How to Read Literature like a Professor
chapter summaries UPDATED Actual
Exam Questions and CORRECT Answers
Chapter 1 - Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)
+ the 5 steps of a quest - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- - (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a
stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there
- the quester usually fails at the stated task
-real reason for quest is self-knowldge
Chapter 2 - Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -
whenever people eat or drink together its communion (not all are holy)
Chapter 3 - Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -vampriers
symbiolize fear of sexuality
- an older figure representing corrupt, outworn values; a young, preferably virginal female; a
stripping away of her youth, energy, virtue; a continuance of the life force of the old male; the
death or destruction of the young woman
Chapter 4 - Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before? - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -there is
only one story, with the same types of characters (intertextuality) --> deepens and enriches
the reading experience, bringing multiple layers of meaning to the text, some of which
readers may not even consciously notice
Chapter 5 - When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -we see the
implications for the new work, while at the same time we reconfigure our thinking, if only
slightly, about the earlier one
Chapter 6 - ... Or the Bible - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -when in doubt ... it could be a
biblical reference
-illustrate a disparity or disruption
Chapter 7 - Hanseldee and Greteldum - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -to make us see the
sexism inherent in those stories and, by extension, in the culture that embraced them
, -we want strangeness in our stories, but we want familiarity, too
Chapter 8 - It's Greek to Me - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -honestly idk
Chapter 9 - It's More Than Just Rain or Snow - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- 1. plot device:
forces people together
2. atmospherics: changes how you see an action in the novel
3. misery factor: makes the characters work harder because the conditions are so miserbale
4. democratic element: rain falls on the just and unjust alike
Chapter 10 - Never Stand Next to the Hero - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -the most important
thing that characters can do is change—grow, develop, learn, mature
-the actions of a single man and their impact on thousands
-characters are not people
-Characters are products of writers' imaginations—and readers' imaginations
Chapter 10 (continued) Why are characters not round? - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- Focus-
not all characters have the same complexity; don't want to be more confused than necessary
Intensity of labor- it's hard for the author to write a full back-story for each character
Confusion of purpose- flat characters are easier to know based on their attempt and narrative
purpose (ex. villain)
Just consider length- if every character was complex, the novel would be so long
Chapter 11 - ... More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence - CORRECT
ANSWER✔✔- -Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human
beings
-2 categories of violence
(1) Violence that characters enact upon one another
(2) Harmful events that happen to characters in order to advance the plot
Chapter 12 - Is That a Symbol? - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -a symbol can't be reduced to
standing for only one thing. If they can, it's not symbolism, it's allegory. Here's how allegory
works: things stand for other things on a one-for-one basis
chapter summaries UPDATED Actual
Exam Questions and CORRECT Answers
Chapter 1 - Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)
+ the 5 steps of a quest - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- - (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a
stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there
- the quester usually fails at the stated task
-real reason for quest is self-knowldge
Chapter 2 - Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -
whenever people eat or drink together its communion (not all are holy)
Chapter 3 - Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -vampriers
symbiolize fear of sexuality
- an older figure representing corrupt, outworn values; a young, preferably virginal female; a
stripping away of her youth, energy, virtue; a continuance of the life force of the old male; the
death or destruction of the young woman
Chapter 4 - Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before? - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -there is
only one story, with the same types of characters (intertextuality) --> deepens and enriches
the reading experience, bringing multiple layers of meaning to the text, some of which
readers may not even consciously notice
Chapter 5 - When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -we see the
implications for the new work, while at the same time we reconfigure our thinking, if only
slightly, about the earlier one
Chapter 6 - ... Or the Bible - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -when in doubt ... it could be a
biblical reference
-illustrate a disparity or disruption
Chapter 7 - Hanseldee and Greteldum - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -to make us see the
sexism inherent in those stories and, by extension, in the culture that embraced them
, -we want strangeness in our stories, but we want familiarity, too
Chapter 8 - It's Greek to Me - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -honestly idk
Chapter 9 - It's More Than Just Rain or Snow - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- 1. plot device:
forces people together
2. atmospherics: changes how you see an action in the novel
3. misery factor: makes the characters work harder because the conditions are so miserbale
4. democratic element: rain falls on the just and unjust alike
Chapter 10 - Never Stand Next to the Hero - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -the most important
thing that characters can do is change—grow, develop, learn, mature
-the actions of a single man and their impact on thousands
-characters are not people
-Characters are products of writers' imaginations—and readers' imaginations
Chapter 10 (continued) Why are characters not round? - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- Focus-
not all characters have the same complexity; don't want to be more confused than necessary
Intensity of labor- it's hard for the author to write a full back-story for each character
Confusion of purpose- flat characters are easier to know based on their attempt and narrative
purpose (ex. villain)
Just consider length- if every character was complex, the novel would be so long
Chapter 11 - ... More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence - CORRECT
ANSWER✔✔- -Violence is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human
beings
-2 categories of violence
(1) Violence that characters enact upon one another
(2) Harmful events that happen to characters in order to advance the plot
Chapter 12 - Is That a Symbol? - CORRECT ANSWER✔✔- -a symbol can't be reduced to
standing for only one thing. If they can, it's not symbolism, it's allegory. Here's how allegory
works: things stand for other things on a one-for-one basis
