The Pixar Theory

This analysis itself and the curious overwhelmingly positive response by HN and especially Reddit, as measured by vote tally and the mere inclination of the author to go to the trouble of creating a website solely dedicated to the idea, are, I believe, symptoms of how American schools teach literature.

Before describing my personal experiences, I want to note first that you should forget everything you've heard Americans prop up as excuses for our education system, if not entirely, then at least for this particular discussion. Science and history teachers may need to "teach to the (easiest) test (in the world)", but English teachers can and do assign whatever books they want - the graduation test is basic essay writing.

Anyway, American English teachers are extremely fond, for whatever reason, of "themed" curricula. For example, in my 9th grade English class, we read "Native Son" by Richard Wright (black American), "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe (black Nigerian), "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton (black South African), "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad (the only white person on this list, and, inarguably, the only High Literature as well), and something or other by Maya Angelou (black American).

So, if you can't guess, the message that year was black people got it rough. If, in your literary analysis for any section of any of these books (even Conrad's, which isn't even about black people), you concluded that the message the author meant to convey with any even remotely logical elements X, Y, and Z, was that, indeed, black people have it rough, then guess what? You're right. X, Y, and Z mean black people got it rough. A+.

Yes, I mean it. Pick three random paragraphs out of 1984. "Orwell's opinion is that totalitarianism is bad, since, here, the authorities are torturing Winston." A+, you literary genius. Get something wrong for once! Please, just for the sake of variety! "In Fahrenheit 451, the firefighters' helmets are red because communism, which is also red." Oh my God, I never thought of it that way! Somebody get this 16-year-old a Nobel.

(The sole exception to this is Shakespeare, whose meaning behind any one play even the most idiotic English teachers are unwilling to reduce to a single sentence. And, wouldn't you know it, 80% of the students in class will inevitably complain about his insistence on using Victorian English, the big jerk. Literally, I shit you not, the majority of the time American students read Shakespeare, they're reading it in a book wherein the Shakespearean version is printed on left pages and the "modern translation" is printed on the right.)

Edit: Just in case anyone wonders what I mean:

Personally Identifiable Information: Quora may share your personally identifiable information with third parties for the purpose of providing the Service to you or with third parties offering combined services with Quora. For example, we may share your personally identifiable information with third-party partners that display Quora questions and answers through their services so that such partners can tailor content and advertising to you. If we do this, such third parties' use of your information will be bound by this Privacy Policy. We may store personal information in locations outside the direct control of Quora (for instance, on servers or databases co-located with hosting providers).

As we develop our business, we may buy or sell assets or business offerings. Customer, email, and visitor information is generally one of the transferred business assets in these types of transactions. We may also transfer or assign such information in the course of corporate divestitures, mergers, or dissolution.

   It's a wonderful example of how, given a sufficiently large dataset, 
   one can cherry-pick what one needs to construct almost any narrative.

   My daughter broke the time line, though, by pointing out
   that Heimlich has a cameo in Toy Story 2. I do want to 
   give the author props for inventing the idea of the 
   Monsters Inc. doors being time portals. It doesn't really 
   work, but it's witty.

   As in the case of Andy's father the real reason Pixar 
   films contain references to other Pixar films is rather 
   mundane. It's only because somebody thought it would be  
   funny and the director agreed. In the cases of things like 
   John Ratzenberger's voice and the Pizza Planet Truck, 
   it's  tradition and a challenge.