Baptism in Literature? I think not.

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In chapter 18 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster speaks of water as a symbol in most writings. He links water and death as one big symbol. "See this in symbolic terms. A young man sails away from his known world, dies out of existence, and comes back a new person, hence is reborn." Foster continues to state that this is the same as baptism. In baptism someone is put under water blessed by a priest or any holy member ordained to perform the task. I do not see this as baptism in books. I see people falling in water simply as them falling in water. Sure this sometimes has a dramatic effect on the character, or adds a very big twist into the plot. If someone dies in the water it will certainly add something to the plot and take something away from the character that lives, but I still think that the character does not have a 'rebirth', but rather just a traumatic experience that they have to deal with throughout the book. Maybe I am not doing enough close reading into Foster's work, but I just don't see a character in a book being 'baptized' unless they are literally being blessed in the book.

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