Why Foster?

Written by Kristen Brady.

“Thoughtful people rarely use the terms, the happy and the unhappy. In this world, antechamber of another, evidently there are no happy people. The true division of humanity is this: those filled with light and those filled with darkness. To reduce the number of those filled with darkness, to increase the number of those filled with light, that is the goal. That is why we cry: education! knowledge! science! To learn to read is to light a fire: every syllable spelled out sparkles.” Victor Hugo in Les Misérables

Light. 

We all possess it. For some, it may be hidden beneath a rotting layer of soot, desperately craving the slightest hint of kindling. For others, the light is so potent that even the thought of letting it die would wound its host gravely. 

If you think rekindling a dead flame is a worthless attempt––welcome, my friends; we offer you matches and wood. 

To foster the light is to open a book; to let sparks fly; to kindle the yearning flame inside of you by delving into the succulent words of the great masters. 

The only way to keep the ravenous thirst of a literary flame quenched is by analytical and critical strategies. There is a certain euphoria in literature that both delights and teaches, all the while enhancing vicarious learning by rapturing your senses with rhetoric unparalleled. And when characters are realistic, motivated, and consistent? They become a part of you. Great literature drags you in so deep that you don’t realize how intertwined you are within its philosophies and themes until you close the worn cover or reach the jarring phrase of the final stanza and its power overwhelms you to silence. 

It is our mission to introduce you to extraordinary pieces of writing––all of which achieving the aforementioned––and respectfully take them apart using literary criticism to analyze their rhetorical strategies so that we ourselves may feed our flames through understanding, and help you foster your own. 

Pick your wood: strike a flame. 

Foster your light and permit sparks to fly. Never suppress your fire.