It seems humorous to me that our entire lives we are taught to find the theme of stories, books and any other literature. We are taught to find the thesis and the supporting points and then summarize them. I understand that without this foundation we may not be able to move on a more abstract point of view of literature. However, it just seems funny that we are taught to build this structure of reading and understanding only to be able to then break down that structure.
I do agree with this chapter, in that if we look for the theme or moral of a piece and we leave it at that then we can miss out on the true intent of the author’s artistic expression. When we limit it that much, we miss out on the word usage, the order, the atmosphere, the tone etc. that really lends to a much more complex understanding of a piece.

Furthermore, it seems as though this basic level of finding the theme and/or moral and leaving it at that does not stop with reading, but extends to our writing as well. When we are wired to read with this as our goal, we also write in these tight boundaries. This may be just as unfortunate as our reading comprehension being stunted.

One aspect of this class that I have already come to appreciate is that the pieces we have read thus far have broken out of the “plot story” and instead they have focused on character development. At first, I did not appreciate this type of literature, because like watching a movie without a plot, I would come to the end and say “that was pointless”. And truthfully, without the negative connotation attached to that phrase – it was pointless. But I was missing out on the complexities and details of the author’s art. In just these two and half weeks I have really come to enjoy exploring a piece that I would not have necessarily enjoyed prior to this class. I am much more comfortable without the clear cut plot because my perspective and my goal of reading the piece has shifted.