And then they make you write an essay. DAMMIT TEACHER I JUST WANT TO READ

My aunt was my senior year English teacher. We fought so much over this exact thing. Family gatherings were so awkward that year.

As an English major, this is so true

I used to think this way...but then I actually wrote something with symbolism and specific word choice, and I obsessed for weeks after I submitted it about "will the reader catch this subtle hint? Will they see what I did with the word choice there? Will they understand the significance of that phrase?"

What events led up to the curtains being blue? 10 page essay due tomorrow.

This is SSSOOOOOOOO TRUE

An author visited my school a couple years ago, and said he took an online test on symbolism in one of his books and failed it, because none of the "symbolism" was intentional when he wrote the book.

This is SO true. I get extremely frustrated at teachers who have to take so much depth from the book that isn't supposed to be there that they ruin the book for me.

Why I lasted 1 week with English Lit. as an elective.

some people just over think things

Ah, but the diagram still shows that they agree on sOmEtHiNg.