1. How to Read A Separate Peace Like a Professor
An Introduction
to Thomas C. Foster’s
How to Read Literature Like a Professor

2. Intertextuality
There is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature: Stories grow out of other stories, poems out of other poems.

3. Intertextuality
There is only ONE story--of humanity and human nature, endlessly repeated.

4. Intertextuality
“Intertextuality”-recognizing the connections between one story and another deepens our appreciation and experience, brings multiple layers of meaning to the ext, which we may not be conscious of. The more consciously aware we are, the more alive the text becomes to us.

5. Intextuality If you don’t recognize the correspondences, it’s okay.
If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won’t save it.

6. The Journey/Quest A quester A place to go A stated reason to go there
Challenges and trials
The real reason to go --always self-knowledge

7. Gene’s Journey The Quester = Gene
“I went back to the Devon School, not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before” (9).
The place to go= “There were a couple of places now which I wanted to see” (10).

8. Gene’s Journey A stated reason:
“ Both were fearful sites, and that was why I wanted to see them” (10).
Challenges and trial:
As you read, think about the challenges that Gene encountered on his journey.
The real reason is self-knowledge:
What does Gene specifically learn about himself?

9. Symbolism Yes! But figuring out what, is tricky!
Can only discuss possible meanings and interpretations.
There is no one definite meaning unless it’s an allegory, where characters, events, places have a one-on-one correspondence symbolically to other things (Animal Farm).

10. Symbolism
Actions, as well as objects and images, can be symbolic. (See Symbols and Archetype Packets)
How to figure it out? Symbols are built on associations readers have, but also on emotional reactions.
Pay attention to how you feel about a text.

11. The Novel’s Key Symbols
The tree
The Devon School
Summer
Fall
Finny’s pink shirt
The rivers
Winter Carnival
Finny
The Iliad

12. Biblical Allusions
Before the 20th century, writers could count on people being very familiar with Biblical stories, a common touchstone a writer can tap.

13. Biblical Allusions Garden of Eden David & Goliath Jonah and the Whale
Job
The Flood
Christ Figures
The Apocalypse
Biblical Names
(See Biblical Allusions handout)

14. Knowles’s Biblical Allusions
As you read and review the novel, look for and analyze the following allusions:
The Garden of Eden (the tree of knowledge and the loss of innocence)
Cain and Abel (jealousy and envy)
Lazarus (resurrection)
Jesus, Judas, and Pontius Pilate (betrayal)

15. Christ Figure Characteristics of a Christ Figure: Good with children
Crucified; wounds in hands, feet, side and hear, often portrayed with arms outstretched.
In agony
Self-sacrificing
Good with children
Good with loaves, fishes, water and wine
33 years of age when last seen

16. Christ Figure Employed as a carpenter
Known to use humble modes of transportation; feet or donkeys preferred
Believed to have walked on water.
Known to have spent time alone in the wilderness
Believed to have had a confrontation with the devil; possibly tempted.
Last seen in the company of thieves.

17. Christ Figure As a reader, you must put aside your belief system.
Why use Christ figures?
It deepens our sense of a character’s sacrifice.
Thematically, it has to do with redemption, hope, or miracles.
If used ironically, makes the character look smaller rather than greater.

18. Phineas as Christ Figure
Consider Foster’s list of Christ figure characteristics and trace the similarities Finny has with Christ.
What idea is Knowles emphasizing by comparing Finny to Christ?

19. Baptism Baptism is symbolic death and rebirth as a new individual.
Drowning is symbolic baptism. If the character comes back up, he/she is symbolically reborn; drowning on purpose can also represent a form of rebirth--a choosing to enter a new, different life and leaving behind an old one.

20. Baptism
Traveling on water (rivers, oceans) can symbolically represent baptism
Rivers can also represent the River Styx, the mythological river separating the world from the Underworld, another form of transformation passing from life to death.

21. If He Jumps into a River, It’s Baptism
Review the following chapters:
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 6/7
Who jumps?
Why?
Which river?
Significance?

22. Weather Fertility and life Noah and the flood
Drowning- one of our deepest fears

23. Weather Why? Plot device Atmosphere
Misery factor-challenges the characters
Democratic element- the rain falls on everyone

24. Weather Symbolically:
Rain is clean- a form of purification, baptism, removing sin or a stain
Rain is restorative- can bring a dying earth back to life
Destructive as well- causes pneumonia, colds; hurricanes, etc.

25. Weather
Rainbow- God’s promise never to destroy the world again; hope; a promise of peace between heaven and earth
Fog- almost always signals uncertainty/ confusion: mental, ethical, physical “fog”; people can’t see clearly

26. Weather Snow Negatively: cold, stark, inhospitable, nothingness, death
Positively: clean, pure, playful

27. What’s the Devon School Weather Report?
Re-read pg , beginning at “It was a raw, nondescript time of year…” to “anybody could see it was time to come in out of the rain.”
What details about the weather does Knowles reveal?
How does the weather contribute to the tone of the novel?
What is the thematic significance of the weather at the beginning of the novel?

28. Seasons Spring = Youth Fertility Life Happiness Growth
Resurrection (think Easter)

29. Seasons
Summer
Young adulthood
Freedom from restrictions
Playfulness

30. Seasons Fall Middle Age Harvest Reaping what we sow
Rewards and Punishment

31. Seasons
Winter
Old Age/Death
Hibernation
Lack of growth
Punishment

32. Knowles’s Reasons for Seasons
Why does the novel opens in the fall?
“Toward the end of November, the kind of wet, self-pitying November day when every speck of dirt stands out clearly” (10).

33. Knowles’s Reasons for Seasons
Why does Knowles begin the flashback in summer?
“For this was the Summer Session, just established to keep up with the pace of the war. We were in shaky transit that summer from groveling Lower Middlers to the near-respectability of Upper Middlers” (15).

34. Knowles’s Reasons for Seasons
The Winter Session begins after Finny’s fall:
“Peace had deserted Devon…Fall had barely touched the full slendor of the trees, and during the height of the day the sun briefly regained its summertime power. In the air there was only an edge of coolness to imply the coming winter. For all had been caught up, like the first fallen leaves, by a new and energetic wind”(72).

35. Heart Break Heart Disease Equals… Bad Love Loneliness Cruelty
Disloyalty
Cowardice
Lack of Determination

36. Heart of the Matter
*Be on the look out for any characters who experience literal and/or metaphoric heart troubles.