How to Read Literature Like a Professor: Chapter Pairings

(2014 Revised Edition)

Ashlee Bell
Chapter Number and Works Referenced in Short Works to Pair Long Works to Pair
Title Chapter*

Introduction: “How’d A Raisin in the Sun “The Bet” Anton The Picture of Dorian
He Do That?” (1959) Chekhov Gray, Oscar Wilde
Dr. Faustus “The Devil and Tom The Poisonwood Bible,
Walker” Washington Barbara Kingsolver
Irving

“Every Trip is a Quest Crying of Lot 49 (1965) “A Worn Path” Eudora As I Lay Dying, William
(Except When It’s Not)” Sir Gawain and the Welty Faulkner
Green Knight This Tender Land,
William Kent Krueger
The Life of Pi, Yann
Martel

“Nice to Eat with You: Tom Jones (1749) “Cathedral” Raymond To the Lighthouse,
Acts of Communion” “Cathedral” Carver Carver Virginia Woolf
“The Dead” Joyce “The Dead” James The Odyssey, Homer
Joyce

“Nice to Eat You: Acts Dracula (1897) “Daisy Miller” Henry Hamlet, William
of Vampires” The Turn of the Screw James Shakespeare
(1898) “Lamia” John Keats Dracula, Bram Stoker
“Daisy Miller” (1878) (poem)

“Now, Where Have I Going After Cacciato “The Wasteland” T. S. This Tender Land,
Seen Her Before?” (1978) Elliot (poem) William Kent Krueger,
Wise Children (1992) Rosencrantz and As I Lay Dying, William
Guildenstern are Dead, Faulkner
Tom Stoppard (play)

“When in Doubt, It’s Wise Children (1992) “The Lovesong of J. Wise Children, Angela
from Shakespeare…” “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” T. S. Carter
Alfred Prufrock” T. S. Elliot (poem) West Side Story (1961),
Elliot (poem) “2BR02B” Kurt (film)
“Master Harold”...and Vonnegut
the Boys (1982)

“...Or the Bible” Beloved (1987) “Araby” James Joyce As I Lay Dying, William
“Araby” (1914) “Sonny’s Blues” James Faulkner
“Sonny’s Blues” (1957) Baldwin East of Eden, John
Steinbeck
“Hanseldee and “The Gingerbread “The Gingerbread Jane Eyre, Charlotte
Greteldum” House” (1969) House” Robert Coover Bronte,
The Bloody Chamber, “A Lunar Labyrinth” Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen
Angela Carter Neil Gaiman Oyeyemi

“It’s Greek to Me” Omeros (1990), The “Musée des Beaux This Tender Land,
Iliad, The Odyssey Arts” W.H. Auden William Kent Krueger,
(poem), “Landscape Omeros, Derek Walcott,
with the Fall of Icarus” Ulysses James Joyce
(William Carlos
Williams),

“It’s More Than Just “The Three Strangers” “The Dead” J. Joyce, Jane Eyre, Charlotte
Rain or Snow” (1883) “Master and Man” Leo Bronte, As I Lay Dying,
Song of Solomon (1977) Tolstoy William Faulkner, Great
A Farewell to Arms “Gooseberries” Anton Expectations Charles
(1929) Chekhov Dickens

“Never Stand Next to The Iliad, Rebel “Master and Man” Leo The Kite Runner, Khaled
the Hero” Without a Cause (1955) Tolstoy Hosseini
(film), Saturday Night “A Rose for Emily” The Nickel Boys,
Fever (1977) (film), Top William Faulkner Colson Whitehead
Gun (1986) (film)
Hamlet

“Does He Mean That?” Absalom, Absalom! ------ ------

(1936)

“More Than It’s Gonna Beloved (1987) “Out, “A Good Man is Hard to The Kite Runner, Khaled
Hurt You: Concerning Out--” (1916), trio of D. Find” Flannery Hosseini
Violence” H. Lawrence short O’Connor, “The Short The Nickel Boys,
stories, collection of Happy Life of Francis Colson Whitehead,
William Faulkner texts Macomber” Ernest Hamlet, William
Hemingway Shakespeare

“Is That a Symbol?” A Passage to India, E. “Hills Like White A Passage to India, E.
M. Forster Elephants” Ernest M. Forster, This Tender
Hemingway, “Birches” Land William Kent
and “After Apple Krueger, Hamlet
Picking” Robert Frost William Shakespeare,
(poems), “Good The Awakening Kate
Country People” Chopin
Flannery O’Connor

“It’s All Political” A Christmas Carol “The Yellow Wallpaper” The Nickel Boys, Colson
(1843), “The Masque of Charlotte Perkins Whitehead, The
the Red Death” (1842), Gilman, “Big Awakening, Kate
“The Fall of the House Two-Hearted River” Chopin, The Grapes of
 of Usher” (1839), “Rip Ernest Hemingway Wrath, John Steinbeck
Van Winkle” (1819)

“Yes, She’s a Christ The Old Man and the “Good Country People” A Tale of Two Cities,
Figure, Too” Sea (1952) Flannery O’Connor Charles Dickens, The
Love Medicine (1984) Grapes of Wrath, John
Steinbeck

“Flights of Fancy” Song of Solomon “Birches” Robert Frost Song of Solomon, Toni
(1977), Nights at the (poem), “The Wild Morrison, Nights at the
Circus (1984) Swans at Coole” Circus, Angela Carter,
“A Very Old Man with William Butler Yeats Jane Eyre, Charlotte
Enormous Wings” (poem), “A Very Old Bronte
(1968), A Portrait of an Man with Enormous
Artist as a Young Man Wings” Gabriel Garcia
(1916) Marquez

“It’s All About Sex…” *Several movies “The Rocking-Horse As I Lay Dying, William
referenced, especially Winner” D. H. Faulkner, As Passage to
The Maltese Falcon, Lawrence, “Cat in the India, E. M. Forster,
and North by Rain” Ernest Heminway Death Comes for the
Northwest* Archbishop, Willa
“Janus” (1985), “The Cather
Rocking-Horse Winner”
(1932)

“...Except Sex” A Clockwork Orange The Kite Runner, Khaled

(1962), Lolita (1958) Hosseini, Never Let Me
French Lieutenant’s Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Woman (1969) Wise
Children (1992)

“If She Comes Up, It’s Ordinary People (1976) “The Horse Dealer’s The Awakening, Kate
Baptism” Love Medicine (1986) Daughter” D. H. Chopin, Beloved or
Song of Solomon (1977) Lawrence, “The River” Song of Solomon, Toni
Beloved (1987) Flannery O’Connor Morrison, As I Lay
“The Horse Dealer’s Dying, William Faulkner
Daughter” (1922

“Geography Matters…” The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1884)
“The Fall of the House
of Usher” (1839)
Bean Trees (1988)
Going After Cacciato
(1978)
“In Praise of Prairie” The Kite Runner, Khaled
Theodore Roethke Hosseini, As I Lay
(poem), “Bogland” Dying, William
Seamus Heaney Faulkner, Wuthering
(poem), “The Snows of Heights, Emily Bronte
Kilimanjaro” Ernest
Hemingway

“...So Does Season” “Sonnet 73” “Daisy Miller” Henry Death Comes for the
 Shakespeare (poem), James, “Sonnet 73” Archbishop, Willa
“Daisy Miller” (1878) William Shakespeare Cather, King Lear,
(poem), “After Apple William Shakespeare,
Picking” Robert Frost Underground Railroad,
(poem) Colson Whitehead

INTERLUDE Excerpts from Northrop

“One Story” Frye OR Joseph
Campbell

“Marked for Greatness” Song of Solomon (1977) “Big Two-Hearted The Sun Also Rises,
Oedipus Rex, Sophocles River” Ernest Ernest Heminway,
(play), The Sun Also Heminway, “Good Oedipus Rex,
Rises (1926), Country People” Sophocles,
Frankenstein (1818) Flannery O’Connor, Frankenstein, Mary
Shelley, The Kite
Runner, Khaled
Hosseini

“He’s Blind for a Oedipus Rex, Sophocles “Cathedral” Raymond Oedipus Rex,
Reason, You Know” (play), “Araby” James Carver, “Araby” James Sophocles, Jane Eyre,
Joyce (short story) Joyce Charlotte Bronte

“It’s Never Just Heart The Remorseful Day “The Story of an Hour” The Plague, Albert
Disease…And Rarely (1999), “The Man of Kate Chopin, “The Camus, A Doll’s House,
Just Illness” Adamant” (1837) Sisters” James Joyce, Henrik Ibsen
(Short story), “The “Daisy Miller” Henry
Sisters” (1914) (Short James
Story)

“Don’t Read with Your “The Dead” James “Sonny’s Blues” James The Merchant of Venice
Eyes” Joyce (short story), Baldwin, “The Yellow William Shakespeare,
“Sonny’s Blues” James Wallpaper” Charlotte The Adventures of
Baldwin (short story) Perkins Gilman Huckleberry Finn Mark
Twain

“It’s My Symbol and I’ll “The Flea” John Donne “The Story of an Hour” As I Lay Dying William
Cry If I Want To” (poem), “A Valediction Kate Chopin Faulkner
Forbidding Mourning”
John Donne (poem)

“Is He Serious? And Waiting for Godot “The Story of an Hour” Waiting for Godot,
Other Ironies” (1952) “The Arrow of Kate Chopin, “Good Samuel Beckett, A
Heaven” (1926) A Country People” Farewell to Arms,
Clockwork Orange Flannery O’Connor Ernest Hemingway, The
(1962) Nickel Boys OR The
Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead
 “A Test Case” “The Garden Party” by Suggested assignment
Katherine Mansfield from pg 282-283.
(1922)

POSTLUDE SUGGESTION: Start

“Who’s in Charge with This chapter.
Here?”
*Some chapters allude to a large number of works. References listed here are ones Foster discusses at
length to develop and/or prove his claim.