​Jessica Polina

​ P Literature/ Period
A
4

My purpose in this piece was to provide a comparison between Ceremony by Leslie

Marmon Silko, How To Read Literature Like A Professor, and another story that I read called So
B. It. I included patterns to demonstrate the moral traits of one main character in each book. I
gave a background explanation of the character and then explained major life events that can be
compared with characters moral traits. The strengths of my first draft is that I have written a well
organized essay. I also cited my pieces of evidence and then gave an explanation.Some
improvements that I can make on my revision are to make sure that I define all the terms that I
am using. Also to not just add a plot as my thesis but a symbol that represents a pattern. Specific
feedback I’m looking for is how to improve my claim.

Literary Patterns

When reading anything there are certain pieces of text that bring out a pattern or theme
in a story. Some good pieces of text to compare are Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, So B. It
by Sarah Weeks, and How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster. In these
texts, there is a pattern of painful moments that affect people’s lives or behavior. These
depressing memories are in this case are very symbolic.

In “Ceremony”, Tayo wants peace in himself, but blames himself for Rocky’s death. Silko
mentions in page 6 that, “ He could get no rest as long as the memories were tangled with the
present.” Tayo had many sleepless nights over tragedy’s he’s gone through. His own Auntie
also reminded him of the death that he seemed so responsible for. In page 27, it states, “...
Auntie stared at him the way she always had, reaching inside him with her eyes, calling up the
past as if it were his future too, as if things would always be the same for him.” Silko adds a lot
of Tayo’s pain and impacting his life so much since Auntie wants Rocky around and not her
nephew who is only half Laguna Pueblo and half Caucasian.

In “So B. It”, there is a word used as a pattern in this book. Heidi who lives with her
neighbor, Bernadette, and mentally disabled mother. In page 32 it states, “Most of the words
were common ones, like good and more and hot, but there was one word only my mother said,
soof.​ ” The word ​soof​ continues to be repeated by Heidi’s mother and she has no clue what it
means. Later on at her mother’s funeral she puts all the pieces together and finds that ​soof​ was
only her mother’s way to say love. In page 236, it states, “ A long time ago, somebody else who
loved Mama gave her another name, ​Soof​. But when she said that word, she wasn’t talking
about herself. Soof wasn’t Mama’s name; ​soof​ was Mama’s name for love.” This word was a
repeated pattern of what might have been someone’s name or her mother’s name a special
meaning that could be a clue of who her mother is and where she came from before giving birth
to Heidi and ending up having the help of their neighbor grow into loving them. Heidi having that
sense of determination to find out her mother’s background was the only way that she’d feel
complete since this word a constant appearance in her life.

Thomas C. Foster includes a pattern that brings out the language of reading in “ How To
Read Literature Like A Professor”. In the third page, it states, “... who are these people, what
are they doing, and what wonderful or terrible things are happening to them?” In this text, there
are patterns of grammar and symbols that are used to identify how a character in a story is
feeling or what the meaning of the story is. In the second page, it states, “... a grammar of
literature, a set of conventions and patterns, codes and rules, that we learn to employ in dealing
with a piece of writing.” Therefore, the usage of grammar and meaning of a story include
examples of topics that make it easy to recognize what the main idea of a text is.

Certain pieces of texts bring out patterns and themes in a story to help the reader/
audience understand literature.