I will be the first to admit it: I never got past the first page of “A Tale of Two Cities,” nor did I care to even crack open “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” in high school. Despite choosing to take Honors English, AP Language and AP Literature, Sparknotes could be found lining the walls of my internet search history the night before any important in-class essay or quiz. On the first day of senior year, however, I decided it was time to lock in for AP Literature and Composition. The first assigned reading was the book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster.
Throughout the book, Foster walks through common literary symbols that appear across several forms of media (books, movies, TV shows) and what they mean. To Foster, everything is a symbol; objects, images, acts, and events hold meaning beyond their literal significance or existence within a text. In other words, the curtains are not just blue, if you know what I mean.
My favorite symbol I learned from the book is about literary characters falling into bodies of water or otherwise becoming drenched before re-emerging, typically surviving a near-death situation. To Foster, this submergence in water indicates a sort of rebirth akin to baptism where not only is the character still alive, but they are reborn. Foster pulls from Judith Guest’s “Ordinary People” where lead character Conrad survives a storm while sailing but his brother does not. As a result, Conrad is forever altered by this traumatic experience and is thus “reborn” into a new version of himself.Â
Coincidentally, I had also just started watching “Grey’s Anatomy” during the fall of my senior year. In Season 3, episodes 16 and 17, the titular character, Meredith Grey, purposely drowns, leading to a phantasmal sequence of scenes where she interacts with other deceased characters within the hospital.Â
In the real world, Meredith’s body is swarmed by her surgical intern friends and other healthcare colleagues. Back in the spectral fantasy world, Meredith comes face to face with her deceased mother, Ellis. The two embrace each other while Ellis tells Meredith that she should not be there and that she needs to run back to the living world. Meredith is then resuscitated and brought back to life.
A lot of this can connect back to Foster’s ideas. Meredith drowns, interacts with ghosts and comes back to the living world as a changed person. It was not a baptism in the sense that she was in a bathtub at a megachurch, but rather in the sense that she was reborn with a new perspective on the world around her.
The best thing about “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” is that you, the reader and consumer of media, can dive as deep into the symbolism as you want. Foster emphasizes throughout the book that his interpretations are not the standard but the pattern. Foster’s text has enhanced my ability to understand the intention of the media presented to me.Â
He references literary greats like William Shakespeare and acknowledges the significance of Biblical stories on English literature. Chapters 2 and 3 titled “Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion” and “Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires” respectively connect to “Tom Jones” and the Twilight saga. Although I have not read every piece of media referenced throughout the book, I am still able to understand and recognize the intention and symbolism behind each idea that Foster introduces thanks to his great detail and care in explaining each archetype.
As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about every interaction and piece of media I have ever consumed, this book has greatly impacted how I interpret and view the imagery that appears in my everyday life. Movies like My Old Ass (2024) and Saltburn (2023) are rich with symbolism that Foster brings up. Even in my sappy Emily Henry reads I can find a trope or two!
Thank goodness I decided to read at least one book cover-to-cover at the start of my senior year slump; my intertextual literacy and desire to continue learning are infinitely better for it.