Familiar Scenarios
When a character goes on a journey and comes back changed, Foster would call it this...
What is a Quest or Hero's Journey?
The name we use for patterns and references in literature
What is allusion?
This season is most often used to symbolize new beginnings, growth, or emotional rebirth.
What is Spring?
If your essay/paper only summarizes without taking a position it is missing this crucial component:
What is an argument or claim?
This recurring image in Sticks becomes meaningful to the narrator only after his father's death. It symbolizes all the things left unsaid.
It is not uncommon for characters who sacrifice for others or are misunderstood to be seen as this figure
Who is Jesus/Christ Figure?
This is the most Widely read and alluded to text in Western Literature
The Bible
Every claim (thesis) needs these three things:
What are the Author's name, the title of the work, and a defensible argument/claim?
In Girl the mother's voice delivers instructions which reinforce...
What is gender roles, generational control, societal expectations, or patriarchy?
Pushing past one's bounds or proverbially "flying too close to the sun" suggests this mythological figure.
Who is Icarus?
The term critics use to refer to the dialogue between old texts and new. For example: The Lion King echoes Hamlet, or some modern poems borrow imagery from The Bible.
What is Intertextuality?
If a symbol represents only one thing, it is not a symbol but a...
What is a metaphor?
You, me, my, and I have this in common..
What are personal pronouns, which should not be used in academic writing?
This literary technique is used by Kafka when he replaces the hunger artist with the panther in order to emphasize the qualities of each.
A journey south or through a forest, cave, or tunnel is often symbolic of this type of experience
What is a journey into one's self, subconscious, transformation?
Why might a character choose to allude to a fairy tale instead of Shakespeare?
What is audience familiarity?
The real, symbolic reason for a quest is always...
What is Self-Discovery?
Never drop a quote in your writing without first offering this, otherwise it feels as if it is dropped from space.
What is context, introducing the speaker or situation?
After offering his profession, the automated police car in Bradbury's "The Pedestrian", what does the car say to Leonard?
"No Profession"
What are the five components of a Quest?
a quester
a place to go
a stated reason for going
challenges/trials
a real reason for going
According to Foster, characters are not completely original because they are built from these.
What is Archetype?
In "The Pedestrian" Bradbury uses ________ symbolism to represent the impeding fall of humanity.
what is death / winter symbolism?
These are three qualities of academic writing (only 3 needed)
What is formal, objective, concise, clear, specific/precise, defensible/arguable, without personal pronouns?
Each narrator in "Sticks" "Invisible Fish," and "Girl" reveals their story in a different and unique way; through restraint, memory, or command. This narrative choice shapes how we understand the character's internal lives, a technique known as..
What is Narrative Perspective/Point of View/Complex Point of View