"It's Never Just Heart Disease", go figure. This entire book is never just something but its not always deeper than the surface, that's understood. But what heart disease has to do with literature, I'm not exactly sure of but as I continued my reading of the chapter I quickly discovered the significance of "heart disease" in literature. First let's do a quick search on the true definition of a heart. After my search I learned that amongst all of the definitions, the true one, and the one that pertains to what is discussed in this chapter is "the center or innermost part of something". That should tell you right off the bat how important the heart is, and more importantly, how it can play a very prominent role in the world of literature.

     In the novel, "The Good Soldier (1915)", by Ford Madox Ford the heart plays a very significant role in the story. So here's a brief synopsis of the story. The narrator is apart of a pair of couples that go to the European spa every year. During these years the narrator's wife, Florence has been having an affair with the husband of the other couple, Edward. The husband having the affair's wife knows about it. The two faithful companions in each couple and maybe even the ones having an affair could be diagnosed with heart disease. Now, don't overthink it. They don't literally have a physical condition in which their is something wrong with their hearts.

     This goes to show how "In literature there is no better, no more lyrical, no more perfectly metaphorical illness than heart disease" What this means is that although there nothing physically wrong with their hearts, they have been somewhat emotionally damaged, which if you ask me, has an equal affect as the physical. So more or less that's what Foster means by "heart disease". Nevertheless, always be able to pick up on heart trouble in a story whether it is stated or not, it could most definitely help you in the long run. In my opinion, heart disease is dangerous in real life, and has the same affect in literature.

     Contrary to the notion stated above, the heart can also be a very positive thing in literature. It can represent love, compassion, chemistry, comfort, etc. And has an equal affect on the reader and the story it self as having "heart disease". That being said, a writer will rarely leave you wondering about if one of the characters has heart disease, it will be pretty easy to identify and not hard to look for. So never be too literal in regards to the term heart disease because it can have a multiplicity of meanings behind it. It's simply about the authors intentions and how and if the meaning fits into the context of the story.

     From an analytical perspective, I think that the reason writers use the heart as the heart of literature is to get to the hearts of the audience. If you have their heart, you have everything you need.