1. Patterns in Literature
Understanding Literature isn’t just a guessing game or the art of Beautiful Stretching

2. Directions
North: big cities & civilization – progress and sophistication
Going South: it’s gonna get hot – getting in trouble, exploring the wild side
Go West, Young Man!: self discovery, exploration
East: could be exotic and unknown, wisdom of the ancients, our roots, coming home.

3. Weather and Seasons
Spring: Youth, growth, new life, love and beginnings
Rain: Cleansing or muddying; growing or destroying. Change!
Water: baptism Change!
Summer: Adulthood/prime. Arduous or prosperous
Sun: enlightenment, trial/crucible
Autumn: Middle age. Harvest. Reap what you sow.
Storms: foreboding, widespread change
Winter: Old age. Death.
Snow: cold, death, despair; grace

4. Colors Red: passion and the extremes of human emotion
Blood ties and bloodlust; love and rage
Yellow: Sunny, happy, and bright
Or jaundiced, rotted and decayed
Green: greed & envy
Or Young and inexperienced, new
Blue: Content and placid
Or sad

5. Colors continued Violet: royalty
Or villainy, deception
Black: sophistication, regality and occasionally fertility
Or darkness, ignorance, sin
White: innocence, purity
Or naivete and occasionally death

6. Common Symbols Sun or light: enlightenment, knowledge
Moon: fertility and femininity
Stars (especially North Star): Guidance and direction
Snakes: EVIL
Blindness: perception
Scars, limps, injuries, etc.: same thing inside

7. Common Symbols continued
Violence: personal, political, and human struggles
Sex: power & rebellion
Flowers: sex, fertility, prosperity
Roads and journeys: the path we take in life -- discovery; decisions
Eating: community and equality
What’d I miss?

8. Allusions
Are everywhere! Knowing the big three is key: Bible, Greeks, Shakespeare.
Why? It creates a community with the reader and adds layers of meaning
Intertextuality builds on, alters, or challenges universal themes, ideas, and archetypes.
Christ figures: characters who do stuff like Jesus -- humble beginnings, walking on water, healing, teaching and most importantly: self-sacrifice.