The Not-So-Evident Lesson in The Lesson and My Dog

For a story entitled "The Lesson" I didn't really catch much of a lesson? When I had to write a list of  things I learned about specific types of people (ie wealthy people vs poor people, teachers, etc) I honestly didn't feel like I learned anything about those people. Writing a theme was almost impossible for me because all I could think of were "Yes, some people are poor?" To me, the story was rather boring. It was just pointing out the obvious that some people don't have as much money as others which I obviously knew already. After we wrote our themes and emailed them to Mr. Mullins, I wondered if anyone felt the same way about the story as I did. I didn't think I was being unnaturally slow nor did I read the story super late and was just too exhausted to catch what the lesson/theme might have been. Maybe I just wasn't thinking quite outside of the lines as I should be for an AP English. I'm sure it also could have been the lack of skill I have in the theme identifying and writing are. That could definitely be it too.

           I also wanted to include in this blog my thoughts on the story we read before this, "How Far She Went" because my oh my did I hate reading that story. This could also just be a "Kim thing" because I have an extreme love for dogs, (my dog is most likely, if not my number one obsession, a close number two!) but I found it almost impossible to appreciate anything the author did in the story once the dog was killed by the grandmother. I just think that a dog or any animal really is such an innocent and loving creature that it's too hard for me to stand. I know there were reasons the author had the grandmother kill the dog. I know it was a way to show she made peace with the situation regarding her granddaughter and her dead daughter, and it symbolized how much she loved her granddaughter, etc, but would it be too much to ask to show that in a different way? Maybe show that symbolism in a way that doesn't involve any more death that need be? As soon as that happened in the story, I was done reading. Again, this very well might be a "me" thing, but I think that is such a turn off from a readers viewpoint.