Symbolism AKA What English Teachers want you to Write about

So English teachers always want you writing/reading/thinking about symbolism.  And I just wondered what the point of it is.  You could say it helps you make connections.  But you don't need symbolism to make connections.  They probably say it helps with understanding.  Maybe.  But I can probably figure out on my own what exactly money represents.  It can represent greed, neediness, and, most of all, money.  Yes that's right.  Money can represent money.  But I don't really need to know what it represents.  Maybe if you want to understand characters and through connections, people.  But you don't need to.  People have a variety of reasons for wanting things.  Some of which are easily discernable.  In fact, for me, they are all recognized pretty easily.  I don't need symbolism to realize what people are like.  And I certainly don't need symbolism to figure out that it is pointless.  Actually, I do, because if it weren't there, I wouldn't recognize the pointlessness of it...


~another musing of the ill-informed~