In
chapter 23 of How to Read Literature Like
a Professor, Foster brings the reader’s attention to heart disease. Never
did I ever think that a character with an illness that specific would be a
symbol for loneliness or cruelty, or that broken hearted isn’t just a metaphor.
However, I began to think back to characters with heart disease and their personalities
and I realized that this chapter has some truth in it.
Throughout
the summer I have been watching a popular show on Netflix, One Tree Hill.
Here’s a quick background of the overly full plot of this show. The two
main characters, Nathan and Lucas Scott, are both sons of the well-known car
salesman, Dan Scott. The big dramatic conflict of the show (a large joke
because this show is drama all the time) is that Dan got two girls
pregnant at the same time in high school and only decided to be a father to one of the sons.
Fast forward 17 years, then we have both sons playing basketball for the same
high school, and Dan is in a bit of a dilemma.
The
reason that Dan is closely linked to this chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor is because he is diagnosed
with HCM, a deadly heart disease that could eventually kill him. Dan is not a
good guy, if you couldn’t tell from his absent fatherhood. He pressures Nathan,
the son he did raise, which eventually leads Nathan to overdose on performance enhancers.
He shoots his brother and kills him. He threatens to kill his wife. Dan really
does everything possible to be a bad guy and everyone hates him. Foster tells us that the heart isn’t only the
organ that is most important to keeping us alive, but that it represents the
center of emotions. Dan Scott’s failing
heart is both killing him and showing us that he fails at connecting with people because
he doesn’t care about other people’s feelings. His cruelty is evident to both
everyone around him and all of the viewers of the show.
A big
thing that stumped me about this whole heart disease equals bad guy idea, is that
later in the show, Lucas Scott, the other son, is also diagnosed with HCM and
he is overall a good guy. Lucas, during the entire series, is stuck between
loving two girls (who happen to be best friends.) He does some bad things in-between
his loves and often ends up alone. What I have realized about this is that Dan
Scott is heartless and Lucas Scott is just simply heart broken.
Foster
explains that heart disease is a symbol of cruelty and disloyalty, both of
which explain Dan Scott. His lack of love for his family is reflected in his
lack of health. Dan Scott may not die from his heart disease but all of the
relationships around him do. With HCM,
Dan can choose how to live his life and sustain his heath, just as he has a
choice of how to treat those around him, which creates a large difference between him and Lucas. He isn’t completely heartless but he
sure is close.
