BethanyBouchard

Foster (Ch 12 and Interlude [p. 183]) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"You can't simply say, Well, it's a river, so it means x, or apple picking, so it means y. On the othe hand, you can say this could sometimes mean x or y or even z, so let's keep that in mind to see which one, if either, happens here."

There is a reason why I am an English major and not a Math major. Math is so structured and everything has its set formulas; every problem has exactly one right answer. (Also, I don't like it.) English isn't like that. It leaves room for openness, creativity, interpretation, and one's own ideas. In Foster's chapter on symbols, he discusses how the symbols in literature never mean just one thing. Everything in literature is left up to the reader's imagination, and the symbolic meaning depends on how the reader interprets what they read. In high school, I always thought what the teacher says is right, but Foster proves this wrong. The meaning of the symols is solely what the reader interprets it to be, and there are several different things the metaphor could symbolize. There is technically no right or wrong answer.