Is a tree just a tree? Depends On Who You're Asking

"The thing referred to is likely not reducible to a single statement but will more probably involve a range of possible meanings and interpretations." (Foster 98)

I used to get so frustrated in high school English when a teacher would make the class try to interpret a poem or a passage. It seemed I could never get the correct meaning. Sometimes, when the teacher would announce the "correct" meaning of the passage, I would feel completely opposed to the answer. Sometimes I would find a different meaning than the "correct" one suggested. It never seemed like it was possible to have only one answer to the interpretation, but that was what we were forced to find. Now that I know there are many possibilites and usually not just one interpretation, I understand the frustration I felt in high school was due to the fact that a certainm passage meant something different to me than it meant to whoever wrote the "right" interpretation. And thats finally okay!