one meaning. So instead of stressing about misinterpreting a symbol a reader should let themselves analyze the writing and determine what, in their mind, is the correct interpretation of the symbol.