Improve Thyself

Thanks to Katie I am reading a book from the "Literary Criticism" category. The title, How to Read Like a Professor. I have been looking for a book that talks about symbolism and allegory in literature or art. This book is an easy read and very informative. It would have been nice to have read this book back in highschool so that I could have understood what the pickle dish represented in Ethan Frome. Shape alone does not make a phallic symbol, as Freud said, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."