Analysis Of How To Read Literature Like A Professor By Thomas Foster

Reading the book How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster helps the reader see books in a whole new light. Throughout the book, the reader progresses through a series of steps that demonstrate depth and symbolism. Foster focuses on presenting the reader with the idea that there are themes, patterns, symbols and many more literary techniques that inexperienced readers might miss initially. Re-reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and analyzing it by Foster’s book helps the reader know what to recognize and analyze. The setting is based on Lennie Smalls and George Milton move to Soledad, California, to find a job and new beginning. The main characters, Lennie Smalls and George Milton, depend on each other for success in

A quest involves five parts “A quester, A place to go, stated reason to go there, trials and challenges in route and the real reason to go there.” ( page 43). Lennie is the questor and is determined to own his own farm with George and to tend bunny rabbits to find true happiness. Lennie is challenged by his mental slowness. Because of this obstacle, he makes a detrimental mistake that ultimately leads to his downfall. The bunnies are a symbol for self-sufficiency which Lennie so desperately tries to achieve; however, they ultimately turn into false hope. Even though Lennie does not make it to his dream farm physically, he teaches us the lesson that sometimes dreams are not meant to be attained, but they are still meant to be pursued and strived

Even though the river symbolizes a safe haven, George finds Lennie hiding at the river and knows he will be locked up for murder or brutally killed. George does the only thing he can for his friend, Lennie, with no judgement or anger. George kills Lennie, so he can finally live the dream of tending to rabbits. Foster draws on the idea that in Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain that an escaped slave Jim uses the river to escape to freedom; however, it carries him deeper into slave territory. Compared to Lenny in Of Mice and Men , Jim believed the river would be his escape; however, it ultimately plunged him deeper into his downfall. Also, Foster says, “the river raft provides the platform on which Huck a white boy, can get to know Jim not as a slave, but as a man.” (252). Connections to Of Mice and Men can be made and drawn comparisons to Twain's book. George didn’t just see Lennie as a murderer or monster, but knew him on a personal level, just as Huck didn't see Jim as a slave, but as a person and