Chapter 7

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child sexual abuse. Foster uses one of fiction’s most repellent figures, the child abuser Humbert Humbert from Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel <a href="https://www.supersummary.com/lolita/summary/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lolita</a> to tackle the subject of antiheroes or villains in Postmodern fiction. Before that, he shows why the Postmodern antihero deserves separate analysis. Until the 20th century, writers clearly delineated villains and heroes: The villain served as an obstacle for the hero to conquer or a monster to vanquish. However, as narratives began to dwell more on the thoughts, feelings, and psyche of characters, antiheroes developed an interior life too. Moreover, antiheroes began to move from the margins of the text into the space occupied by the hero or the main character. The lines between hero and villain blurred. This reflects the modern-age acceptance that everyone is deeply flawed. While antiheroes are mostly flawed and complicated souls, sometimes in literature, an antihero is a “real bad actor” (91), a character with little conscience or empathy, as in the case of Humbert, the <a data-internal-link data-link-type="Literary Device" href="https://www.supersummary.com/protagonist/">protagonist</a> and first-person narrator of Lolita. The fact that Humbert marries a woman only so that he can get close to her vulnerable young daughter and then abuses the child should make him a character that readers shun.

Chapter 7 Summary: “When Very Bad People Happen to Good Novels”

Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Summary: “Wrinkles in Time, or Chapters Just Might Matter”

Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Summary: “Everywhere Is Just One Place”

Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Summary: “Clarissa’s Flowers”

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Summary: “Met-him-pike-hoses”

Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Summary: “Life Sentences”

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 7-12 Analysis

Values & Ideas

Humanities

Books & Literature

Society

Class

Social Issues

Historic & Literary Period

Colonialism & Postcolonialism

Community

Education

Emotions & Behavior

Memory

Order & Chaos

Trust & Doubt

Thomas C. Foster

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Book

Nonfiction

Guide

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How to Read Novels like a Professor Summary and Study Guide

Background

How to Read Novels like a Professor Background

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Introduction

How to Read Novels like a Professor Preface-Introduction Summary & Analysis

Chapters 1-6

How to Read Novels like a Professor Chapters 1-6 Summary & Analysis

How to Read Novels like a Professor Chapters 7-12 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 13-18

How to Read Novels like a Professor Chapters 13-18 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 19-Conclusion

How to Read Novels like a Professor Chapter 19-Conclusion Summary & Analysis

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Key Figures

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Index of Terms

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How to Read Novels like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form

Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

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