I took a literature exam when I was in high school. One of the questions was controversial around the students. There were many students who thought the given appropriate answer was wrong and I was one of them. The question was asking which word in the passage most relates to the word in a poem. The character in the poem was mentally ill, and he meets an old doctor who had white mustache. After a while the character realizes the doctor was an old friend of his father. He felt better after having long conversation with the doctor. The question connects this poem to a passage of Greek Mythology. It asked which word relates to the role of the doctor in poem in the Theseus
Myth. The answer was ‘the temple of doom’(3). The poem can be divided into three parts, which is the character(problem), the doctor and father(solution). The ‘doctor’ can be understood as a pathway of leading thoughts about ‘father’. This explains the reason of given answer, because the purpose of Theseus is to get into chamber of secret and the temple of doom is what makes this possible. However, my answer was ‘thread’(5). The doctor instinctively has positive image. Theseus finally gets out from the maze through the ‘thread’. Opinions between teachers were divided. Some said the answer was number three, while others said five. After long discussion, both answers were admitted. What I felt after this was, the literature is not made to have a standardized lesson, and you can never objectify the meaning of literature. Everyone can have their own interpretation
