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You just studied the concept of context and why it’s important in helping you understand a text.

Now, let’s talk about how to write about a text.

Earlier in this unit, you learned how reading allows us to step into other worlds and experience what life is like within those worlds.  There is something satisfying about connecting with the lives of other people, even if those people are very different from us.  Reading allows us to live vicariously through the characters as they stumble or soar through life. 

Think back to the last story you read.  Was it a comedy?  Science fiction?  Drama?  Notice that almost every text you encounter is an exploration of characters who endure something and are changed because of it.  Even something as lighthearted as a slapstick comedy (think of a character slipping on a banana peel) is quite often based on characters who transform after coming up against some sort of challenge (even if the challenge is a funny one).

Part of what audiences enjoy about a text is how people can change and grow when faced with difficult circumstances.  We may not think about this idea consciously, but most texts end on a positive note, with the main character (or characters) better off than when the story began.

Such transformation  not only makes stories more interesting, it gives us hope that no matter what curveballs life throws us, we will survive . . . and even thrive.