To be completely honest with you, the instances where I fully understand what my teacher wants me to get out of assigned literature are few and far between. I blame the teachers, but even more, I blame American culture. Perhaps blame is the wrong word to be using in this scenario. Blame has a negative connotation. The reason I hardly understand what exactly my teacher wants me to grasp is because I have been taught to reach for everything from a very young age. I have been taught about so many different ways to analyze a single piece of literature that I feel it is a shame to just loommok at any work through a single lens. In the article "From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle", the author Min-Zhan Lu grew up speaking two different languages, English at home and standard Chinese at school. Due to the fact that at school, Lu was assigned readings that were mostly communist manifesto, I can see why she began to read her assigned readings and her pleasure readings through different lenses. But in present day America, the land of endless opportunity, I have learned the art of total analysis no matter what the literary venue may be. I appreciate descriptive language and metaphors about roses and lilacs and the summer breeze even if it has been assigned to me by a teacher. I take note of every excellent utilization of ethos, logos, or pathos in articles I read for business or for pleasure.
It is these reasons that I approach every piece of literature, school or home related, the same way. I approach each for what it is, a piece a literature. I take in everything. I think of all the underlying meanings that could exist. I ponder the possibilities of each subtle nuance of the reading. And once all that is done, I think of why exactly I read the article or novel and react in the appropriate manner. It is in this un-biased manner of reading literature that suits me. I need to understand what the piece is saying before I can understand what my teachers are asking for.
