Not long ago, several students approached me and asked to read more classics. I was surprised. Ordinarily, students do not necessarily clamor to read more difficult writing but there seems to be a sea change happening. Perhaps popular culture, media, and newspapers have hinted that a lack of knowledge concerning certain ideas might make reading the world around oneself that much more difficult. The turns of phrase, the witty comments, and the double entendres that some people enjoy leave others out in the cultural cold. In the 1971 film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas sing merrily about the dangers of too much television leaving one with an IQ of 3. As humorous as the warning was, for it served the purpose of stating a moral after the demise of yet another rotten kid, it has serious implications for how students understand novels, short stories, and poems today. Too often, I encounter students who desire strongly, that proverbial happy ending which literature does not always promise. These books might offer resolution but there are no guarantees that one's view of the world will receive affirmation much less offer any comfort against the realities of death, disappointment, or collapsed relations. Why do some people insist on the happy ending? So many possibilities.