Submitted by: Submitted by sunshine524
Views: 1133
Words: 824
Pages: 4
Category: Literature
Date Submitted: 09/16/2009 05:10 PM
Flannery O’Connor’s: “On Theme and Symbol”
As an active reader, I desire to discover a story that allows me to discover, uncover, understand, interpret, and experience the meaning behind the black words written on white paper. Whether the story is long or short, fiction or non-fiction, I seek to be informed, educated, and /or entertained. Whether the story is written in a newspaper, magazine, novel, or textbook, I seek to understand the meaning. The analyzing process that happens as I read, allows me to experience and examine different emotions and responses to what is being read. Therefore, I agree with O’Connor that “it takes every word in the (short) story to say what the meaning is” and “statements about the meaning of a story is only to help you to experience the meaning more fully” (O’Connor 409). Along with these statements, the setting, the theme, the drama, the action, and the details together allow me to “accumulate meaning” and “make this connection from things” (409) in order to understand and have an experience with the story. Therefore, because many these many other parts of a story are necessary to help accumulate meaning and birth an experience, “a statement would be inadequate to convey the meaning of a story” (409).
In addition to what O’Connor states the purpose of making statements about a short story is, I find it necessary to examine the definition of a statement to support my analysis. The 2007 Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a statement as: (1) a declaration of something or remark, (2) an assertion, and (3) a report of facts or opinions. From the definition, I understand that a statement is a declaration that can be a report of facts or opinions. Since this declaration or assertion is a report of facts or opinions, the statement can be found to express truth (based on the assessor’s objective reality) or an opinion(s) which can either be based on true conceptions or misconceptions. Consequently, I am confined and limited to...