{"id":1394756,"date":"2016-12-05T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T15:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1394756"},"modified":"2016-11-28T09:41:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T14:41:47","slug":"this-trick-explains-every-book-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/this-trick-explains-every-book-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to Decoding Every Single English Text Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/novelhackcover_LargeWide.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At some point in English class, no matter how smart and perceptive you are, you will find yourself shaking your head \u00a0at a book, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m just finding it very hard to get invested in a plot <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/fountainhead\/summary.html\" target=\"_blank\">low-key centered around an \u00a0architectural dance-off<\/a>, Jeanine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes a book&#8217;s Ultimate Meaning is very apparent (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/451\/summary.html\" target=\"_blank\">books: don&#8217;t burn them<\/a>, chill yooooo&#8221;), and sometimes it&#8217;s something more subtle (e.g., \u00a0&#8220;I&#8217;m not denying the darkness of the human soul, but it feels like \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/heart\/summary.html\" target=\"_blank\">this whole debacle<\/a> could have been avoided with malaria tablets.&#8221;). When you find yourself feeling &#8220;wuuuuut&#8221; about a book, we have a swell way to find a fresh view: ask yourself, &#8220;Who died?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"giphy-embed\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/tbsyS16NFRhwQ\" width=\"480\" height=\"208\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em><a href=\"http:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/dead-dying-im-tbsyS16NFRhwQ\"><small>via GIPHY<\/small><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let me explain.<\/p>\n<p>Well before Jay Gatsby finds himself floating face-down in a pool; well before Titus Andronicus bakes Chiron and Demetrius into a pie and feeds it to their father (this guy&#8217;s \u00a0<em>manners<\/em>, omg); well before \u00a0Leslie books her one-way ticket to Terabithia, \u00a0a ~symbolic~ death has already taken place, and this death\u2014<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"giphy-embed\" src=\"\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/3o7abDIKBIJNXtktJm\" width=\"480\" height=\"269\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em><a href=\"http:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/new-girl-fox-new-girl-ng-3o7abDIKBIJNXtktJm\"><small>via GIPHY<\/small><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>this <strong>&#8220;<\/strong>death<strong>&#8220;<\/strong>\u2014holds in it the hidden message of the book. Some examples:<\/p>\n<p><em>The Lord of the Flies<\/em> goes out with a real bang as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/flies\/canalysis.html\" target=\"_blank\">Simon<\/a> and then <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/flies\/canalysis.html\" target=\"_blank\">Piggy<\/a> are killed by the raging fear-beast in the hearts of the island boys, \u00a0while our protag, Ralph, makes it out alive. The thing is, though, that Ralph doesn&#8217;t really make it out <em>alive<\/em>; other casualties in the \u00a0murder of Simon are \u00a0reason, morality, man&#8217;s innate goodness, and Ralph&#8217;s innocence foreverrrr. \u00a0The boys are &#8220;rescued&#8221; at the end of the novel, sure, but their souls have already died a little at that point. Nail down the precise moment of death (the moment Piggy&#8217;s glasses shatter? The moment the pig is decapitated?), and Go Straight to Harvard.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so how about <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/mocking\/summary.html\" target=\"_blank\">To Kill a Mockingbird<\/a><\/em>. Not to spoil anything or bum you out, but on a pure plot level, Tom Robinson\u2014the book&#8217;s titular mockingbird\u2014dies when he tries to escape jail at the end and is shot by guards. However, I would argue that \u00a0Tom is a dead man walking long before he even gets to jail, before his case is even settled, because, as Atticus knows, he has already been found guilty in the hearts of the (racist ol&#8217; cake-eatin&#8217;) jurors. If you backtrack far enough, Tom is dead the second Mayella Ewell asks him to move a chest of drawers for her.<\/p>\n<p>Some more!<\/p>\n<p>Top up your gin, and we&#8217;ll take a look at <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/gatsby\/summary.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Great Gatsby<\/a><\/em>. As you know, poor old <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/lit\/gatsby\/canalysis.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jay Gatsby<\/a> winds up shot dead in his fancy fountain at the end of the novel (RIP fancy shirt collection), after taking the heat for running down cheap hussy Myrtle\u2014the mistress of Tom, husband of Daisy, who is Gatsby&#8217;s forever love. Personally, I believe that Gatsby died long before this moment, back when he forced Nick to host a lunch for his cousin Daisy, got all sweaty around \u00a0the lapels \u00a0about the tea and then \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/2016\/03\/24\/blogging-the-great-gatsby-part-5-the-one-where-nick-third-wheels-his-way-to-greatness\" target=\"_blank\">climbed out a window<\/a> \u00a0in a last-minute panic. I mean surely you agree we all died a social death on that day. Alternately, you could argue that Gatsby was a dead man \u00a0when Daisy ran over Myrtle in the valley of ashes; symbolically, you have the American Dream (wealth, status, possession, as embodied by Daisy) pulverizing \u00a0the aspirations of the common man (as embodied by Myrtle, a stand-in for Gatsby, giant faker and social-climber that he is). For extra credit, you can argue that Gatsby is a sort of ghost throughout the novel, not unlike Bruce Willis in <em>The Sixth Sense<\/em>\u2014refusing to believe he is a goner.<\/p>\n<p>This technique\u2014<em>when did the main character die symbolically, and what died along with them?<\/em>\u2014works for virtually any book \u00a0(except the early classics, because the moral of every \u00a0Greek tragedy ever is generally &#8220;BOY are the gods vengeful \u00a0today, and every day.&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/understandbooksKermit.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Try it and let me know what koans you discover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At some point in English class, no matter how smart and perceptive you are, you will find yourself shaking your head \u00a0at a book, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m just finding it very hard to get invested in   <a class=\"continue-reading\" href=\"#\"><span class=\"continue-text\">continue reading<\/span><svg class=\"continue-icon\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" alt=\"\">\n    <path fill=\"#007acd\" fill-rule=\"nonzero\" d=\"M13.442 5.558L19.885 12l-6.443 6.442-.884-.884 4.934-4.934L4 12.625v-1.25l13.492-.001-4.934-4.932.884-.884z\"><\/path>\n  <\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[23251,23252,954,23253,21783,694,1387],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394756"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}