In this chapter, the idea I found the most interesting about the relationship between language and meaning is how context can shape the meaning of a piece of literature by looking at what time period it was written in and analyzing how people in this era were and how things were back then. But even context itself can be limitless, with famous pieces of text and their meaning changing as time goes on.

One example that I can think of that happened fairly recently is with JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. In the books, the bankers of the wizard world are controlled mostly by goblins. Back when these books were still being released, many people glossed over it as a fantasy thing. But after the recent controversies with JK Rowling and her extreme opinions, upon looking at the books with this in mind brings a different meaning to these goblins. In the books, they are described as goblins with “hooked noses” and “with a distrust for anyone else but their own kind”, which sounds extremely similar to racist caricatures of Jewish people.

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