Introduction
"Where'd you learn that? That's what I meant."
"Robert Frost wrote it. He meant more to it than I'm gettin', though." (1)
Johnny and Ponyboy in The Outsiders
I was looking for something. Hinton's text rolled 'round my head. The unexpectedly bustling Sunday streets of New Haven shimmered, the bright sun a slow second to the gripping humidity. Life swirled and I searched. The landscape dotted with signs of texture—a cultural mix of past and present—evaded my analysis. Pandora offered Downtown Abbey - The Suite and the mounting speed of the score fluttered my nerves. It was then that my eyes took in a gold-green tree swirled and grown on a small sheet of dog-eared art paper. It sat still on the rough concrete.
"May I hold your work?" I asked the man, of whom I now know to be Isaac Canady, a lifelong resident of New Haven.
Placing it in my hands he asked, "What do you see?"
"The cycle of life? Was that your intention?"
"Yes, well, in a way. I often explore ideas about women, though. Why do you ask?"
"I'm working on a curriculum unit on the art of interpretation using Hinton's The Outsiders. Your drawing reminds me of a line she used from Robert Frost, Nature's first green is gold, and I am struggling to connect it all."
"So you're an artist, too."
I smiled, gave a sheepish negative nod and then, as if the metallic glow of Isaac's art had spoken—Illumination!
I found that which I had been seeking.
I had brought to this viewing my own ideas, beginning to connect all of these things as if some meaning were to be made of the moment. Isaac never intended to connect his art with Hinton's or Frost's, but my experience made it happen. Making meaning, in motion. I had solidified my understanding of the art of interpretation. All things are connected, both in life and in the reflection of life called literature. I experienced an example of how the reader brings his or her personal experience to a reading; how the author's intention drives a creation that is often ambiguous to the reader; and how what is simply sitting right before your eyes contains the whole—the actual words in the text—whether you 'get it' or not. (See Appendices: A)
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