First, it is good to remember that reading a text (in the sense of interpreting it, giving it meanings) is an inductive process, unlike reading a painting which is often a deductive process - you can find more details here, as well as in this blog: https://litandteach.blogspot.com/2024/02/i-now-know-what-i-didnt-know-then.html (also available on this site). 

Reading deductively simply means fitting the parts into a whole we can see or apprehend at once, the way we do when we see a painting for the first time: we see it all at once, it sort of makes sense (sometimes), and then we begin to see details, nuances, which we link back to the whole.

Reading inductively simply means the exact opposite: it is (re)constructing the whole we cannot see from the parts we come across as we read. We can never see the whole book at once (unless we are re-reading), and when we start, we never know where we'll be going, what will happen, which detail, which nuance, which colour will be there or not. So we make sense of a story by accumulating those details as they happen, and we slowly build an overall picture. It is by adding those parts, little by little, that we come to an understanding of the ideas present in the text - by observing and taking one's time.

Second, it also pays to be realistic: many readers have a strong tendency to want to pass immediate judgement on an idea presented in a text: if there's a dilemma at the heart of a story, they often rush into evaluating that dilemma morally and giving their opinion - 'this is good!', or 'This is bad!', or 'It's stupid to do that!'.

However, in literature as in anything, one should not rush into judgement without having made sure they have considered the problem well enough: from different perspectives, and not just from their own. That is the art of fiction, too: to provide different lenses, angles and perspectives through which to view one event, one person, one idea. It is only once we've considered alternative ways of thinking, of seeing, of perceiving, that we can make reasoned judgements and choices.

Interpreting here really means generating ideas connected to the text: it is not about assigning one meaning to that text, or trying to find the most compelling theme. You simply want to associate what happens in the text (the events, what is said, by whom, to whom and how, how things happen (or don't), how characters react - with or without words, all those details and many more) with the real world.

When you meet someone in a bar, go to the cinema, have a meal with friends, meet colleagues or people you've never seen before, your knowledge of the world (customs, ways of behaving, social relations, body language) is what helps you decode situations. If the person you meet keeps avoiding looking you in the eyes, keeps fidgeting with their keys, mumbles monosyllabic answers to your question, you will certainly form an opinion of that person based on those elements: you are interpreting what is going on on the basis of clues, and giving possible meanings (= interpretations) to it. Literature is no different: characters are real in the sense that they are based on what it is to be human, and we will interpret (= give meaning) to what happens to us through our intimate, largely unconscious, knowledge of how things and people work. So what we intuitively do in the world, we need to do more consciously when reading or watching - we need to pay attention to those details that would never escape our attention in the real world.

So try to follow those very simple steps in that order - they work not only for texts but for images, paintings, films etc.

1. Observe, collect information so that you have information to think from (and with) - see How to ask Factual Questions

2.   Give possible interpretations to that information: what could it mean, why is it like that and not some other way? see How to ask Interpretive Questions

3. Evaluate: what do you think, as a person? What is your take on the information, on what happens and why? What does that tell you about yourself, the other, the others? See How to ask Evaluative Questions

Try to follow those steps in order. That means that for example during the Observation phase, readers should remain objective and refrain from interpreting what they observe; you must also make sure they do not evaluate the text immediately - readers must take time to observe before going on to interpret, and they must take time to interpret before they evaluate  - they need time to think. This time they need is related to the difference between inductive vs deductive reading introduced above.

Find below ('A concrete example') an application of basic interpretative principles on the basis of a very simple, very short text

We also illustrate those steps with another very short text (click on the link): read that text first, and then click on any of the three steps we illustrate.