In all fairness the arguments about a lack of originality of arguments in English Literature because you just write down in your essays what your teacher thinks is more a weakness of The Arts than it is of literature specifically. It applies to many more subjects as well, but The Arts in particular. I read On Liberty recently and in it, Mills argues that because people rarely entirely question a judgement properly by looking at something from all angles, examining the counter-arguments and finding out for yourself why it is wrong, rather than being told why it is false and going with it is a problem with people in general and certainly not one exclusive to literature.

At the end of the day, art in all forms is a very subjective thing and what a piece of music, a story or a paint means depends on how we as individuals interpret it. What I get from a piece of art may substantially differ from what you would and I think that's a key thing to keep in mind when studying literature. Perhaps a writer simply used a certain metaphor because it sounded good, but that lack of certainty leaves plenty of room open for speculation and exploration of what something means to the individual and how they interpret it. Literature is really not as useless and flowery as a lot of you seem to be painting it.