Reading Critically

Well, reading critically has been a really interesting experience, in high school we only really read fiction freshman year, and we did some critical reading then. Maybe it was because we were young, or maybe I just don't remember well, but it was nothing like what we did this week. I mean I definitely enjoyed it, but I was kind of confused at first because it meant something totally different than I thought. I knew it was about something bigger than a girl who won't show a hunter a heron, but I only thought of it as maybe she wouldn't give him her innocence. I know that sex is often linked to innocence anyway, but I never made that connection, or thought of it in that way. The story was definitely more enjoyable when you understand the underlying meaning because then its not just a story that you would tell a child or something. The other thing I realized is that the historical context is really important when reading something critically, because certain things might not be noticed if you don't understand the context in which literature is written.