When writers talk of purpose in writing we speak of multiple purposes. As a creative writer my purpose is always to entertain. I want to create something that others can enjoy. However, that entertainment factor is merely the skin of the apple, a decorative cover that entices the reader to bite into my narrative and see what lies beneath. In other words, I, and most all other writers are not creating merely to entertain a reader. I am attempting to do something else with my work.
It is easy to figure out why we do it. When you cut directly to the heart of the matter, the average reader is not interested absorbing pure information and analysis. This is why we don’t actually read textbooks, but instead skim pages in search of highlighted terms. We temporarily store these terms, ideas, and utterances so they can be fed mechanically into a blue book and then forgotten entirely. On average, we don’t want to know things unless we have an immediate need of that knowledge. It is even rarer for us to want to hear or give time to an argument that contradicts what we already believe. So, writers obfuscate. We wrap our truths in the pretty coating of entertainment and hope that something in your subconscious latches on to what we want you to know.
Sometimes the message beneath is subtle, like with No Country for Old Men, which challenged the notions of machismo, purpose, and honor in the modern west. At times the message is blatant, as with Heaven is For Real, a film that openly reminds the audience that it believes God exists and that we would be all the better for believing.
The goal of literary analysis is to discern the purpose beyond the entertainment factor—to know the meat beneath the skin of the apple.