How to read like a professor is a strategy used to break down stories and find the symbolisim behind the events occuring. Using this strategy, i was able to break down some events in the story The Horse Dealer's Daughter by D.H. Lawrence. In one of the sections my class focused on, one of the main characters named Mabel attempted to kill herself by walking into a pond and drowning herself. Another character named Jack Fergusson, a doctor, goes into the pond after her in an attempt to save her.
When Dr. Fergusson pulls her out of the water Mabel feels like a new person. She is no longer depressed, but instead falls in love with Dr. Fergusson. This event can be described as being a baptism. Mabel is submerged in water and in a way is reborn into a new person. She no longer has the desire to kill herself, but to be with Dr. Fergusson. This is only one of the many events in this book that exemplifies the how to read like a professor strategy.
