Sometimes I feel as if the books were never meant to be analyzed and the teacher is just forcing the books to have some kind of meaning when the author probably never intended it to.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Kinda like doing calculations in math, or running in P.E.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I don't see how running is stupid... It's good for you :|

by Anonymous 12 years ago

sarcasm.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Lots of these books aren't just writing for entertainment. The authors are trying to say something, and the symbols that we read for are usually intentional. Analyzing books can be frustrating, but it helps me at least to understand it better and know that Lord of the Flies isn't just a book about a bunch of kids running wild on an island and killing each other. Because honestly, I wouldn't have liked LOTF as much if I hadn't read it in English class. There are also books that I wouldn't have understood AT ALL if we hadn't analyzed it. My example here is Toni Morrison's Beloved. And learning to analyze books teaches us about asking questions and thinking deeper - to become better writers and thinkers.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Which is useful in real life how?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's not a reading class, it's an English class. :|

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why was this voted down lol

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Not sure. :/

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I hate analysing books in english class as much as the next person, but ultimately, I'm glad that I learn the symbolsim, because it gives the book so much more meaning and purpose.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The fact that so many people agreed with this is killing me. Wait to encourage my faith in humanity, guys. Authors don't write books for pure entertainment, and if they do, they're bad authors. I for one love English class, and I love learning about symbolism. I love analyzing books. I think it's beautiful to find a message in a story. But if you guys want to be ignorant and unenlightened, whatever, go ahead. Just copy & paste the bullshit from Spark Notes and live your life in the dark.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah I mean it is a shame people can't understand true classics. The point of a book is to know it like you wrote it yourself. Without that reading is just like reading the labels on matresses

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm planning on majoring in English; I love analyzing books. Ignoring the fact that learning to ask questions about what you read, understanding symbolism, why things are written in certain ways, etc. are important and something everyone should learn to do... Did you ever consider that there are people in your classes that plan on getting an English major like myself and NEED to learn this? It's like math class: even if you won't ever apply what you're learning to your job or your life, some people will use it and need it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

if it's like character analyzing then it's good, but going line by line and interepreting every little thing is unnecessary. it's also annoying because teachers sometimes will overanalyze something when it may have meant nothing at all. and when they pretend to know what the author was thinking when the wrote it. no one really knows

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Analyzing is only useful when there is something to analyze. The part I don't like is when the teacher tries to get symbolism out of something that's clearly literal.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

No. The books you're reading in English class likely don't have anything that's "accidentally" symbolic.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Different people interpret things differently, and it's usually interesting when you find out what other people interpreted books, and how you may see things completely differently each time you read a book. Like I was talking about The Giver with someone and she thought that the boy die in the end, and I thought they found where they want to go. Teachers should just let you see things as you do, but have everyone share.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That's what my classes have always done, so it makes posts/comments like these hard to agree with

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah, same with me. I know some teachers do it differently but that's how mine always have.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The fact that there are 321 people and counting who agree with this makes me weep on the inside. I guess we should all be reading books on dah Jersey Shore and Facebook, maybe a few tabloids.. After all, beautifully crafted pieces of literature are soooo last year.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I like well crafted literature, I can read it and appreciate it and get all the symbolism perfectly fine, but I fucking hate being forced to write bullshit about the book that makes me want to fucking burn it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why are there so many strawman arguments being made against the majority opinion? Disliking the formulaic process of being assigned a work and being forced to seek x, y, or z out of it does not equate to being a stupid facebook dweller. It's rediculous to think that literature can be taught in such a standardized manner! As some people have already mentioned, there are enthusiastic students who ultimately wish to major in English. This is not a point of contention, however- the students who lack interest in English are by no means automatically disrespectful of one another's academic goals. You can appreciate Homer, Shakespeare, and other infamous authors and playwrights for their contributions to literature, but that doesn't translate to having personal interest in picking apart their work. The actual problem here is the rigid degree of standardization which teachers are forced to work under as a result of limited resources. Authors need not study algebra, and engineers need not dissect Orwell. Certain academic systems, such as that of Australia, appear to at least partially grasp this fact, whilst others (perhaps most infamously, America's) lack any such flexibility. Students are given general knowledge quotas which they must meet if they wish to graduate, despite the fact that many of the teachers themselves can't recall highschool-level information on subjects that they don't teach. Mrs. Schwartz the geometry teacher may not recall what iambic pentameter is, and Mr. Hernandez the world history teacher should not be expected to know the solution to cos(8/5pi-1/2pi). English class is grossly uniform, and it seeks industrial, factory-like results from its students. Essays are assigned with quote quotas, format restrictions, a side of an argument that they have no interest in pushing, and so much more. Certain facets of the system are beneficial- everyone should be taught how to properly explain, defend, and append their views, but this is comparable to building a house just so that you can sit down somewhere. It's madness.

by Anonymous 6 years ago