RM

The effect of high school English courses on how I read literature:

    - The manner in which I have been taught to read literature in school has served to ruin many books for me.
- Over analyzing characters and their motives, plots, themes, and an author’s intentions detracts from the joy inherent in reading a good book
- Reading slower do to constantly searching for certain devices, such as foreshadowing, as well as attempting to identify themes, metaphors, and symbolism, makes reading a book far less fluid and less enjoyable.
- Because of the focus given to the above pieces of a book (theme, metaphors, etc.) less time is devoted to the plot of the literature which, in my opinion, the best part.
    - Despite what how I have been taught to read literature in school, I am able to ignore this type of highly analytical reading outside of a school setting and enjoy reading far more than I would be able to in school.
    - The Lord of the Flies and Catcher in the Rye stand out as two particular cases of books which I would have otherwise have enjoyed reading being made unbearable by the analytical style of in-school reading.  The main issue with these particular books was the amount of time and effort devoted to “unraveling” the character’s and their motives.  Often time a whole period could be spent stating the obvious facts of a character’s intentions, wasting time and adding no extra meaning to the book.  On the rare occasion that I did have some type of revelation regarding the characters, what came of it was often unimportant, as far as I was concerned, to the meaning of the book.