How to Read Literature Like a
Professor
Chapters 2, 3, 18
Nice to Eat with You: Acts of
Communion
• Meals are deeply personal
affairs
– We don’t eat with just anyone
• Meals can represent a
number of things
– War
– Sex
– Making peace
Nice to Eat with You: Acts of
Communion
• Meals are expected to be
peaceful affairs
– Arguments during meals do not
bode well
– Unfinished meals lead to
unfinished business
• Pay attention to the language
– Food as war
– Food as intimacy
– Food as friendship
Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires
• Stories about ghosts and
vampires are never about
ghosts and vampires
– Sex (especially the Victorian
novel)
– Selfishness
– Exploitation
– Dominance (or submission)
– Arrogance
– Insecurity
Nice to Eat You: Acts of
Vampirism
• Questions to ask when
encountering a character who
appears to be a ghost or
vampire:
– What is haunting the character,
other than ghosts?
– Why is the character allowing his
or her life force to be drained
away?
– What unfulfilled need is met
through vampirism or haunting?
Nice to Eat You: Acts of
Vampirism
• Most vampirish or ghostlike
characters are metaphorical
ones, not literal ones
• Same questions apply
• Any character who appears to
“haunt” someone or something
• Any character who needs to
“feed” on someone else in order
to survive - literally or
figuratively
If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism
• Baptism, the concept of which is
present in many religions, is, at
its simplest, any act that
provides a character with an
opportunity to be “reborn”
• Usually involves immersion in
water
– Accidental
– Purposeful
If She Comes Up, It’s Baptism
• It’s baptism if the character has
changed in some way
afterwards
• Possible instances of baptism:
– Swimming
– Rainfall
– Drowning
• What are THOSE implications?
– Bathing
Types of Metaphors
• Synecdoche:
– When mentioning a part signifies the
whole:
• Motor = Car
• Mouth = Person
• Metonymy:
– When substituting a word for the term
itself:
• Crown = King
• Sweat = Hard Labor
Homework Assignment:
• Find examples from Siddhartha of the following
items:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Communion
Vampirism
Ghosts
Baptism
Synecdoche
Metonymy