Not to be dramatic but John Mulaney saying “every time I walk down the street, I need everyone, all the time, to like me so much–its exhausting” is quite literally my biography and I’m shocked he knows so much about me
When you understand that kids and teenagers being salty about literary symbolic analysis comes from a very real place of annoyance and frustration at some teachers for being over-bearing and pretentious in their projecting of symbolism onto every facet of a story but you also understand that literary analysis and critical thinking in regards to symbolism is extremely important and deserves to be not only taught in schools, but actively used by writers when examining their own work to see if they might have used symbolism unintentionally and to make sure that they are using symbolism effectively:
