Prompt #2

Thomas Foster states, “Connect these dots: garden, serpent, plagues, flood, parting of waters, loaves, fishes, forty days, betrayal, denial, slavery and escape, fatted calves, milk and honey. Ever read a book with all these things in them?”All stories have something alike in them that connects them together to make one big story.  Stories are like quilts, all patched together. Not all stories share the same themes, characters, or plots, but as a whole they make one story. Each story is unique in its own, like patches of a quilt, however, together they all make one big, slightly confusing, story.  This concept makes understanding literature easier because a similar story could have been heard at another point in time. It makes the experience richer because of all the unique stories that are told based off of one story. I realized this as I began to read  Hamlet. I saw many similarities in the plot between Hamlet and The Lion King The writers of The Lion King took the general plot of hamlet and added to the story and created a happy ending, but isn’t that what Disney does best. They take fairy tales and change them to make them happy, then someone else takes the story and changes it just a little bit more.

Comments

  1. collindthomasJuly 16, 2017 at 12:43 PM

    Allison, I like your simile about how all stories are connected to one another like a quilt. It helps put into perspective how close all literary works are, and how they are all connected to each other even though we do not realize it most of the time. All of the individual parts come together in a book to make one great story. The same parts are used in story after story with just a little bit of a twist to them. I also really like the connection with The Lion King. Its a great example of how the same parts of a story come together to create something similar but completely different at the same time.

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  2. UnknownJuly 18, 2017 at 5:51 PM

    I enjoyed your commentary on the quilt. I think literature can create a “slightly confusing” big picture as well. While reading Foster’s novel, especially in the chapter referencing Christ Figures, I frequently got confused with the connections he was making between Christ because I could not see how a professor could possible draw those conclusions from the characters he was referencing. The quilt also allowed me to notice the different parts in the literature that other individuals are able to piece together while I cannot. I think that may be why certain people enjoy certain novels better than others because it makes sense due to the other novels they have read in the past. The mention of The Lion King demonstrates the connection you were able to make in order to enjoy a novel better. Since we continuously make connections while reading, it shapes the type of novels we begin to enjoy because we reach for the same comfort and connections over time. I believe everyone has a unique quilt based on the novels they have read; therefore, everyone will have slightly different reading experience, even if it is “slightly confusing” to others.

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  3. Ncoleman43776July 30, 2017 at 12:12 PM

    I like the concept of most stories following a metaphorical template of how the main plot will go. This allows for the reader to have somewhat of a guess of what is going to happen as well as allowing authors to throw in some twists when you believe you know whats happening. That is one of the best experiences about reading, the twists. So by following a certain path until a given point, authors are able to create stories that are interesting and flow nicely, but also are able to put their own twist on the stories to completely throw the reader off and make the setting turn from familiar to unexpected.

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  4. UnknownJuly 31, 2017 at 12:00 PM

    The quilt analogy is perfect for describing the intertextuality; it pairs well with the idiom, cut from the same cloth. When “stitching” together a great literary work, it is difficult as a “quilter” to separate original fabrics from borrowed scraps. Along the way, these artists have exchanged ideas and have been exposed to a range of designs. Although similar patterns may be cut from the same cloth, they can function with varying purposes within a piece. What one “quilter” used to accent their work, one may use as framing to border the design. There is no escaping the family-like ties of the quilting community.

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