Why do teachers believe all things in books have meaning or symbolism
The curtains of the room were a deep blue
Teacher: IT SHOW THEIR INNER FEELINGS OF SADNESS AND DISTRESS
Writer: Hmmm my curtains are blue i like the color blue. So let's just make the curtains of my character's house blue
OMG THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY ANNOYING TO ME
teachers always tell us to analyze the author's story, when they don't even know for sure if there was a reason why the author did what they did. Basically, school sucks the fun out of everything. Like, why can't i read just to read? Why do I have to over analyze everything?
YES
EXACTLY
Over analysis is just.
Obnoxious.
I really find that to be sort of the difference between left and right brained people: left like analyzing and logic, right like creativity. And reading is something we can do for fun, but school had to go and fix it when it wasn't broken. both sides are important.
School is obnoxious.
Reading is obnoxious.
Over analyzing everything is the most god damn annoying thing ever. (Especially in AP)
No matter what it is, even if it has little significance. The teacher believes it to be important because Writers have a reason for everything they write. Yes some things may be symbolism. Yes some things may be significant. Yes some things have representation. BUT not all things, only some, books are not completely full of symbolism.
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Also most of the authors we read are dead, so it's not like we can ask them what stuff means. Not to mention some really cool symbolism is often a happy accident. But as a left-brained person, I'm going to have to disagree with that one statement. Logic and analysis are wonderful if they have a foundation. Not every last word is going to have large significance, and there's no way we can really prove they do, especially if the author has been dead for a century, or if it's translated from a different language. Analysis of certain literature just isn't… logical.
But yeah, this is why I quit English my senior year. ALL the class was was literary analysis.
Analyzing books sometimes is just a waste. I agree classes have become too dedicated to the analysis of books and short stories
We just need to learn how to take in information from the writing. That is so much more important than what it might mean. My ability to read textbooks and such has sharply decreased over the past few years because of bs like that.
We should be taught how to identify symbolism and tell if something is symbolism not have a whole class wasted on trying to decipher a word or sentence, and coming up with theories of what it could possibly mean.
Logic and analysis are good, and important. But reading narratives and other things that allow room for creativity shouldn't be made into a left brained activity (there should be room for creative thinking). Almost every required aspect of school is left brained stuff, which is why I think that they should leave well enough alone. We shouldn't have to make everything an analysis.
It just gets kinda annoying that left brained stuff is like the bare minimum in school and right brained stuff is just frills and excess when in reality you need both.
This thread gave me flashbacks to when I was in grade 10 and we had to read Hiroshima for one of our novel studies.
We had to write a paragraph about symbolism in the book, you know, as if it wasn't a work of non-fiction.
So glad I don’t have to do that stuff anymore. I have to take 2 more English classes I think, but they’re not literature classes, so I may be in the clear.
Kid in my class: Slim goes and stands by George at the end to continue the dream in Lennie's place.
Me: SLIM! GOES! BY! GEORGE! BECAUSE! GEORGE! LITERALLY! JUST! SHOT! HIS! ONLY! FRIEND! IN! THE! HEAD! NOT! TO! TAKE! LENNIE'S! PLACE!
literally, yes that book has symbolism but i feel as if that scene did not have symbolism
Yeah exactly!!!