end of the quarter

I finished my last section of the quarter today. I brought donuts, helped students with paper ideas and then let them be on their way. And they left the room all jolly and cute, and all the while I was dreading the day, a week from then, when I would be handed a heap of poorly written papers on Beloved.
How do you convince students, who don't appreciate the twists and turns of a good book, that Beloved is an important text. That its structure, with its "ambiguity," and non-linear chronology, with its images whose meanings aren't apparently obvious, all contribute to it as a story of slavery. Would a story that said, "slavery made Sethe kill her child," have been more acceptable to the readers that don't "feel like" following the text past its façade, working with it to help it create meaning? oh, how frustrating.
But do you know what I've really been thinking about these past few days? What's really been on my mind? Hmm, thread-counts and color schemes, orange rind or carmine? egyptian cotton or flannel? buckets or flutes? Not really. Not yet. But I'm getting curious!