The Neverending Story (the Course Text) front cover:

For this class, we had to read this book called the Neverending Story by Michael Ende. At first, I thought the book seemed a bit childish, but after discovering some of the deeper meaning within the story, and after watching some of the lectures, and attending the in-person classes, I realized this book had some good value in it.  By the time I had started my Rhetorical analysis essay, I was able to articulate the depth of meaning within this book, tied to the historical context that shaped the rhetor and the setting within the novel.  

After the professor went through Michael Ende's background, I found it interesting about how he saw WWII, the Nazis, the German social movements that came after, and his reactions to it all.  It is also interested me how he characterized the US and Russia in the picture.

I was fascinated by the dynamic symbolism and learned the way how literature can carry such strong yet subtle meaning, even within the seemingly childish novels.  After going through all the fairy tales, and Tolkien's essay on Fairy Stories, it also helped explain the importance of these works and how something that seems childish can carry a lot of deeper meaning and show historical understandings and perspectives within an interesting light.  The "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" readings and lectures helped cement this idea for me, and it carried over when I went into the Rhetorical Essay for this novel.