Foster begins the book with an example of a class discussion about the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. He describes how he might interpret the play and how his students often don’t understand the play right away: “We’re having a communication problem. Basically, we’ve all read the same story, but we haven’t used the same analytical apparatus” (xxv).

Foster asserts that successful literary analysis depends on two skills: knowing what to look for and gaining experience in what he calls the “grammar” of literature. The grammar of literature involves conventions and patterns, among other elements, that build on each other as one reads more and more. As an example, he uses the season of spring and the connotations that evokes: “youth, promise, new life, young lambs, children skipping” (xxvi) lead to “abstract concepts such as rebirth, fertility, renewal” (xxvi). Inexperienced readers often focus just on the narrative, or the plot, but Foster’s goal in this book is to teach all readers how to look for other elements and to make connections between them.