1. Chapter 21: Marked For Greatness Dillon Junkin 9/28/11 Geach 6

2. In many stories of classic literature, and some of the more popular and current books today, you will find that many main or major characters will have a certain physical feature or deformity that is just as famous as the character him/herself. It’s almost as if the character could not exist without this trait. These different physical traits express a certain quality of the character (perhaps their actions, past, etc.). “Their shapes tell us something, and probably very different somethings, about them or other people in the story” (Foster 193).

3. The character, Richard III, who suffers from scoliosis, is described to be “…as morally and spiritually twisted as his back” (Foster 194). In this piece, Richard III’s scoliosis seems to reflect his moral and character deformity.

4. “Vladimir Propp, in his landmark study of folktales back in the 1920’s, Morphology of the Folktale, separates the story of the folk quester into 30 or so separate steps. One of the initial steps is that the hero is marked in some way. He may be scarred or lamed or wounded or painted or born with a short leg, but he bears some mark that sets him apart” (Foster 194). One example of this would be Harry Potter’s scar. The reader should ask not only how did he get it or what does it look like, but what does it represent?

5. Authors can use different physical traits to give different meanings throughout the story. They can use these to connect the story together. In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, the Fisher King (Jake Barnes), exhibits an injury to his “man area”. This makes him right for the role, as this story refers to “…the struggle to restore fertility” (Foster 197) after his society had been rendered barren--spiritually, morally, intellectually, and sexually--by World War I.

6. There are cases in which authors like to use physical deformities to recognize more positive aspects of life. Examples of these are “…The Hunchback of Notre Dame or ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ where a hideous outer form hides the beauty of the inner person” (Foster 200).

7. If a writer calls attention to a handicap or deficiency, he/she will probably mean something by it. Will it be instantaneous and always obvious? Probably not. But it is worth paying attention to. After all, “…You give a guy a limp in chapter 2, he can’t go sprinting after the train in chapter 24” (Foster 200).

8. In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip is ashamed of his “…coarse hands” and “…thick boots” and that he “…was the apprentice of a blacksmith” (67). This is because Estella saw him only as a laboring boy who was not fit to be in her presence.

9. Today This passage much resembles the world, because many people judge others by their appearance and don’t even bother to look on the inside.

10. Works Cited Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Bantam Dell, 1986. Print. Foster, Thomas C. How To Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: Harper- Collins Publishers, Inc., 2003. Print.