Why does the author say that looking at the cells of a flower under the microscope takes away the very beauty of the flowers? I would like to...

In his autobiographical work titled My Life and
Hard Times, James Thurber humorously describes his inability to see the cell
structures of plants while trying to view those structures with a microscope in his
botany class. Thurber's professor cannot believe or accept the claim that Thurber
genuinely cannot see the cell structures. The professor becomes increasingly frustrated
and tries to make numerous adjustments in Thurber's microscope so that Thurber will
finally be able to see the cells.

Thurber willingly
concedes that the structures of flower cells may indeed be "interesting," but he simply
remains unable, because of his poor eyesight, to see those structures. Finally the
following exchange occurs, with Thurber speaking
first:

"It
takes away the beauty of the flowers anyway," I used to tell him. "We are not concerned
with beauty in this class," he would
say.

This is the extent of
the discussion about the beauty of flowers in the "University Days" chapter of
My Life and Hard Times. Thurber implies that to appreciate the
beauty of the flowers depends on seeing them whole, not on seeing merely microscopic
parts of them. He does not, however, insist upon this position. Rather, as in much of
this chapter, he is passive and somewhat stoic. He does not argue with his professor
about the value of beauty; he merely mentions the topic and then lets it drop, which is
typical of his personality throughout this section of his book. The things that matter
to many of his professors simply do not matter to Thurber, not so much because he is
rebellious as because he is humorously untalented and ill-equipped to be the kind of
student his professors often want him to be. Rather than trying in inspire Thurber, they
more often try to force him to behave as they want him to
behave.