I completely agree. Even if I was able to understand the story and appreciate the prose in middle school, I can see looking back that I lacked the life experience to appreciate a lot of the undertones and unspoken themes.

I distinctly remember being completely bewildered when we read "Hills Like White Elephants" [1] and our teacher told us it was about an abortion, and ultimately about commitment and relationships and the ungraspable decision points that define a life. I remember rereading the text, not finding those words anywhere, and being confused about how a man and woman having a halting conversation at a train stop might have possibly given her that takeaway. But now of course it's achingly obvious.

Jane Austen similarly passed me by in high school. I needed to understand women a lot better before Pride & Prejudice started to make sense.

Even still when I read the classics, there are some where I can appreciate the themes but which are too abstract to me for them to resonate. The difference from when I was young is that now I can tell that there's more story waiting to be told once I've lived more life. Maybe in another 20 years.

[1] https://jerrywbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Hills-Lik...