If the story is good and the characters work but you don’t catch allusions and references and parallels, then you’ve done nothing worse than read a good story with memorable characters. If you begin to pick up on some of these other elements, these parallels and analogies, however, you’ll find your understanding of the novel deepens and becomes more meaningful, more complex.
Okay, my earlier question was answered. I completely get that references to other literary works, songs, poems, media and people deepens understanding as people are able to justify an event or character’s significance in a story.
