Literary Elements: More than just a Q&A

In high school I decided that AP Literature had ruined my personal enjoyment of reading.  I wanted to be absorbed by the story and not find myself analyzing themes and symbolism.  However I have come to realize that knowing about literary elements leads to a deeper understanding of the text and your interaction with it that might not have been possible without this recognition.  It is all a matter of how you approach literary elements within a story.  They should be seen as a doorway into aspects of the story that enables you to think more critically about the text and understand the complexities and nuances within rather than a secret code you have to crack to get the right answer.  The main literary elements are character, point of view, time, place, plot, mood, theme and symbols or extended metaphors.  All of these elements work together to give a story dimension but are usually not directly stated.  A basic understanding of these elements is necessary to understand how a story functions; you make predictions and inferences based on what you know about stories.  Without knowing about literary elements you would only have the most basic understanding of a story; where it took place, who the characters were, the sequence of events etc. with minimal interconnection.  Like any other art you need to learn the basics to break the rules.  In "Wasyside School is Falling Down" an understanding of literary elements is necessary to appreciate the humor otherwise it would just be strange and confusing.  Similarly "A Wrinkle in Tim" with its fantastical elements might appear devoid of any relation to the reader if they were not able to recognize interpersonal conflicts within the characters and common themes such as good and evil often represented through symbolism.
 It's no wonder many children do not like to read or can not immerse themselves in fiction.  If  a story comes across as one dimensional and there is no understanding of the characters as complex individuals, how and why they interact with their surroundings and resulting themes children will not connect with the text.  Real life is not one dimensional, it is full of contradictions, confusion and self discovery and that is what literary elements bring to a story.