If you have missed the point, it was that what makes the genre appealing is that the tension it expresses speaks to the dichotomy of private and public self, as

If you have missed the point, it was that what makes the genre appealing is that the tension it expresses speaks to the dichotomy of private and public self, as exemplified by a character that resonated at the time the origins of the genre were written, and which is a tension that is defining to the experience of people today. Though this example of concrete thinking is fairly consistent with the effects of that tension.