Looking back on my use of the psychoanalytic lens, I notice that my main use of it was to analyze why characters acted the way they did, and why the authors would write them with that type of personality. I enjoyed reading the books using this method because neither one was a book I would have read by choice, so the lens gave me something to focus on.
From this experience, I learned about ways of analyzing characters through a small piece of the text, which I enjoyed doing. Finding nuances in every word and phrase reminds me of analyzing poetry, and that, like poetry, everyone can find their own meaning. That freedom of interpretation is a beautiful thing.
While I was focused on my critical lens, I may have missed some parts of the text that were more involved with socio-political implications, or racial and historical aspects that I did not have the context for. However, I do not regret picking my lens, as it allowed me to discover more hidden aspects of the main and side characters that were not apparent on the surface.
When I was reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the various accents were difficult to read, and made it hard to submerse myself fully in the story. However, this actually became a benefit as I paid less attention to the story and more attention to the way the characters spoke and behaved over the entire book. Likewise, in Song of Solomon, the extended metaphors and omniscient third person narration made the character interactions the focal point of my experience with the novel.
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