Interpretations

John simply states, "We should hang out tonight." and Jane goes off into her internal-distressed mode. What does he mean? Is this like a date? Does he just want to go to the movies as friends? Or is he just really bored? "I'd love to! You can pick the movie," Jane replies as she picks up her books and leaves John wondering, why is she letting me pick the movie?

Everyone unconsciously and constantly interprets things around them, picking out conclusions and inferring facts on their own. Like in "Sanctuary: For Harry Potter the Movie", Nikki Giovanni asserts her belief that Harry Potter is merely an average person and not a tremendous hero of hope, but just part of an allegory for slavery. Contrary to popular interpretations of the theme JK Rowling sets forth (good prevails over evil, a mother's love is strong, you can overcome anything...), Giovanni takes a different and innovative approach to Harry Potter. The confusion this piece brought to 2nd hour reveals how nearly everyone missed the purpose because it was so creative and different from the normal interpretations. However, yes, the diction in the second paragraph, like "auction blocks", "middle passage", "enforced hopelessness", should have set off bells in our heads to alert us to her purpose for writing, but it didn't click. Most students have been accustomed  to finding the common overriding theme, something that can be easily drawn from with multiple examples, something simple, but "deep" at the same time, something that an English teacher would want to read instead of personal opinionated interpretations.

I think we should all be like Giovanni; we should think completely out of the box and tie in as many odd, abstract ideas as possible to everything we read, see, or do. I support John's and Jane's stupid worry over the words of each other. I happen to like making ridiculous connections to everything- but that's just me.

(Also, this picture is an example of how someone can draw a symbolic meaning without it necessarily ever been created. Please excuse the slight informality of the caption.)