AP Literature

The most valuable lesson that is repeatedly taught in How to Read Literature Like a Professor is for the reader to always expect a deeper meaning. In the first chapter of this book, the reader is sprung into the most important lesson taught. The author of any given book wrote down each word with care and meaning, so as a reader, one must understand that the author would not summon multiple characters together to share a meal to act as a   meaningless page filler. This understanding as a reader broadens the scope that they can use when reading literature to find a deeper meaning. Each chapter of this novel explained a pattern that is common in literature and the deeper meaning involved in these actions, whether it be the weather patterns, a shared meal between characters, or simply if a character gets wet. The reader is trained to be prone to recognizing the symbolism that the author has so subtly included.   Foster explains that “writing a meal scene i...

Nkem is an immigrant who moved from Nigeria to America with her husband Obiora. Despite the luxurious life Nkem was promised and had dreamed of, she lived a lonely life in America. Her husband took business trips to Nigeria for months on end, leaving Nkem alone. In America, Nkem was physically separated from everything that she had considered home, except for her Nigerian maid. Because Nkem felt so out of touch with her Nigerian culture, she grew closer to her maid. Despite Amaechi working under her, she was the closest thing Nkem had to a friend because of their similar cultural background.   Nkem struggled with the cultural differences she faced in America. This short story was focused on the “imitations” she found in her new life in America. For example, the unauthentic American produce. “Here there are hardly any yams at the African store—real African yams, not the fibrous potatoes the American supermarkets sell as yams. Imitation yams, Nkem thinks, and smiles” (33). She f...

One of the reasons why the novel The Thing Around Your Neck is so powerful is because of the author's close relation to each of the short stories. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche left Nigeria when she was 19 years old to pursue an American education. This novel reminds the reader that the “American Dream” is not perceived realistically. Each of the 12 short stories deals with the extreme difficulty and confusion that Nigerian immigrants face when moving across the world. Adiche falsifies the dreams that many immigrants hope to attain by moving to America. The stories she writes are so incredibly realistic because of the intricacy she works into each storyline and into each of the characters. She makes the reader empathize with the loneliness and sense of insecurity that the characters feel in the story. "Nobody knew where you were, because you told no one. Sometimes you felt invisible" (119). The bluntness of Akunna's depressing thoughts screams hopelessness. Akunna easily ...

Many immigrants have moved to America to escape harsh conditions that they faced in their home country. These immigrants have gone through long and very selective processes of applying for a visa to be able to move to America. For Sophie in  Breath, Eyes, Memory , this was not the case. Instead, she suffered greatly in America. Sophie did not want to move to America because for her it meant leaving all of her loved ones behind. In America, she suffered from the weekly “check-ins” that her mother would perform on her by invading her body to ensure she was still “sexually pure.” For Sophie, America was where she experienced her toughest moments. Sophie suffered from Bulimia because she wasn't able to healthily adjust from only having enough food to survive on in Haiti, to the surplus of available cheap and fattening food in America. Sophie’s mother did not think that Sophie’s eating disorder was a serious problem and thought that it was foolish. “‘I want to give you...