Interpreting Texts, Making Meaning: Starting Small

Background Research

"A Pleasure Skipped"

Inthe introduction to her new compendium on "the art of the epigraph," Rosemary Ahern notes that she is always surprised when someone claims not to read epigraphs: to her, this is "an offering refused, a pleasure skipped." ⁶ When I taught Krakauer's text for the very first time, my students skipped, or rather avoided, the epigraphs. This was the foremost issue that prevented the students from establishing a solid perception of the narrator and main character. The inner literature geek in me fell into shock upon discovering this during a whole class discussion. How could they gain perspectives if they don't read the epigraphs? Epigraphs force readers to pause and notice the transition from the world to the work, from life to the novel. They slow readers down—which is why they often skip them. ⁷ How would they be able to find text to self or text to world value if they skip sections of any literary text? Why did my students skip them altogether? My students were not able to grasp the fact that the epigraphs were purposely and craftily selected by the author to suit the purposes of the text. My students failed to realize, largely owing to my not having laid enough emphasis on the epigraphs, that "the epigraph may illuminate a text, and is itself designed to form an integral part of the effect of the poem." ⁸ This illuminative purpose allows students to look at the different angles from which they can come to their interpretive conclusions. They whined and complained that they were burdened by having to analyze the epigraphs, claiming that the epigraphs had little to do with the plot, main character or narrator. Simply put - they found no significance. My students viewed the text as a story that could never happen in our urban city of East San Jose, and thought it far removed from real life. It hit me: I didn't want them to just know about the text, I wanted them to live the text. Literature provides a living through, not simply knowledge about. ⁹ I wanted them to grasp McCandless's delight and sense of joy in pushing the boundaries set by his parents and society. Furthermore, I wanted them to adopt this character as a model of an individual who sought a true sense of accomplishment.

Another hurdle that stood in the way of my students understanding of the epigraphs is the initial abstractness of the meaning underlying the epigraph. They did not have a plan of attack. The fictive and poetic signals in addition to the critical reading skills required to derive meaning from the epigraphs are so multi-faceted that the reading task becomes daunting. It was considered tedious to read, re-read, and then read again to look at the underlying, symbolic, or interpretative meaning. It is a common enough experience for a person to say that on their second reading he noticed things he had missed when he read the book for the first time. ¹⁰ Each new attempt at the dissection of the epigraph provides newer and newer insight, building on or rejecting each previous attempt. This is precisely my reason for focusing on the epigraphs for this unit. Epigraphs can be obscure, and it is not always easy for a reader to grasp the relationship between the epigraph and the text. ¹¹ My persisting thought was that they did not have enough background information to understand the epigraph.

By the end of the text, the students placed their trust in the narrator. They swallowed the details he presented about McCandless's parents, his secretive departure, and the seeming depiction of an Alaskan adventure rather than considering the psychology of McCandless's desire to attain peace for himself. It was not until they read the letters written by McCandless's siblings that they realized that they should not believe everything they read and that they should never just accept one person's perspective, especially where life decisions are at stake. This unit will serve as a tool for me and other teachers to demonstrate the reliability of varying viewpoints in order for students to develop their own interpretations.

Epigraphs

Epigraphs (or "mottos" as they are still often called) first became popular in Europe during the early eighteenth century, accompanying the growing phenomenon of middle-class reading. ¹² At the time, being cultured meant that one was familiar with classical texts. These classical texts stood on their own, without reference or allusions to other writers or texts. Writers didn't need epigraphs to tether themselves to other writers. ¹³ But as the middle-class reading public materialized in the middle of the eighteenth century, almost no self-respecting publication could do without an epigraph. Emerging readers knew the English but not necessarily the classical tradition; they needed a path, a map of literary culture. Epigraphs stuck like burrs to the title pages of books and poetry. In this way, epigraphs allowed an author to rightly place (and justify) their work as a piece of the ever-growing literary conversation. As the century wore on, the epigraph spread to the novel. ¹⁴

An epigraph is what my students pinpoint as the "quote at the beginning of the chapter." Epigraphs serve to summarize a chapter or lead into the core of the chapter. Epigraphs also serve to connect the reader's experiences to the text. But because Krakauer craftily selects these epigraphs, we may decide that he uses them to lead his readers into accepting his own viewpoint. For the purposes of this unit, the epigraphs in question are the quotes or excerpts pulled from various literary sources that Krakauer selected and planted at the beginning of each chapter in his text. More specifically, these epigraphs are comprised of quotes or excerpts from literary sources that advocate justice and morality. Interestingly, other epigraphs came from McCandless's own hand. Books were found next to McCandless's body upon his death. McCandless annotated sections these texts by responding to them, asking questions and making notes. These annotations reflect McCandless's desire for happiness and change. In his annotations, McCandless presents his own text to self and text to world connections. Krakauer uses some of these notes as epigraphs as well.

The more than twenty epigraphs address themes such as the attainment of happiness through the serene calming effect found in the solitude of nature, the materialistic selfishness of man, and the ways in which society sets prescribed expectations. The meaning within these epigraphs relates to the themes in Krakauer's text. These epigraphs serve as the building of background information from one context while connecting to another. Metaphorically, the epigraph is a scaffold on one end of a bridge and the chapter is the scaffold on the other end. The students' interpretations are what serve as the bridge.

The students who felt that the epigraphs were insignificant in comparison to the totality of the text hit a wall. Why was so much decoding necessary? What did the epigraphs signify, if anything? Is there a common thread that connected the epigraph to the chapter? The use of an epigraph is always a mute gesture whose interpretation is left up to the reader. ¹⁵ The students felt that there was only one acceptable way to interpret the epigraph. They relied heavily on the narrator and they did not take into account their own knowledge, experience, or plans for the future. Epigraphs offer a place for the reader to interpret the text of the author and correlate it to society. ¹⁶ By comparing the viewpoints of the author and McCandless' siblings, the students can begin to develop their own views, while additionally evaluating the reliability of the narrator. The students make the decision to side with one view or the other, or even create their own interpretation.

By revisiting the epigraphs and homing in on key details such as tone, diction, and symbols, students will first build a base regarding meaning. This base will support the development of their interpretations and further support their understanding of the text. The epigraph transitions what the reader knows and has experienced and the application of that knowledge elsewhere ¹⁷

Making Meaning

Students, most especially weaker readers, struggle with decoding the epigraph as a text in itself. They find it strenuous to come across ideas or vocabulary words, look up dictionary or idiomatic meanings, and then apply the meaning to the text, to self, and to the world. In his essay, Perrine suggests that readers look carefully at diction (i.e. singular vs. plural forms, matching actions and verbs with subjects,) and to also pay attention to the differences between metaphors and symbols. ¹⁸ Additionally, Perrine contends that readers should look at connotations and denotations of the text, the tone, and the interrelatedness of chosen words. ¹⁹ This practice or strategy applied to seemingly small details will help these students arrive at an understanding of the text. My students swallowed the verbal meaning of the epigraphs eventually, but did not progress into textual meaning. Every detail presented by Krakauer was taken at face value: "The epigraph says exactly what the epigraph says," they supposed, without taking into account the intentions of the author or the contradictions offered by McCandless' siblings. To address this one-sided perception, students should observe as carefully as possible the elements that are planted within a text. When students reread the epigraphs, keeping in mind any patterns, they can discover a connection with the text and the author. Students must be able to understand individual parts of a text (e.g., vocabulary, chapters, characters, epigraphs) so that they can piece them together to formulate their own interpretation of a text. Students should be able to come to the understanding that some of the epigraphs correspond to the text, while other epigraphs [do not fully corroborate it], thus highlighting the subjectivity of the narrator.

The student is integral in the interpretation process. The individual possesses knowledge and experience, and therefore each individual is unique thereby leading to unique interpretations. ²⁰ In order to develop interpretive knowledge, students must know how to decipher meaning within a text and be able to apply or synthesize any knowledge, life experience, or observations to the text. Regarding meaning, Hirsch distinguishes between "verbal" and "textual" meaning: Meaning refers to the whole verbal meaning of a text and significance to the textual meaning in relation to a larger context (i.e. a wider subject matter, a system of values, another era). Significance is textual meaning as related to some context. ²¹ For students, the verbal meaning of the epigraphs comes from the very words found in the text. Some of these words may have double meanings or contain some level of symbolism. By pausing and allowing students to dissect the small details in the epigraph, I can enable them to understand surface level or underlying meaning. With that accomplished, we can then discuss how the textual meaning relates to self or the world. Ideally, upon reading the epigraph before reading the chapter, students would ideally break apart the smaller elements in the epigraph to look for themes or symbols or tone and then match those elements to the chapter or compare it with the letters written by McCandless's siblings. I would like the students to differentiate between the verbal and the textual meaning from the epigraphs in order to demonstrate whether the epigraph remains consistent with [the relevant] chapter of the text. It is this differentiation that will make room for their interpretations.

For one of the epigraphs from chapter twelve of the text, Krakauer borrows from G.K. Chesterton,

    For children are innocent and love justice, while
    most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.
  

The background information that readers are given about Krakauer is that he disappointed his father by not fulfilling the plans for the future that his father laid out for him. Krakauer's father is portrayed as a man with the perfect plan for success. In this chapter, Krakauer reveals to the audience that McCandless discovered details about his father's infidelity to his wife. Most of chapter twelve portrays a resentful, brooding, and private McCandless. Krakauer states, "Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency, and this was especially true in Chris's case." Throughout this chapter, McCandless overlooked the shortcomings and flaws of friends, artists, and novelists. He lived by what Krakauer labels a "rigorous moral code" of his own devising. Ironically, however, McCandless did not apply the same code to his own father. Does this quote reflect Krakauer's own views about the relationship between children and their parents? Or is it an accurate reflection of the McCandless family? In past discussions, students viewed McCandless as the "wicked" one, in that he did not show "mercy" toward his own father. Students are likely also to point out that the McCandless family craved a sense of "mercy" and forgiveness as a relief from the relentlessness of McCandless's temperamental disposition. To elicit student interpretations, the teacher must be prepared to ask students critical thinking questions: Who is the we referring to? How can readers build interpretations of this quote without first analyzing elements such as subject or tone? What does this wickedness entail? Where is the line between innocence and wickedness drawn? Explain the irony concerning the wicked who "prefer mercy." Is Krakauer leading us to believe that he or McCandless experienced some kind of childhood trauma? When the students engage in conversations about these types of questions, they will be able to decide whether the epigraph ties in closely with McCandless's life or if the epigraph was taken out of context by the author. Readers need background information regarding the context. "Concepts of meaning and significance are essential concepts for comprehending how meaning could be determined, and hence how interpretative knowledge is possible." ²² Students will gain a fuller understanding of the verbal and textual meaning of the text simply by pausing and discussing such questions. By adopting this pause, connect, and go structure, students will be more prepared to interpret.

Interpreting Texts

Are there limits to interpretation? From an English teacher's perspective, the answer is yes. In all my years of teaching, my students have come to understand that their interpretations are correct only when they are able to provide thoughtful, genuine evidence from the text and/or background knowledge. Laurence Perrine states that there exists a level of truth when determining meaning and that logical patterns are found within the diction of the text. The context of diction limits the meaning, which leads to a correct interpretation. Perrine states, words in poetry carry more meaning, "richer meaning" than other works, therefore require more in-depth reading. This stance can be applied to epigraphs as well. Perrine further asserts, "there are correct and incorrect readings" and "there is a process for the correctness of a reading." ²³ Perrine poses two criteria:

1. each detail in the text must be accounted for without any of the details countering each other. These details include any fictive or poetic elements.
2. The best interpretation of a text is the simplest, most economical, least [a]]ssumption-based interpretation.

Our task in interpreting is to isolate and describe the two levels of experience connected through the writer's language. ²⁴ Using Perrine's criteria, I know that in my role I must provide the scaffolding, background information, and guiding questions to help students understand the details.

In every line or phrase a writer is conveying some sense of experience, and we

as readers are registering it. ²⁵ When we make a full interpretation of a poem, we see the most complete coalescence of drama, metaphors, and rhythm. ²⁶ This can also be applied to the poetic and fictive elements of an epigraph.

Krakauer inserts an excerpt from Theodore Roszak's "In Search of the Miraculous" in the eighth chapter of the text:

It may, after all, be the bad habit of creative talents to invest themselves in pathological extremes that yield remarkable insights but no durable way of life for those who cannot translate their psychic wounds into significant art or thought.

In later chapters of the text Krakauer shares details of his own climbing adventure in Alaska. The discussion with students regarding this epigraph will direct student focus to whether this epigraph (and others) corresponds to the text. In using this particular excerpt, Krakauer could be seen as foreshadowing his own adventure, rather than remaining objective concerning his main character. The chapter is devoted to the different perspectives audiences held regarding McCandless's death in Alaska. McCandless was labeled as a "dreamy half-cocked greenhorn who went into the country expecting to find answers to all his problems and instead found only mosquitoes and a lonely death." ²⁷ Ideally, the class discussion that ensues should point in the direction of Krakauer being a subjective, therefore unreliable, narrator. The discussion could also perhaps point in the direction of McCandless as a character who sought peace and acceptance, but also perhaps the chance for rebellion against societal expectations. Was Krakauer's choosing of this particular excerpt representative of McCandless or was it a precursor to other chapters devoted to his own experiences at Devil's Thumb? Was this epigraph directly related to McCandless or to Krakauer himself? With these discussion questions, students are able to delineate whether the epigraph inclines in favor of the author or the main character. In interacting with the epigraph, the chapter, and the evaluation of Krakauer's reliability, the student will be using their own experiences (textual and personal) to develop interpretations.

Students apply the texts to themselves first, then to others, and then can agree or disagree as they wish. "Every act of interpretation involves . . . at least two perspectives, that of the author and that of the interpreter… When we speak or interpret speech, we are never merely listeners or merely speakers, we are both at once." ²⁸ Evidence resides in the first hand experiences and observations of the students. Some students will find their interpretations threatened by the presence of other possibilities of interpretation. ²⁹ The goal of the unit is not to come to one interpretation, but to see the possibility of various interpretations as they reinforce or contradict the level of reliability of the narrator. "In reading and discussing texts we will have to rely not on the talisman of authorial certainty but on our own ability to find what meaning we can by connecting the text to whatever we know, our savvy in framing arguments that persuade us and others of the perspicacity of our reading, even our ability to change and maybe grow in our reading as we hear others' interpretations." ³⁰ It is we ourselves who establish the levels of interpretation and switch from one to another as we conduct our balancing operation, we ourselves who impart to the text the dynamic lifelikeness which, in turn, enables us to absorb an unfamiliar experience into our personal world. ³¹